Today we bring forward the witticism of Lord Dundreary’s conundrum as he mused, “the Cincinnati Convention to control the Democratic party would be the tail wagging the dog.” This appears certainly true with the state of Washington gridlock today. Voters high hopes for a break from the seven years of dysfunction were clearly misguided. Currently we are left with a Democratic party which morphed into the “party of NO”. Onto the other side of the aisle which holds majorities in both houses along with the White House we find a house divided held captive by a small but ultimately powerful faction, the Freedom Caucus. This band of forty recognizing the stranglehold they wield appears to be taking an all or nothing stance on all issues presented to date on ideological lines. They birthed this stance seven years ago under the prior administration. The only hope for progress needs to come from this groups transformation from obstructionists to negotiators. Absent this move to reasonableness the new President’s agenda, further market gains and America’s economic recovery prospects are in jeopardy. There is too much at stake. Luckily, legislators are loathe to hit the mid-term elections forced to explain to constituents their inability to lead and accomplish any of the trifecta they were charged with enacting. We remain guardedly optimistic compromise will prevail eventually. 

Where we are:

Jobs – The job market continues to firm as independent payroll processor ADP recently released their proprietary jobs compilation showing another solid add of +263,000 new jobs. One other independent jobs report released by LinkedIn which has 467 million subscribers along with 128 million monthly active users reflected a very solid +5.6% growth year over year. The granddaddy of reports, the official Non-Farm payroll figure will be released prior to the markets open on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) where we look for another strong showing of +220,000 following February’s +235,000. We’ll be scouring the Average Hourly Earnings component along with the Average Hourly Workweek for clues to how workers/consumers wallets and purses are faring. Thus far Very Good.