August column for Builder & Developer magazine now online

My column for the August 2014 issue of Builder and Developer magazine is now posted online.

For this issue, entitled "Second Quarter 2014 Economic Update," I wanted to focus on just how the new Fed Chair Janet Yellen is addressing the U.S. economy as well as how the economy performed in the second quarter of 2014.  An excerpt:

From Yellen’s financial perch, this collection of indices means that the U.S. economy, although slowly improving, is still too fragile to thrive without the Fed’s near-zero-rate training wheels. Consequently, it could be well into 2015 before we start to see interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

Despite the perceived fragility of the recovery, the recent robust level of hiring has been more sustainable than it has in years. By including June’s 288,000 increase and factoring in upward revisions for estimated hiring in April and May, employers added an average of 231,000 workers a month in the first half of 2014 -- the best six-month run since the spring of 2006... 

To read the entire column, click here.

To read the entire August 2014 issue in digital format, click here.