Stocks Set Nominal Highs

This column was published in Savannah Morning News.

As we look back at 2013, we will remember an economy and labor market extending lackluster trends of the previous four years: the gross domestic product continued to lurch forward, inflation rates remained anemic and private sector employment experienced 12 months of positive job growth. In addition, modest macro improvements came in the face of political grandstanding, a governmental threat of debt default and obstructive fiscal drag. However, stock markets, buoyed by historically loose, unconventional monetary policy entailing record bond-buying by the Federal Reserve, generated record highs while extending one of history’s longest bull markets...