Welcome to "What Else I Learned Last Week"
The economic and market adventure continues here on Substack
“I guess, hello world, huh?” - Tiger Woods, 1996
Yes, hello world! And welcome! I’m Brian Nick, and for the past twenty years I’ve worked as a U.S. economist and a financial markets strategist at the Federal Reserve and several large investment management firms. My favorite part of the job is taking complicated topics — and the U.S. economy is about as complicated a topic as you can find — and distilling them down to their most important bits. The goal is to help readers of all levels of financial sophistication better understand what’s going on in the economy and markets and how they might be affected.
For anyone I’ve worked with over the past seven years, this newsletter should look quite familiar. Others might recognize this as an extended version of the blogs I contributed to at several wealth management firms or the shorter blurbs I wrote at the Fed. And for those of you who happened to stumble onto here without any context, prepare to receive a prosy newsletter every Friday morning that includes:
A relevant quote of the week
A bulleted TL;DR summary of the most important points to know about what’s going on in the world of economics and markets
A Chart of the Week (usually my own but always with sourcing if not)
Deep dives into one or more important topics like a Fed meeting, a jobs report or a major bank failure (Sometimes, we get all three in the same week!)
A preview of major events coming down the pike
The Fun Stuff: What else I learned this week (IYKYK)
I don’t have paid subscriptions turned on, because a) just the fact that someone might sign up for this is its own kind of psychic income (my wife would call it an “ego boost”); and b) I don’t know how long I’ll be writing this newsletter, because my plan is to find something to fill my newfound free time as soon as possible. But while I’m determining my next step, why not stay sharp by doing a little writing and sharing it with anyone who cares to read it?
So, again, thank you for signing up. I’ll have comments turned on for each post. Feel free to post counterarguments and ask questions. That’s what makes me better at this. I’ll also be active on Substack Notes highlighting some of my work and mixing it up with the other econ and finance people. If you’re not already subscribed, please do so by using the button below. If you are, then please recommend me to a friend!
Cheers and talk to you all on Friday!
Brian