The Federal CIO’s 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management mandated that federal agencies complete progress reports and plans for data center consolidation. As a result, fiscal year 2011 brought the closure of more than 81 data centers, with more than 900 scheduled to shutter by FY2015, for a cost savings of nearly $5Read… Read more »
For the second week in a row, the S&P 500 bottomed out on Wednesday, then closed near the high of the week on Friday. I don’t know what the significance of that might be except that in market timing and technical analysis, we are sometimes just watching out for patterns because they tend to repeatRead… Read more »
Holiday weeks tend to have a positive bias, but what we saw last week was not typical. We saw big gains with nearly 4% returns in each of the TSP stock funds. The question now of course is, what will a post-holiday market look like? Here are the TSP fund returns for the week ofRead… Read more »
Everywhere you look technology has been implemented to help government agencies cut costs and improve efficiencies. At all levels of government, agencies are working to cut and streamline services. Amidst a staggering economy, agencies are continually pressed to meet increasing demands from citizens, while funding resources becomes increasingly scarce. Ultimately, many agencies have looked towardsRead… Read more »
Government standards support federal vendors in metropolitan DC and the nation, Washington DC Government Business Examiner About one-third of metropolitan Washington DC’s economy is involved in or related to the federal government. Generally, the Nation’s Capital and surrounding suburbs are comprised of the following business sectors: Biotech – Washington DC is a biotechnology magnet, whichRead… Read more »
Last week was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the stock market as we saw strong gains early in the week, a big sell-off in the middle of the week, and another rally on Friday. Greece, Spain, economic data, and some bank downgrades helped shape the action. Here are the TSP fund returns forRead… Read more »
Last week started out shaky for the stock market as we saw a sell-off on Monday, which experience a hangover from the jobs report. Despite some nice rallies, the indices struggled to move above the break-even mark through Thursday, but on Friday the bulls took charge and it moved stocks into positive territory for theRead… Read more »
Last week was a holiday shortened week and we went into Friday with just minor losses in the stock market, but as you may have heard, the May jobs report came in well below expectation and stocks sold off sharply. If you missed it, estimates were looking for an increase of 150,000 jobs and weRead… Read more »
Worst week of the year The stock market and the TSP stock funds experienced a precipitous decline last week with barely a notice of any kind of relief rally. The buyers have gone on vacation apparently, while the trouble in Europe dictates the action. Here are the TSP fund returns for the week of MayRead… Read more »
Ralph Smith is the president and a co-founder of FedSmith.com. Sign up for the FedSmith.com free daily email newsletter to get the latest news affecting federal employees. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about our economic future. Headlines from Europe scream about countries defaulting with investors in Greece potentially taking a 70% lossRead… Read more »