One of the questions being asked by many investors is, “when will inflation rear its head?” With the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates so low for so long, there has long been an expectation among many that inflation will be rising. For the past several years, however, inflation has remained contained and our expectation is that the inflation environment is unlikely to change any time soon. The bottom line is that with the economy still in the midst of a fragile recovery and with long-term headwinds keeping prices down, inflation is unlikely to become a problem for at least another 12 to 18 months.

So why is this the case? To start - we need to look at the state of the economy. The US economy is still continuing to grow, but it is doing so at a weak pace, and probably one that is slower now than it was in the first quarter. Last week's economic data showed a decline in industrial production, which is consistent with the overall trend we have been seeing for several weeks. Indeed, most economic reports are now coming in below expectations. We are hardly suggesting that the economy is headed back to recession, but there is a reasonable amount of data suggesting economic growth has softened. Such a pattern can help explain why inflation is falling as well.

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Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) a popular business networking organization in Westchester County, NY is excited to announce the unveiling of their newly designed and improved website. The new site design brings new features and updates previous attributes for easier browsing. After listening to feedback from others, the redesign features more advertising space, better navigations for easier searches, and is more user friendly.
The new design is more dynamic, and will allow WNFP Webmasters to highlight more content, so viewers don’t miss interesting articles, upcoming events, WNFP news and updates etc. Their goal is to promote members and community of professionals.
Additionally, the website will increase the visibility of members’ announcements by featuring them on the website’s homepage. Event photos and video footage will also become more prominent and connectivity to our other programs will be easy to locate at the bottom of each website page.
WNFP look forward to our members and prospective members to take full advantage of our new design features and business tools to help generate professional relationships and build new business through our website advertising and sponsorship programs.
Business professionals can signup for free to become a Basic Member and create a professional profile for a listing in their members’ directory with allows access to members-only privileges throughout the site.
Members can chose to stay with a basic membership or upgrade to our Privileged Card Membership for advertising discounts, additional exposure throughout our website, live exposure at upcoming events, social media channels and our e-newsletters.
WNFP members and visitors can explore the newly designed and improved website at http://www.wnfp.org. They believe that the change will engage more business professionals to learn about their benefits as well as how to become more involved with WNFP events and programs.

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Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP), one of Westchester County, New York’s largest and longest standing networking organization for business professionals, has just released their new brochure which features information on how WNFP can help businesses and entrepreneurs gain exposure, new customers and getting the word out about company products and services.

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The pace of global economic activity continues to slow with recessions in several European countries dampening demand for goods and services from other countries around the world. However, this past week, several central banks stepped up efforts to support global economic growth. These foreign policy changes are likely to help the U.S. economy maintain modest economic growth.

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The past two weeks have been better for stocks, with the major indexes up in consecutive weeks for the first time in more than a month. However, investors have had to endure a seesaw of ups and downs as markets try to anticipate the next phase of sentiment. The down-market sentiment has been triggered mainly by concerns about the European financial crisis and the contagion from country to country, with the effects most visible in fixed income markets, government debt and bank stocks. Episodes of up-market sentiment reflect growing confidence that policymakers are ready to act and will do so soon.

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Following a significant slide the week before, stocks bounced back last week, primarily due to a growing sense that policymakers in Europe and the United States may be ready to engage in further easing measures. The increasing stress in Europe has put additional pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) and on other policymakers to take stronger action, and, indeed, over the weekend European finance ministers announced a new plan to recapitalize the Spanish banking sector. In the United States, the recent trend of weaker economic data has also caused some to believe that the Federal Reserve would engage in additional easing measures.

The news over the weekend regarding the aid package for Spanish banks was sketchy on details and much still needs to be debated and decided, but the formation of the package is clearly a positive step in that it shows that European policymakers remain committed to combatting the debt crisis.

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For some time, we have been suggesting that the US economy had been holding up relatively well compared to the rest of the world. While we are not changing that view, last week's data (particularly May's employment report) provided a negative jolt and pushed stock prices down sharply.

Our summary view of the US economy is that while the United States appears to have entered another slowdown phase with the data growing more disappointing in recent weeks, the case for a renewed recession still looks flimsy. The highlight (or, rather, lowlight) last week was the monthly employment report. The data showed that far-fewer-than-expected 69,000 new jobs were created in May and that the unemployment rate ticked higher for the first time in many months, moving up to 8.2%. The data also pointed to some notable downward revisions in prior months.

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The market decline that has occurred over the last couple of months has largely been attributed to escalating concerns over the European debt crisis and we believe that Europe remains the chief variable in determining the future direction of the global economy. If Europe's debt crisis remains reasonably well contained, the world should continue to grow at a modest pace with the United States doing relatively well; if debt contagion becomes chaotic and uncontrollable, it would be an entirely different story. Our view continues to be that the former scenario is the more likely one.

In addition to ongoing issues in Europe, investors are also remaining focused on the state of the US economy. The data has been mixed in recent months, but continues to point to a modest recovery. The business sector remains a source of strength, consumer uncertainty appears to be fading somewhat and we are also seeing some improvements in the housing market. Additionally, liquidity and credit conditions continue to improve in the United States, with bank loans increasing in recent weeks.

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