This week in 1978, Barry Gibb was at the absolute height of his superpowers. His band, a little group called the Bee Gees, held the # 1 song in the US with "Night Fever," inspired by the New York Disco scene and featured in the John Travolta blockbuster movie Saturday Night Fever.
This week in 1964, The Kingsmen's hit song "Louie Louie" was under intense investigation by the FBI for vulgarity and profanity despite the song's largely unintelligible lyrics.
Had you been sitting by the fire this week in 1976 and turned on the radio while enjoying some hot chocolate (or peppermint schnapps), you would have noticed a peculiar song making its way to the airwaves.
This month’s economic indicators are a lot like that: surviving and thriving, no matter the environment. Let’s start with the obvious point: Consumers are still spending in the Black Hills, as evidenced by more than $820 million in gross sales last month.
This week in 1974, the band Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO for short) went to #1 on the charts with their song “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” The song is famous for its rhythm guitar and stuttering chorus with the words “b-b-b-baby, you just ain’t seen na-na-nothing yet.”
Heavy on drum machines, post-grunge philosophy, angsty slumber-party confessionals, and harmonicas, Jagged Little Pill’s main anthem is a little ditty called “Ironic,” which is anything but. This month’s indicators are a lot like that—seemingly ironic, but more a set of unfortunate events.
Forty years ago, in July of 1983, The Police released the classic hit Every Breath You Take. The song quickly rose to the top of the charts and spent 8 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. The initially comforting sounds made it an instant classic at weddings despite the almost sinister lyrics: “Every breath you take and every move you make...every step you take, I’ll be watching you.”
This month’s economic indicators are a lot like that: keeping the beat, holding everything together, pushing the rhythm. Making a little dent in history. How? We’re just seeing something we’ve never seen before; the possibility of a soft landing without a recession after a period of intense inflation.
This week in 1956, Elvis Presley went on the Steve Allen Show and performed his hit song “Hound Dog” to an actual hound. It made for a strange bit of television. Allen ambushed Elvis with the dog, asking him on the show without telling Elvis a dog would be waiting for him onstage with a top hat and a scowl.
Wages are down almost three percent from a year ago, while housing is up in two of Rapid City’s zip codes by 13% and 18%. It doesn’t take an economist to tell you why folks are having a tough time finding and paying for homes. Wages just aren’t keeping up with the largest budget item for any family, which is always housing.