As the nation ruminates on the court ruling on the mandatory mask mandate, remember, “You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.” It is a safe bet that the Federal Reserve will raise short term rates more than twice before summer. This month’s STRATMOR blog is titled, “A Primer on the Federal Reserve and Mortgage Rates.” Here in Atlanta, in the MBA-STRATMOR Peer Group Roundtable meetings, much of the conversation revolves around interest rates, as one can imagine. The Federal Reserve is going to have a hard time bringing down inflation without triggering a recession, according to Goldman Sachs Group who believes that there is about a 35 percent chance the U.S. will fall into a recession over the next two years. Another topic is the population migrating due to tax reasons. Property taxes aren’t good, but fall into the “interesting” category as some states’ taxes have been rising while others are stagnant, and most have not been matching the rise in property values. And economist Dr. Elliot Eisenberg’s team calculated the highest and lowest tax burdens (the proportion of personal income paid towards state and local taxes, listed by percentages) in the U.S. “NY has the highest burden at 12.75, followed by HI at 12.7, ME at 11.4, VT at 11.1, and MN at 10.2. At the low end, FL is 45th at 6.6, NH follows at 6.4, then WY at 6.3, DE at 6.2, TN 5.7, and AK at 5.1.” (The audio version of the commentary is available here and this week’s is sponsored by Candor, AI that puts your underwriting on autopilot.)