I never set out to be a banker, but once I landed in the seat, I had to figure out how bankers think. That meant tuning into CNBC and trying to make sense of all those flashing numbers—Dow futures, bond yields, and implied market openings. At first, it felt like a foreign language. But over time, I started to see the bigger picture.

Rising bond yields, interest rates moving up or down—these aren’t just headlines. They hit Main Street in real ways. If rates go up, banks might see short-term gains, but only if people keep borrowing. And that’s the catch—when borrowing slows because rates are too high, Main Street struggles. And when Main Street struggles, banks feel it too.

The lesson? Banks and Main Street are tied together more than people realize. When one wins, the other usually does too. And when one suffers? The effects ripple through everything.