Don’t Count Out the US Consumer Just Yet
The awful conflict in the Ukraine drags on, inflation remains at historically high levels, the Fed reiterates its intention to bring inflation under control (even if it means weakening the economy), bellwether retailer Target sees its share price have its worst day since Black Monday…
Twin Peaks?
Some of us recall David Lynch’s groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, which premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. Though the series was short-lived, it has achieved cult-like status due to its innovative mix of…
The Upside of High Inflation
There aren’t many folks singing the praises of inflation these days – and for good reason. Gasoline and grocery prices are up meaningfully year on year, a tremendous financial burden for most Americans, particularly those making a lower wage; operating costs have jumped for most…
As The US Economy Stepped Back, The US Consumer Stepped Up
One of the more widely discussed data points last week will likely be one of the more widely discussed data points this week. That is, per the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US GDP shrank by 1.4% on a real or inflation-adjusted basis in the…
As The Fed Stresses, Financial Conditions Relax
We come back again this week to inflation and monetary policy, with the former still running at historically high levels and the latter – at least here at home and across most of the Western World – becoming tighter (and likely to become tighter still…
Opposites
Our children, when they were little, were big fans of Sandra Boynton’s books including The Going To Bed Book, Moo Baa La La La, and Opposites, which was the first book our son learned to read. Their parents were big fans too, as one of…
Vlog: Quarter-end Q&A 1Q2022
Tim Holland, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, asks and answers three top-of-mind questions as investors receive their quarterly statements and reflect on the past quarter: How should investors be thinking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine? How are markets responding to the first interest rate hike by…
The Fed vs. The Economy
The ongoing tragedy in Ukraine is rightly commanding the world’s attention. That written, at the risk of sounding hardhearted, we think the defining issue for the markets this year – and likely next – will be the budding confrontation between the US Federal Reserve and…
You Have To Spend Money To Make Money
It can be difficult identifying an economic, market, or policy topic to write about weekly that we think will be one that is both of interest to our readers and one that we are comfortable addressing. That has been less of a challenge of late,…
Markets and Geo-Politics
Coming into 2022, many investors felt global markets were poised to deliver strong relative returns compared to the US market. At the risk of oversimplifying the narrative in support of non-US equities, we think this line of argument rested on three primary pillars: 1) US…