Quarter end December 31, 2020
It’s a Wrap…2020, the year of the long term investor While it is popular to dismiss 2020 as a terrible year, stock and bond investors who refused to panic can celebrate better than average portfolio gains. If one chooses to focus on the negatives, 2020 felt as though we were living through a dystopian movie: the death of a beloved [...]
Wondering How It Happened?
Most of us share disgust at the events in DC this week even if we do not always agree on things political, economic or whatever. I recently read a book called "Like War" that illustrates how those who win the virality war on the internet tend to dominate real world events. There are foreign actors who now have a powerful [...]
The Economy and the Pandemic
This article confirms what I'm hearing anecdotally - people have been saving money during the Pandemic, with options for spending constrained. Meanwhile, our marvelous and ingenius people have found ways to work around Covid's face-to-face constrictions and continue working and earning. Result: likely continued low interest rates and likely bull market continuing ahead. Bloomberg.com, By Tim Duy December 1, 2020: [...]
Wall Street wins the Election
As suggested in our pre-election “what if” commentary, a split government is a net positive for the stock market. It appears that the election of the Bidan/Harris ticket was more of a repudiation of extreme behavior on the part of Donald Trump than an endorsement of a strong shift to the left in overall U.S. politics, Democrats appear shocked to [...]
Predicting the 2020 Election
The World Will (...) End with the Next Election (NOT) As we approach the November 3 election, I thought it might be useful to submit my thoughts on how different outcomes may affect the financial markets. These are the thoughts of someone with 46 years active involvement in financial markets: Markets have an uncanny way of “knowing” what the outcome will be, but this election is scrambled eggs so it’s hard to believe markets know what is coming. Let’s consider some possibilities:
Quarter end Report Sept. 30, 2020
Below is a graphic borrowed from the Wall Street Journal online, tracking equity performance both here and abroad for the year to date, as of September 30, 2020: As this quarter wound down, unemployment is above 8 percent, the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP is the largest since World War II, and the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 [...]