Uncertainty, that boogeyman of commerce, has descended upon the American psyche with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Investors and entrepreneurs, those intrepid navigators of risk, recoil from ambiguity as though it were a contagion. And yet, ambiguity is precisely what President Trump has delivered in spades with his latest trade...
The President’s odd choice of hyperbolic criticism that Exxon has more money than God may be offensive to those of faith, but begs the less celestial question: How Greedy is Big Oil? Net profit margins of Oil and Gas companies are surprisingly modest. Politicians survive on their popularity; thus, job...
The stock market is two days into a ‘Sentimental Journey’, rallying from deeply oversold AAII investor sentiment levels. It’s surprising how frequently AAII’s small investor sentiment survey captures investable bottoms in the stock market. Such negative sentiment only occurs after or deep into market corrections. While it can be moderately...
Adapting a famous phrase from President Teddy Roosevelt, Russia’s economy speaks softly, but its military carries a big stick. With an economy ranking 2 notches under tiny Canada in 11th place, despite almost 4x the population, Russia’s Putin demands an outsized presence on the world stage. With the world’s second...
FANG is back! – for now. Last year when the economy was in partial lockdown, the slow growth “stay at home” world was all about Tech. With low interest rates and a need for productivity to overcome the Covid cap to an economic recovery, Government stimulus became gasoline for tech...
In 1982 Prince wrote his iconic song, Party Like It’s 1999 in part to mock the early 80’s period of extreme economic pessimism and heightened fear of nuclear Armageddon. The 1999 date was the biblical end of times – end of the millennium – thus the clarion call to party...
In 1973, when inflation pressures forced the the US Government to abandon the Bretton Woods system of gold backed fixed currency pegs, the world embarked on a journey of ever escalating leverage. The Dollar initially devalued sharply along with stocks until higher interest rates created a base value. Bond yields...
It’s great news that our US economy (GDP) grew a better than expected 2.1 percent in the 2nd quarter. It’s a far cry from the 3 to 5 percent Trump expects and the fluke 3.1 percent in the 1st quarter, but it’s also a long way from the recession expectations...
US Treasury debt instruments are deemed the safest in the world with the 10 Year Treasury Note being the most popular. While safety, foreign bond rate competition and inflation expectations are among the most important factors affecting the yields of US Treasuries, Quantitative Easing (QE) is also an influence in this unique era...
Impressive Economic Acceleration Our theme for 2018 is for an even stronger economy accompanied by slowing stock market growth as compared to 2017. Much of the slow recovery since 2009 has been on the backs of the consumer without the normal contribution of Investment Spending and Exports. The new expansion cycle we entered in...
