America’s military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday evening will, no doubt, be seen as a “hinge moment” in history. Experience teaches us as investors, however, to be careful in drawing too many conclusions at this stage about the implications of the event. (Who can forget US Treasury yields falling in response to the initial downgrade in 2011?) Perhaps this will usher in a new period of peace in the Middle East where this is either a regime change in Iran or Iran’s lea… View More
June 2025
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The United States consumes much of its GDP; China does not. The result is Yin and Yang. On net, China produces and the US consumes. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it this way last week at a Senate hearing – “China has a singular opportunity to stabilize its economy by shifting away from excess production towards greater consumption.” That is the rallying cry for tariffs and trade negotiations. And while the US government seems to blame it all on China, it is also true that the US h… View More
Back during the Financial Panic of 2008, clickbait media kept screaming “Hyperinflation.” This theme was consistently pushed back against, and argued that inflation would not accelerate. Yes, Quantitative Easing and zero percent interest rates, which Ben Bernanke invented at the time, massively increased the size of the Fed’s balance sheet and boosted cash deposits and reserves at banks as the Fed printed money to buy debt – Treasury bonds, mortgages and other assets. So why didn’t th… View More
As the dust settles after a volatile first five months of the year, investors are biased to buy risk assets. Record or near-record highs are frequently recorded in various markets, including equities, credit, real estate, gold, etc. There is no shortage of investor liquidity. Summary Equities increased (S&P 500 1.90%) last week, offsetting some of the prior week's loss. Highlights included lots of tariff crosscurrents and NVIDIA'S earnings. Best Sectors were real estate (2.75%) and tec… View More