Given bottlenecks and supply constraints, we are continuing to see a stagflation scare (weaker growth + sticky inflation) in the global economy. Concerns are likely to persist into 2022. But as firms change the way they do business to combat this issue, output-per-hour (productivity) gains are starting to occur. Productivity allows the opposite of stagflation: stronger growth and muted inflation since there are more goods & services produced. Put another way, straining the economy in ways it… View More
DEMOCRATIC DIVISIONS OVER THE SPENDING PACKAGE EXPLODED OVER THE WEEKEND Last Thursday Strategas (one of our research partners) outlined all of the troubles Democrats were having in moving their agenda forward and that the infrastructure vote was likely to be delayed. The delay of the infrastructure package did materialize but during that process, we saw a level of optimism emanating from Congressional leadership that a deal could take place on Friday. Senator Manchin put out his price tag Thur… View More
With inflation a key concern for most investors, we wanted to share a paper we read this week written by Bob Doll at Crossmark Global Investments. We thought it was a great review of what is happening with inflation now. Read Story … View More
Global supply chain struggles have persisted in 3Q, and look set to linger for at least several more quarters. Energy prices have surged in Europe, and transportation issues are creating petrol lines in the U.K. Data from China have shown notable disruptions, though fears of financial contagion came and went quickly last week. “U.S. shipping operations remain clogged as ports, truckers and warehouses can’t find enough workers or agree on 24/7 operations … Tens of thousands of containers a… View More
A black swan event in the investment world is an extremely negative and usually hard to predict event; "Evergrande" has been labeled by some as just such an event. It is the latest event in China to affect the US and global markets. Many US investment banks like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch have exposure to “Evergrande”, and their stocks are paying for it today. These companies represent more than 120 points of the loss on the Dow Jones Industrial average … View More