2024 Commentaries
It's not rocket science
Over the last three weeks, the odds of a Trump victory have jumped markedly. Biden’s debate performance, Trump’s judicial wins, and the awful events in Bethel Park last Saturday have all contributed to the shift. And while other macro forces such as softer inflation and unemployment data have surely been at work, the knee-jerk market […]
From the vault: 10-Jan-2017
Long Streetsmarts, Short Booksmarts: 10-Jan-2017 Over the last two months my market discussions with clients and colleagues have centered exclusively on the expectations for Trump economic policies – specifically fiscal policy, regulatory policy, immigration policy, trade policy, and monetary policy. And in discussing each of these, it is worth recalling that a few days after […]
Not every company gets a participation trophy - July 3, 2024
Today, I would like to address a topic that many pundits have deemed a negative risk factor for overall equity market performance: the issue of concentration. For the record, I discussed this topic last week in a CNBC segment, which you can access here. In a nutshell, the idea that high levels of concentration in […]
For financial markets, the election is primarily about differences in regulatory policy - June 18, 2024
With less than 140 days to go until the US Presidential election, the policy differences between Trump and Biden are becoming a key focus for financial markets. Looking back to 2016, I wrote a handful of notes on the likely market impact from Trump vs. Clinton policy differences with far less available information. This time, […]
Closer to neutral, less restrictive, and more dovish - June 14, 2024
The critical message from Wednesday’s FOMC meeting was not a hawkish one. Yes, the committee changed their year end-2024 rate cut projection from 75bps to 25bps. And as a consequence, the knee-jerk pundit reaction was to deem the postponement in cuts as hawkish. But the most significant change came from the forecast change for the […]
From the vault - June 3, 2024
As promised, I will always start out the new month with a blast from the past. This piece below from 2019 might be my favorite on the relative importance of monetary vs fiscal policy. Enjoy!!! $1.9 trillion of crowding out, pork, and redistribution – January 20, 2019 In November of 1968, Milton Friedman and Walter […]