Weekly Commentary

Several years ago I was driving through the mountains when I came across an old steel bridge. Like most bridges, there was a sign posted before the entrance listing its maximum weight. I don’t remember the exact number, but I remember thinking that someone, somewhere, had calculated precisely how much that bridge could safely carry. […]

Every quarter I sit down to write our Look Ahead. It has become one of my favorite exercises because it forces me to step away from the noise and ask a much simpler question: What is the data actually telling us? Recently I read a fascinating paper on the origins of our federal economic statistics […]

Every summer, millions of people do something that would make a rational economist scratch their head. They log onto Amazon and fill a virtual cart with things they didn’t know they needed 15 minutes earlier, because interest rates fell that morning. It isn’t because they suddenly became wealthier overnight. They buy because life goes on. […]

I just spent a week largely disconnected from markets. I spent time with clients and business owners hearing about their concerns and growth challenges. It was refreshing. It is an exercise I try to repeat periodically, not just for the mental reset from the markets, but for the perspective it forces upon me. When I […]

The headline last week was difficult to miss. SpaceX completed one of the largest IPOs in market history, and Elon Musk’s net worth surged toward levels once thought impossible. The result was a new publicly traded company valued at $2.1 trillion and the world’s first trillionaire. No one in the modern era has owned more […]

What can history teach us about obvious opportunities? On Friday, the markets sold off after a stronger-than-expected employment report pushed interest rates higher. At least that’s what the headlines read. But I have another theory. This week, investors may be preparing for the largest IPO in history. At roughly $75 billion of expected proceeds and […]

Two investors tell us almost everything we need to know about bubbles. The first was one of the smartest people who ever lived: Isaac Newton. In 1720, he got caught up in the South Sea Bubble. He reportedly made money early, sold, watched others keep getting richer, and then bought back in near the top. […]

There’s an old investing lesson that says consumers vote twice: first with surveys, then with their wallets. Usually, those two things eventually line up, but right now they couldn’t be further apart. Consumer sentiment has collapsed to levels normally associated with recessions, financial crises, or major unemployment shocks. The latest University of Michigan survey is […]

A few days ago, I was standing in line at a convenience store somewhere in rural Oregon. The guy in front of me bought gas, a sports drink, beef jerky, and a can of ZYNs. The cashier read him the total and he paused for a second, looked down, and quietly put the beef jerky […]

Economic expansions are strange because investors expect them to feel obvious while they’re happening, and they usually feel fragile. There are always reasons to be cautious. Oil prices, interest rates, and political headlines create uncertainty. Economists debate recession probabilities on television as if downturns arrive on scheduled calendars. Yet underneath all that noise, the actual […]