Weekly Commentary

  “I think our dollar is getting too strong, and partially that’s my fault because people have confidence in me.” – President Donald Trump, April 14, 2017 [i] Regardless of whether I believe that politics had any hand in the strengthening and weakening of the U.S. dollar, I am going to leave the political commentary aside […]

“I thought it would be easier.” – Donald Trump I won’t add to the barrage of voices that discuss the nuances of the Trump Presidency on a daily basis.  You can get plenty of that from almost any media outlet.  However, I think President Trump’s quote reflecting on his first 100 days in office is […]

  According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy expanded at a respectable 2.6 percent in Q2. [i] This reverses two-quarters (2016Q4 and 2017Q1) of slowing GDP growth [i], and firmly establishes that the U.S. economy is expanding, albeit at a much slower pace than historic recoveries.  [ii] Much of this growth can […]

  I’m visiting London this week, and ironically, of all things, it’s to get a “real” view on Emerging Markets (EM).  What some of you may not know is that many of the leading emerging market managers are located in this great city.  Not to digress, but I’d be foolish not to gain a better […]

  We are a couple of weeks away from the first look at how the U.S. economy performed during Q2 2017.  Generally, looking in the rearview mirror is useless for investors because we all base our investment decisions on future, rather than past cash flows. However, GDP growth (the broadest measure of U.S. economic health) generally […]

First of all, we hope everyone had a happy, healthy, and safe Fourth of July!  Today marks the first full trading week of the third quarter and we have a lot coming up in the weeks ahead as companies begin to report their second-quarter numbers. We would like to take this opportunity to present you […]

  The second quarter just closed and with it ended another pretty strong performance for equity markets. In fact, the overall market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, is up 8.24 percent in 2017.  Since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, the market has rallied a whopping 13.69%. [i] So much for […]

  I know it’s a bit clichéd to parallel the similarities of the Federal Reserve normalizing their balance sheet to some fictitious experience of diving into the unknown (which might as well be the plot line to a cheesy low-budget thriller), but to be perfectly honest, there isn’t a better way to approach it.  There […]

  Last week the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by another 25 basis points.  This is the third interest rate increase in the last eighteen months. [i] The Fed uses interest rates to promote full employment and control inflation; currently, the Fed has an annual inflation target of 2%.  [i] However, inflation has not hit […]

  While everyone was focused on the political circus in Washington DC last week, a little tidbit of news went largely ignored by the American public.  According to the Federal Reserve’s latest Q1 statistical release, Americans are the wealthiest that they have ever been. [i] Although American wealth has been steadily climbing for nearly fifty […]