The Euro at 20: Cheating Death but Still Dysfunctional
On January 1st, the euro closed a circle of 20 years. The reality is that it remains a significant threat to European integration. The eurozone muddles along from crisis to crisis and the euro is one of the most important causes for that. By pushing countries into a...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Global equities mostly rose on a volatile week, shaking off recent declines to open 2019. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note stands at 2.66%, down about 10 basis points from pre-holiday levels. A barrel of WTI crude oil closed at $48 while...
New Year: Factors Shaping Up Markets
During 2018, almost all major asset classes experienced declines. As previously commented, many sectors have dropped more than 20% since last September and while safe havens have made some gains during the last quarter, they still have not experienced yet the gains...
Crossroads: At the Intersection of Geopolitics and Geoeconomics
Here are some critical issues to watch around the globe over the coming month: North America The Fed took its benchmark rate from 2.25% to 2.5%. On top of this hike, Fed officials announced they were reducing the projected number of hikes from three down to two...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Last week stocks experienced one of their most tumultuous periods of the past decade highlighted by extreme moves in both directions. This included the worst-ever Christmas Eve performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, followed by a dramatic...
Ideas and Ideology and the Disruption of the Disruptors: A Conversation Among Walter Bagehot, Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad, Arthur Schlesinger, Hannah Arendt, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Friedrich Hegel
I boarded my usual end-of-year flight yesterday at Boston’s Logan airport. The ticket by itself was unconventional. It simply stated: “Destination at the pilot’s discretion.” That by itself was intriguing. The pilot was determined to disrupt the normalcy of flying....
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Global equities fell sharply on the week and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped into bear territory (20% decline from recent highs). In fact, year-to-date performance for the all-world equity index (market capitalization weighted) has dropped to almost...
Reflections on the Latest Market Swings: Signals for 2019
As noted in two previous commentaries (Assessing the Prospects of 2019: Part II and Headwinds vs. Tailwinds: An Initial Assessment of Undercurrent Trends Affecting the Market Outlook for 2019) we are cautiously optimistic that 2019 will be a better year for the...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action US equities fell along with global stocks on Friday, rounding out a week of volatile trading as investors waded through trade dispute developments and other geopolitical events. Yields on the US 10-year Treasury note were unchanged at 2.89% while the...
Assessing the Prospects of 2019: Part II
Following our initial assessment of next year’s prospects, we discuss below some reasons that make us believe next year may be better than 2018. It seems that until this past summer, market sell-offs were followed by buying tactics (buying the dip). Recently the...
