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...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Global equities declined on the week amid increasing concerns over global growth and lingering trade tensions. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note slumped nearly 14 basis points from a week ago, to 2.85%, while volatility, as measured by the CBOE...
From Black Friday to Good Friday and Back: Economic Indicators, Trading Opportunities, and the Shakeup of Expectations
Economic indicators such as the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), Consumer Confidence Index, and the price of oil could be thought as signals of future economic activity. Last year the Eurozone experienced a revival of growth that lifted up expectations and resembled...
Weekly Market Update
Market Action Global equities closed mostly higher for the week, with US equities showing the greatest increase at about 5% on the week. (The S&P 500 Index recorded its best weekly gain since December 2011.) The yield on the US 10-year Treasury declined 4 basis...
Crossroads: At the Intersection of Geopolitics and Geoeconomics
Here are some critical issues to watch around the globe over the coming month: North America In the US, months of campaigning came to an end with Democrats breaking the Republicans’ grip on power by securing a majority in the House of Representatives, retaking...
Headwinds vs. Tailwinds: An Initial Assessment of Undercurrent Trends Affecting the Market Outlook for 2019
As we are approaching the start of 2019, we could identify five important tailwinds and an equal number of headwinds going into play in the new year. Overall, we believe – at this stage – that the tailwinds will prevail. Let’s start then with the tailwinds. The first...
