28 February 2021 There's a whiff of inflation in the air: commodities are soaring, bond yields are rising, and yield curves are steepening. And, while these trends actually began last Summer (and despite Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's reassuring comments in Congress), equity market volatility is increasing. In the period ahead, financial markets will confront several [...]
Category: USA
Biden’s Foreign Policy Reset: Market Impact
28 January 2021 Joe Biden is now the 46th President of the United States, and Anthony Blinken has been confirmed as the new Secretary of State. President Biden has promised substantive changes in American foreign policy, and initial Executive Orders indicate he will act on this pledge. To be sure, American international policy decisions are [...]
Covid Second Wave: Bracing For a Long Winter
22 October 2020 The long-anticipated Covid second wave is here (third wave in the USA). Experts project, correctly I suspect, that as winter arrives and activity heads indoors, the rate of infection will accelerate significantly further. In the United States, for example, I would not be surprised if daily new cases rise from 50,000 to [...]
Biden: Build Back Better or Going Bust?
18 September 2020 Presidential candidate Joe Biden's economic program is taking shape. His plan to "Build Back Better" following the pandemic will involve higher levels of government spending and taxation. My intention is not to project the numerical impact on the nation's public finances, as this is ably accomplished by Penn Wharton, the Committee for [...]