Stimulus
Has The Tsunami Of Stimulus Been Worth It?
Federal outlays, federal debt, and M2 have each jumped ~50% in five years, while the Fed’s balance sheet soared by 90%. The “reward”: Real GDP cumulative growth per capita of 1.6% per year (a good chunk of which will be reversed during a recession).
Free For All?
The weekly covers of The Economist do a pretty good job of capturing the zeitgeist of global financial affairs, but there’s so much packed into every issue (and enough to do around our shop) that sometimes all we see are the covers. But we have to admit we’re disappointed in The Economist for the week ended July 31st. The “Free Money” theme is at least four months too late!
2020 Earnings And The Extremophile Market
As we wade into the waters of second-quarter earnings, muddied by economic shutdowns and suspended guidance, we thought it might be a good exercise to pull back from the “micro” of firm-level beats and misses and examine the “macro” picture that is the Great Earnings Washout of 2020.
Stimulus Gone Wild!
Market perma-bulls deserve high marks for their persistence, yet, despite all that’s transpired in 2020, their case is exactly the same as six months ago: Extreme stimulus won’t “allow” a significant stock market drop, nor any further economic deterioration.