A great read from the Wall Street Journal lends some perspective to the lower for longer argument. Perhaps the so called “new normal” is really just the modern-day version of normal economic growth, and what the baby boomers experienced growing up was “not normal”. This
If you caught the news last week about OPEC’s announcement that they plan to cut oil production in a bid to bolster crude prices, you might be thinking about rushing in to invest. Be sure to do your homework however, since OPEC isn’t necessarily driving
In this week’s Globe and Mail piece, Larry gets political with a critique of central bank and Canadian government policies. If the US election is any indication, the will of the people to break the cycle of endless deficit spending and unsustainable government policies is
Paul Bagnell and Larry Berman kick off this week’s episode of Berman’s Call with a discussion about why Larry feels the risks to the markets from China are on the rise, and how Donald Trump could possibly still win the U.S. election. Watch this segment
Rolling back the clock a few years to the Bernanke taper tantrum in 2013 and the Fed’s forecast for interest rate hikes; it is clear that they suffer from an increasing loss of credibility. The academic establishment is slowly coming around to the fact that
Last week, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz flipped on his recent bias that the Canadian economy was strengthening – though he does expect a second-half bounce back from the Fort McMurray wildfires. “Recency bias” is a psychological phenomenon where people overweight more recent events
The divergence in monetary policy between the U.S. and Europe, Japan, and Canada suggests that the U.S. dollar should strengthen notably over the next year. The developed market trade weighted U.S. dollar index’s most important currency pair is the euro and Canada is only 9.1
Janet Yellen will spin her Fedspeak on Aug. 26 at the annual Jackson Hole conference. Investors worldwide will scour the text for hints at what the future holds. In the past, Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC, a.k.a. Federal Open Mouth Committee) bosses have used the
We always look at the risks of investing, because that’s how investors look at it (after the risk bites them), so for our clients we carefully weigh risk/return with each investment. I’ve said “Europe is a basket case” so you might think that means avoid
I’ve often warned that Western economies – now heavily indebted post credit crisis – are on track to end up like Japan if nothing is done to change course. You might think that means Japan is down and out, and while they are, there is