MacNicol’s Quarterly Commentary – April 2022

 

With this commentary, we plan to communicate with you every month about our thoughts on the markets, some snapshots of metrics, a section on behavioral investing, and finally an update on MacNicol & Associates Asset Management (MAAM). We hope you enjoy this information, and it allows you to better understand what we see going on in the marketplace.

“With so many things coming back in style, I can’t wait until morals, respect, and intelligence become a trend again”
– Denzel Washington, Hollywood Actor

 

They’re doing what?

One of the key challenges facing North American financial markets is the risk that monetary policy makers are applying the brakes to an economy that was already beginning to lose momentum. Making matters worse, the US Fed is behind the curve when it comes to inflation. Long gone it seems are the days when inflation was “contained” or simply “transient” and this stark contrast to today’s environment puts Jerome Powell and others like him in a tough spot. Problems in the labor market, specifically shortages, and rising prices were happening before the Fed’s recent shift to a policy of monetary tightening. Risks of a recession then were present prior to Fed tightening, and some groups, including our own, have suggested that a better time to reign in loose money was a few years ago.

Grumblings of inflation for us began 6-years ago when the US 10-year yields hit 1.48%. Back then, the monetary expansion was part of daily life and we began early-stage work into alternatives because we wanted to be in a position to tell you that we had a solution for what was in store.

 

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The Quarterly Commentary April 2022