Blog

At the beginning of the year, I wrote to you about the constant uncertainty we live with when it comes to the immediate future, and how our investment strategy has to account for that uncertainty. Then Russia invaded the Ukraine and our hopes for a post-pandemic...

We live our lives in a state of “perpetual present,” constantly unaware of what the future will bring. History is always our best guide. But human beings find it difficult to remember the lessons of history when we face a new crisis. For these reasons...

Positive returns from stock market investments continued to flow in the third quarter of 2021. At this point, we must wonder how much of these gains are evidence of global asset price inflation, rather than of improved business conditions. Be that as...

The so-called “bull market in everything” continued in the second quarter of 2021, as financial markets priced in the effects of reopening the economy. Ongoing easy money interest rate policies also kept asset prices rising. Thankfully, investment portfolios...

The best news that I’ve received during the early months of 2021 has been reports from most of my retired clients that they have received their first jab of vaccine. Of course, we are behind the U.S. when it comes to the pace of vaccinations, but the...

At the beginning of 2020 I wrote in this space that every long-term investor who has stuck to a plan and ignored the noise of current events and market ups-and-downs has been rewarded with spectacular growth in wealth. Despite the dual traumas of the...

These strange times continue to amaze me as much as they amaze the families whose wealth is entrusted to my management. No amount of study – of economic commentary and market forecasting – ever prepares us for really dramatic events, which always seem...

Some of my COVID-19 lockdown time has been spent reading Tolstoy’s War & Peace. (I figured, “it’s now or never.”) This wonderful historical drama is legendary for its intimidating length. But its theme I find to be very timely for us. Major historical...

By now any reader of this commentary has heard plenty enough about COVID-19 and the disruption it is causing to our usual routines. As an economic event, the current situation is distinct from those we have faced in the past. Nevertheless, the event-driven...