It’s a week from Easter, AKA “Pretty Good Friday,”

 

Relative calm: As March winds down, markets are poised to regain all the ground lost earlier in the month to inflation and banking woes.

 

Rolling with it

When the U.S. banking upheaval first hit, markets braced for the worst, thinking back to 2008–09. But a surprising thing happened — markets punched right through the turbulence. We see four reasons for this resilience and give our thoughts on the main risks from here.

 

Regional developments: Canada’s 2023 federal budget released; U.S. investors see lower policy rates ahead; European headline inflation declines, but core inflation remains sticky; Alibaba’s restructuring plan welcomed by investors

 

Full Report Here: Global Insight Weekly

 

Beached: The Wall Street Journal reports that alleged crypto fraud Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) recently messaged FTX employees saying he: “would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”

 

That’s called witness-tampering and the US Justice Dept. has petitioned a federal judge to restrict SBF’s internet access while on house arrest in his parents’ basement. The short-pantsed-one is also accused of offering $40 million to bribe Chinese officials into releasing $1 Billion in frozen cryptocurrency back to him.

 

Over the past 5 months the 31-year-old went from genius billionaire philanthropist Megamind, to something less than a Bond villain, sniveling in his parents’ basement – and yes, grounded from the internet.

 

They say as a boy, Sammy was never spanked.

 

Coin of the Realm:

A snippet from statesman George P. Schulz fits.

“… there is one lesson that I learned early and have relearned over and over for a century. Put simply: “Trust is the coin of the realm.” When trust was in the room, whatever room that was—the family room, the schoolroom, the coach’s room, the office room, the government room, or the military room—good things happened. When trust was not in the room, good things did not happen. Everything else is details.”

 

Budgets and Inflation and China -- links from RBC analysts:

 

1) Federal Budget: Budget-23-the-red-green-show

2) More on the budget: Budget '23: Measures that may directly impact you

3) On China and Inflation: Economic webcast (rbcgam.com)​

 

 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Mark