“Our civilization is wholly dependent on the massive and continuous flows of energy… Energy is the essential ingredient of all the materials that define the modern world.” – Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works After three consecutive strong years for the broader market, we suspected 2026 would be a wilder one. Boy, […]
Category: newsletter
Client Investment Letter January 2026
“Debt is one person’s liability, but another person’s asset.” – Paul Krugman Last year we said a third year of more than 20% performance in the general market would be unusual. We didn’t quite get above 20%, but the market sure came close with the S&P 500 returning 17.86% for 2025. If you […]
Client Investment Letter October 2025
“The markets are always throwing a party somewhere, but you better know when to leave before the cops show up.” – Jim Rogers Fall is in the air. The weather is beginning to turn cooler, football season is underway, and optimism abounds on Wall Street. In fact, the S&P 500 has never been higher […]
Client Investment Letter July 2025
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. — Mark Twain With Iran on the front page of newspapers, worries about inflation, a president pressuring the Fed to reduce rates, gold prices rising, protests cropping up and quelled with force, and federal budget deficits that seem unsustainable, we wouldn’t blame you for wondering […]
Client Investment Letter April 2025
“An economy built on endless consumption and debt is fundamentally unsustainable.” – Ray Dalio Things that are unsustainable, by definition, must change. Decades of unchecked government spending, coupled with a lack of fiscal restraint, have pushed the U.S. balance sheet to its limits. Too much debt restrains economic growth, limits the flexibility for countercyclical […]
Client Investment Letter January 2025
“I’m not worried about the deficit. It’s big enough to take care of itself.” – Ronald Reagan The stock markets closed out 2024 with another strong year, the second consecutive year with an over-20% gain in the S&P 500 Index. It should be noted that such back-to-back strong years are the exception and […]
Client Investment Letter October 2024
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” – John Kenneth Galbraith While jokes about wrong-way economic projections almost write themselves – like the time inflation was confidently called “transitory” just before spiking to 9% – this quarter, central bankers both home and abroad reminded us of their power […]
Client Investment Letter July 2024
“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings” — Robert Solow, American Economist The world is abuzz with a groundbreaking technology promising immense productivity gains. Every company is exploring it. Startups are popping up all over the place to take advantage of it. One company has […]
Client Investment Letter April 2024
“You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be. For without victory there is no survival.” – Winston Churchill Fed Chair Jay Powell is no Winston Churchill. For all intents and […]
Client Investment Letter January 2024
“It was never my thinking that made the big money for me. It was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight.” – Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre As we close out 2023, the tumult of a brutal 2022 when stocks and bonds both went down substantially seems far away. Once […]
