Tag: Recession

The Inflationary Heat Wave

In his book “The Ministry for the Future”, author Kim Stanley Robinson imagines a heat wave impacting India, pushing temperatures ever higher for an extended period of time. Eventually temperatures exceed the “wet bulb temperature”[1] for human survival, the point when a human body can not cool itself down by sweating, sitting in the shade, or drinking water. The death toll is unimaginable. Millions die. So begins Robinson’s account of a world in the throes of global warming.

This year contained many headlines that echoed Robinson’s book. There were heat waves in Australia, India, North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It comes on the heels of energy and food shortages, exacerbating already stressed pressure points for global security and worsening inflation. To date I’m not aware that there have been any places where the WBT has gone above 35C, but that doesn’t mean people, economies, and nations aren’t being pushed to the breaking point. Forest fires are common after such an extended period of heat. Crops suffer and efforts to stop agricultural failure are expensive. Water patterns are disrupted, with sudden downpours and earth so parched it can’t absorb rapid deluges leading to flooding. Electrical grids are increasingly stressed to their breaking point as demand surges. And of course, people die due to heat exhaustion.

How hot are these heat waves? In January temperatures in Buenos Aires reached 41.1C and 700,000 people lost power. In Australia a town called Onslow reached 50.7C, tied now for the hottest temperature recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. The city of Perth had 11 days of temperatures over 40C. In the same period (early February), Palm Springs in California reached 34C.

In March and April 90 deaths would be recorded across India and Pakistan, a number almost certainly (and deliberately) inaccurate. Cities across the subcontinent saw temperatures more than 42.8C, and one city in Maharashtra state recording over 45C. Pakistan saw temperatures in excess of 49.5C and 47C in various cities. Birds fell from the sky in Gujarat, and a bridge collapsed in Pakistan following glacial flooding. While the official total was only 90, other more recent heat waves across Europe reveal those numbers must be much higher, with some of the most vulnerable in the society simply going uncounted as victims.

In June heat waves hit much of Europe, pushing temperatures up to 40C, or higher across much of the continent. That same heat wave reached the UK, pushing the temperature in London to 40C as well, a first in living memory for the country. While that spike was short lived, it was a reminder of just how dependent populations are on the infrastructure built on certain climatic expectations. Air conditioners, while not totally uncommon, are not used by the majority of Europeans, and often homes or apartments cannot easily accommodate their introduction by design.

Our thinking can also be quite constrained by experiences, but the extreme temperatures we’ve seen affect more than people. Heat waves and their accompanying droughts can also create problems we wouldn’t consider. In France the temperature of rivers (specifically the Rhone and Garonne) rose so much that they were too hot to cool nuclear reactors, forcing shutdowns. In Germany the Rhine was so low in early August that it was in danger of being shut to cargo, potentially hindering delivery of the coal now needed to meet energy needs. And in China, Foxconn, a major industrial supplier for companies like Apple and Toyota, suspended plant operations as the region suffers from hydropower shortages due to low water levels in the Yangtze.  

We’ve just passed the end of summer, but across much of the world heat waves have left significant impacts on economies and peoples.  I started writing this piece while in Spain with my family in July, where everyday temperatures had remained above 40C. Since then I have been returning to this essay only to note that things have gotten worse. The high temperatures being faced by people in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been compounded by surging demand for electricity, forcing governments to have structured rolling blackouts. Protests have been erupting in Pakistan as energy prices have continued to soar despite the ongoing blackouts. In Bangladesh production in the garment industry has struggled as a result of the mandatory power cuts, efforts to curb the rising prices faced by the nation in energy and food.

If water levels were low in China at the beginning of August, they were positively dire at the summer’s end. China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, nearly dried up forcing extensive trench digging operations to keep water flowing to farmland. In France portions of the Loire River ran dry (the government is quick to point out the river is still open to traffic and is not at its historic lowest point) while in Nevada the artificial lake created by the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead (the primary source of water for Las Vegas) is at its lowest levels since 1937 (Lake Mead has had a small rebound since the end of July, driven in part by reduced demand downstream of the dam). The heat wave affecting California is now thought to be one of the worst and most persistent in history. Meanwhile in Pakistan heat waves have given way to unparalleled flooding. An estimated 33 million people have been displaced, 15% of the country’s population, as its crumbling infrastructure has proven no match for extreme weather.

Global warming has much the same effect on economies like black holes do on physics, warping everything around them until the laws we assume that govern things become unrecognizable. In the period of a week or so, roughly 900 people died in Spain from the heat, including the death of a sanitation worker who dropped dead on the job in Madrid due to heart failure. Reportedly his internal body temperature was above 40C when he was attended to by paramedics. In the face of tragedies like this, what are governments likely to do? What will citizens do?

They will be forced to act, encouraging the use of air conditioners, building more resilience in the electrical grid, directing public funds to deal with vulnerable individuals who are at risk in high heat conditions. If crops start to be affected, you can also bet that governments will be more predatory when it comes to protecting grain supplies and working on minimizing the effects of climate related inflation. If energy rationing becomes more common it will force more top down restrictions, more public money towards expensive infrastructure projects, and contractions in living standards.

For my own part I remain unconvinced that governments will be proactive with regards to these challenges, and instead I expect them to be reactive to a fault with only the richest nations able to potentially solve more than one problem at a time. But short-sighted self interest is not unique to kleptocratic dictatorships. In the United Kingdom, which came under numerous “hosepipe bans” in the summer, selling off reservoirs for new developments while not investing in any new significant water infrastructure for 30 years goes hand in hand with climate change impact. Countries across Europe, Asia and North America have been robbing Peter to pay Paul, and now the bill is coming due.

Winter is coming, and before us lies the potential for further difficult months. Heatwaves have raised food prices and taxed electrical grids. Winter promises to see further pain as energy needs traditionally met by Russian oil will now need alternatives. Coal, a major contributor to the climate crisis, is the current favourite choice both across the developing world, but now also in wealthier western countries facing the pinch of oil and natural gas shortages. The demand is so great that coal use is expected to be at an all time high in 2022. In Germany people are buying electric heaters, but being so inefficient they actually use more electricity and will likely increase energy prices further for Europe’s most beleaguered industrial powerhouse.

Headlines in 2022 have been dominated by central banks raising interest rates to combat inflation. The risk of this strategy is a recession, potentially globally, but the cost of failure is an inflationary environment where food, energy, utilities, and consumer goods become more expensive. And yet that is exactly what has happened; over confidence, short sightedness and a fundamental misunderstanding of resilience planning has made us all “richer” in the short term, but promises to make us pay more in the long term. Heatwaves are baking in our inflation.

Walker Wealth Management is a trade name of Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI)* – ACPI is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (www.iiroc.ca) and a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (www.cipf.ca). Adrian Walker is registered to advise in securities and mutual funds to clients residing in British Columbia and Ontario.

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[1] You may never have heard of the wet bulb temperature before, but it will be something we all come to know. The temperature is determined by having two thermometers side by side, one covered with a “sock” soaking in water. As air moves over the wet bulb of the second thermometer, moisture will evaporate and lower the temperature, giving you a different reading from the unadulterated thermometer. The first tells you the outside air temperature. The second tells you how much cooler you can be if water is evaporating off you. If in a heat wave the WBT reaches or exceeds 35C, the human body can not survive for an extended period outdoors.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc

The Threads of 2020

The end of the year always brings on reviews of the biggest stories, but its probably more accurate to say that the biggest stories of any year are really the consolidation of events and ideas from many years prior. So as we look ahead, what events from the past might come to their rightful end in 2020?

Fragile Worlds and Global Challenges

Corona 1
Figure 1 People wearing protective masks arrive at a Beijing railway station on Tuesday to head home for the Lunar New Year. NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images

News of the rapid spread of the “novel coronavirus”, the dramatic quarantining of multiple Chinese cities and the wall to wall media coverage have made the new disease an inescapable part of life. But while the ultimate severity of the virus remains unknown, the larger impact on the global economy is slowly coming into focus. An interconnected planet that is dependent on economies functioning half a world away can find itself in serious trouble when 40 – 50 million people are suddenly quarantined. Consumer spending in China has dropped off significantly, and expectations are that the government may have to take dramatic action to ultimately support the economy. However, the impact of such a large public effort will not only hurt the Chinese economy, but may hamper the already minor commitments that they have made to the US in the new “Phase 1 Treaty”, which will also hurt the US economy, one that has already showing signs of weakness over the last year. The long-term threat of the corona virus may not be its impact to our bodily health, but to financial health.

The Missing Inflation

For years economists and central bankers have been puzzled by the lack of inflation from the economy. No amount of economic growth or declining unemployment seemed to move the needle on inflation, and it remained stubbornly and frustratingly at or below the 2% target most banks wanted.

Labor Participation RateOne explanation for this is that the labor participation rate has been very low and that the unemployment rate, which only captures workers still looking for work and not those that have dropped out of the workforce altogether, didn’t tell the whole story about people returning to the workforce. The result has been that there has been an abundance of potential workers and as a result there really hasn’t been the labor shortage traditionally needed to begin pushing up inflation.

But there are some signs that inflation is coming back to bite. First, and interesting article from the CBC highlighted just how many vacancies there are in trucker  . There is currently a shortage of 22,000 drivers, and that’s expected to climb to 34,000 in the next few years. Trucking pays well, but maybe it doesn’t pay well  enough. In a universe where many Canadian university educated citizens can’t get work outside of Starbucks, how is it that people haven’t jumped at the chance to get into this lucrative practice?

Trucking isn’t the only trade lacking employees. Nursing and pilots are another two trades that are facing severe shortages. How long can some major industries resist raising wages as shortages start to pile up?

Canada’s Economic Problems

Insolvency RatesThe short version of this story is that Canadians are heavily in debt and much of that debt is sensitive to interest rates. Following a few rate hikes, insolvencies started to creep up in Canada and 2020 may be a year in which the historically high personal debt rates of Canadians start to have an impact on the Canadian economy. According to the Toronto Star and CTV News Canadian insolvency rates are   highest they’ve been since the financial crisis, only this time there isn’t a crisis.

As I wrote before Christmas, economic situations create populist movements, and if Canadians are facing a growing economic problem, widespread and with many Canadians vulnerable we should be mindful that an economic problem may become a political one.

A Crisis in Education and Generations

Student Debt w SourceWalking hand in hand is the increasing cost of education, and the declining returns it provides. In the United States the fastest growth in debt, and the highest rate of default is now found in student debt. According to Reuters the amount of unpaid student debt has doubled in the last   to about $1.5 trillion. The financial burden can be seen in the age of first-time home buyers which has been creeping up over the previous decade and is now pushing 35. The primary step in building a life and the pushing of that life off explains some of the current disaffection with politics and economy that has led a growing number of younger people to hold a favorable view of Communism.

Debt and DelinquencySource for consumer loan growth

The Recession Everyone is Waiting For

Following three years of growing trade wars, a decade of uninterrupted economic growth, and market valuations at all time highs, the expectation of a recession has reached a fever pitch. With 2020 being an election year it seems likely that Trump will try and sooth potential economic rough patches, the first of which will be with China, where his trade war is as much about getting a better deal as it is about winning political points with his followers. The first phase of the trade deal is to be signed very soon but details about that deal remain scant. It’s likely that the deal will do more for markets than the wider economy as there is little benefit for China to go for a quick deal when a protracted fight will better work to their advantage.

MSCI vs PriceEfforts to hold off an actual recession though may have moved beyond the realm of political expediency. Globally there has been a slowdown, especially among economies that export and manufacture. But perhaps the most worrying trend is in the sector that’s done the best, which is the stock market. Compared to all the other metrics we might wish to be mindful of, there is something visceral about a chart that shows the difference in price compared to forward earnings expectations. If your forward EPS (Earnings Per Share) is  expectated to moderate, or not grow very quickly, you would expect that the price of the stock should reflect that, and yet over the past few years the price of stocks has become detached from the likely earnings of the companies they reflect. Metrics can be misleading and its dangerous to read too much into a single analytical chart. However, fundamentally risk exists as the prices that people are willing to pay for a stock begin to significantly deviate from the profitability of the company.

Real Price vs Earnings
Figure 2 http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data/ie_data.xls

Market watchers have been hedging their bets, highlighting the low unemployment rate and solid consumer spending to hold up the markets and economy. But the inevitability of a recession clearly weighs on analysts’ minds, and with good reason. In addition to the growing gap between forward earnings expectations and the price people are willing to pay, we now see the largest spread between the S&P 500 Stock price Index and the S&P 500 Composite Earnings (basically more of the above) ever recorded for the S&P 500. While this tells us very little about an imminent recession, it tells us a great deal about the potential for market volatility, which is high in a market that looks expensive and overbought.

Climate Change

Picture1
Photo by: Matthew Abbott/The New York Times via Redux

Climate change has garnered much attention, and while I believe that more should be done to deal with the earth’s changing biosphere, I fear that the we are having a hard time finding the most meaningful ways of doing that. In the wake of our inaction we will witness the continued economic costs of a changing environment.

Australian TemperatureAustralia, which has had years of heat waves, has recently faced some of the worst forest and brush fires imaginable (and currently bracing for more). At its peak in early January, an area of land roughly the twice the size of Belgium was burning, and an estimated billion animals had died. Some towns have been wiped out and the costs of all this will likely come somewhere into the billions once everything has been totaled. What’s important, and the bit hard to get your mind around, is that this is not A FIRE, but is a season of fires and there were more than 100 of them. And it is happening every year. It’s now a reoccurring problem in California, as well as Western Canada, and in the rainforests of Brazil. As I’ve said before, the story of climate change is about water, and the cost of that will be high.

Australia Burning
Figure 3 Image copyright EU COPERNICUS SENTINEL DATA/REUTERS

More of the Same

There is a lot of focus on the growing disparity between the very wealthiest and poorest in our society. This renewed interest in the level of inequality is a conversation worth having but is frequently presented in a way that isn’t helpful. For instance it’s been pointed out that the concentration of wealth at the very top of society has only continued to intensify, and a recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Published January 2nd, 2020)  points out that a “top 100 CEO” saw their pay increase 61% over the last decade. However, to muddle matters, the “top 100 CEOs” remains a fairly non representative group and within Canada wealth concentration for the top 1% has been falling since  2007 (which also represented the highest concentration since 1920).

Trillions of Wealth

Canadian 1% Wealth

This isn’t really about wealth inequality, so much as how unhelpful it is to sling statistics back and forth at one another every day endlessly. A better way to understand what’s happening is to see where is winning rather than who is winning. In the United States, which has seen a long period of job growth, 40% of new jobs were created in just a handful of cities (20 to be precise).

City Jobs
Figure 4 Source: Reuters analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data

Those cities, like Seattle, Portland, LA, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, and, Miami, have all been rewarded in the 21st century, while many of the remaining 350 metropolitan areas had to share the other jobs, and many of those areas saw their share of jobs decline in the same period. An even smaller group of five cities have picked up the bulk of new innovation businesses, a key issue as traditional industries like retail and manufacturing falter, but Computer System Designers are thriving in the new economy. The issue of wealth inequality is not going to be easily dealt with by simply taxing billionaires. Inequality is a geographic story and one likely to persist into the future.

City Job Share

Conclusion

The stories of 2020 are likely going to hit many of the themes we’ve been touting over the last 8 years. Cities, affordability, resiliency, aging populations, environmental change and reckless speculation will remain central to news reporting. But the biggest story will likely be how well we responded to these issues…

Did I miss anything? Let me know! And as always if you have any questions, wish to review your investments or want to know how you can address these issues in your portfolios, please don’t hesitate to email me! adrian@walkerwealthmgmt.com

Information in this commentary is for informational purposes only and not meant to be personalized investment advice. The content has been prepared by Adrian Walker from sources believed to be accurate. The opinions expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ACPI.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc

When Only One Thing Matters

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In my head is the vague memory of some political talking head who predicted economic ruin under Obama. He had once worked for the US Government in the 80s and had predicted a recession using only three economic indicators. His call that a recession was imminent led to much derision and he was ultimately let go from his job, left presumably to wander the earth seeking out a second life as political commentator making outlandish claims. I forget his name and, so far, Google hasn’t been much help.

I bring this half-formed memory up because we live in a world that seems focused on ONE BIG THING. The ONE BIG THING is so big that it clouds out the wider picture, limiting conversation and making it hard to plan for the future. That ONE BIG THING is Trump’s trade war.

I get all kinds of financial reports sent to me, some better than others, and lately they’ve all started to share a common thread. In short, while they highlight the relative strength of the US markets, the softening of some global markets, and changes in monetary policy from various central banks they all conclude with the same caveat. That the trade war seems to matter more and things could get better or worse based on what actions Trump and Xi Jinping take in the immediate future.

Donald-Trump-Xi-Jinping-1127037

Now, I have a history of criticizing economists for making predictions that are rosier than they should be, that predictions tend towards being little more than guesses and that smart investors should be mindful of risks that they can’t afford. I think this situation is no different, and it is concerning how much one issue has become the “x-factor” in reading the markets, at the expense of literally everything else.

What this should mean for investors is two-fold. That analysts are increasingly making more useless predictions since “the x-factor” leaves analysts shrugging their shoulders, admitting that they can’t properly predict what’s coming because a tweet from the president could derail their models. The second is that as ONE BIG THING dominates the discussion investors increasingly feel threatened by it and myopic about it.

This may seem obvious, but being a smart investor is about distance and strategy. The more focused we become about a problem the more we can’t see anything but that problem. In the case of the trade war the conversation is increasingly one that dominates all conversation. And while the trade war represents a serious issue on the global stage, so too does Brexit, as does India’s occupation of Kashmir (more on that another day) , the imminent crackdown by the Chinese on Hong Kong (more on that another day), the declining number of liberal democracies and the fraying of the Liberal International order.

This may not feel like I’m painting a better picture here, but my point is that things are always going wrong. They are never not going wrong and that had we waited until there were only proverbial sunny days for our investing picnic, we’d never get out the door. What this means is not that you should ignore or be blasé about the various crises afflicting the world, but that they should be put into a better historical context: things are going wrong because things are always going wrong. If investing is a picnic, you shouldn’t ignore the rain, but bring an umbrella.

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The trade war represents an issue that people can easily grasp and is close to home. Trump’s own brand of semi-authoritarian populism controls news cycles and demands attention. Its hard to “look away”. It demands our attention, and demands we respond in a dynamic way. But its dominance makes people feel that we are on the cusp of another great crash. The potential for things to be wiped out, for savings to be obliterated, for Trump to be the worst possible version of what he is. And so I caution readers and investors that as much as we find Trump’s antics unsettling and worrying, we should not let his brash twitter feuds panic us nor guide us. He is but one of many issues swirling around and its incumbent on us to look at the big picture and act accordingly. That we live in a complex world, that things are frequently going wrong and the most successful strategy is one that resists letting ONE BIG THING decide our actions. Don’t be like my half-remembered man, myopic and predicting gloom.

Information in this commentary is for informational purposes only and not meant to be personalized investment advice. The content has been prepared by Adrian Walker from sources believed to be accurate. The opinions expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ACPI.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc

What’s Next? (And When Will It Happen)

economyis bad

Talk of recession is in the air and amongst my clients and readers of this blog the chief question is “when”?

Ever since Trump was elected, questions about when “it’s going to happen” have been floating about. Trump, an 800-pound gorilla with a twitter addiction, has left a predictable path of destruction and the promise of more chaos always seems on the horizon. It should not be surprising then that investors have been waiting with bated breath for an inevitable correction.

Those predicting imminent doom got a little taste of it last week when markets convulsed and delivered the worst day of the year so far, shedding a dramatic 800 points off the Dow Jones. Globally the news hasn’t exactly been stellar. Germany, Italy and France are all showing a weakening economic outlook, which is to say nothing of Great Britain. Despite three Prime Ministers and two deadline extensions, the nation has yet to escape its Brexit chaos and is no closer to figuring out what to do about Northern Ireland. China too is facing a myriad of problems. Trump’s tariffs may be making American’s pay more for things, but it does seem to be hurting the Chinese economy. Coupled with the persistent Hong Kong protests and its already softening market, last week the Chinese central bank opted to weaken the Yuan below the 7 to 1 threshold, a previously unthinkable option aimed at bolstering economic growth.

In all of this it is the American economy that looks to be in the best shape. Proponents of the “U.S. is strong” story point to the historic low unemployment and other economic indicators like consumer spending and year over year GDP growth. But this news comes accompanied with its own baggage, including huge subsidies for farmers hit by Chinese import bans and other trade related self-inflicted wounds. This issue is best summarized by Trump, who himself has declared that everything is great, but also now needs a huge rate cut.

Trump TweetThe temptation to assume that everything is about to go wrong is therefore not the most far-fetched possibility. Investors should be cautious because there are indeed warning signs that the economy is softening and after ten years of bull market returns, corrections and recessions are inevitable.

But if there is an idea I’ve tried to get across, it is that prognostication inevitably fails. The real question that investors should be asking is, “How much can I risk?” If markets do go south, it won’t be forever. But for retirees and those approaching retirement, now ten years older since the last major recession, the potential of a serious downturn could radically alter planned retirements. That question, more than “how much can I make?”, or “When will the next recession hit?”, should be central to your conversations with your financial advisor.

As of writing this, more chaotic news has led Trump to acknowledge that his tariff war may indeed cause a recession, but he’s undeterred. The world is unpredictable, economic cycles happen, and economists are historically bad at predicting recessions. These facts should be at the center of financial planning and they will better serve you as an investor than the constant desire to see ever more growth.

So whether Donald Trump has markets panicked, or a trade war, or really bad manufacturing numbers out of Germany, remember that you aren’t investing to do as well as the markets, or even better. You’re investing to secure a future, and ask your financial advisor (assuming it isn’t me) how much risk do you need, not how much you’ve got.

Information in this commentary is for informational purposes only and not meant to be personalized investment advice. The content has been prepared by Adrian Walker from sources believed to be accurate. The opinions expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ACPI.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc

Donald Trump & The Federal Reserve

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In conversations the number one concern I’m asked to address is the effect of Donald Trump on markets. This isn’t surprising. He looms over everything. He dominates news cycles. His tweets can move markets. He is omnipresent in our lives, and yet curiously much of what he has done has left no lasting impression. His tweets about trade and tariffs cause short term market blips, but after a time, things normalize. In all the ways that Donald Trump seems to be in our face, his impact is felt there the least.

Trump’s real, and more concerning impact is in the slow grind he directs at public institutions that are meant to be independent and non-partisan. He’s placed people in charge of departments whose chief qualification is their loyalty to Trump, some of them no nothings and buffoons, others with disastrous conflicts of interest, with only a passing understanding of the enormous responsibility they’ve taken on. But where Trump hasn’t been able to overcome the independence of an institution, he wages tireless and relentless war against their heads. I’m talking about Trump’s yearlong obsession with the Federal Reserve and his desire for a rate cut.

The Fed, you may recall, is America’s central bank. It sets the key interest rate and uses it to constrain or ease monetary supply, the goal of which is to rein in inflation or stimulate it depending on the economic health of the nation (and world, it turns out). The Fed meets regularly and sends signals to the market whether it thinks it needs to raise or lower rates, and markets respond in kind. If the markets and federal reserve are on the same page, markets may respond positively to what is said. If markets and the fed disagree, well…

Last year the Fed was expected to raise rates to stave off inflation and hopefully begin normalizing interest rates to pre-2008 levels. Rates have been very low for the better part of a decade and with inflation starting to show itself through wages and a tightening of the labor market, the Federal reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, was expected to make up to 4 rate hikes in 2018, which would add (about) 1% to borrowing costs. But then things started to get a bit “wibbly wobbly”.

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By the fourth quarter the overnight lending rate was between 2.25% and 2.5% following a rate hike in late December. That triggered a massive sell-off following a year of already disappointing market returns.  The Fed was seen to be to hawkish, and the market didn’t believe the economy was strong enough to support the higher lending rate. By January the Fed had relented, saying that it the case for higher rates was no longer as strong and that its outlook would be tempered. By March the consensus view was that there would be no rate hikes in 2019 at all.

By April things had turned around. US economic data, while mixed, was generally strong. Unemployment remained historically low, and wage inflation was positive. And then Trump said this:

Trump Tweets April 30

May was an interesting month in politics and markets. After four months of a resurgent bull market the breaks were put on in May following renewed concerns about the US and China and a trade war. By the end of May Trump was tweeting about using tariffs against Mexico to get results at the border. At this point markets had started to get nervous. The Dow Jones had shed about 2000 points, and the rumblings from Wall Street were getting pretty loud. Trump, who sees his popularity reflected in the value of the stock market, started to make noises that things were once again progressing with China and the tariff threat against Mexico was quickly put to bed. As is now typical in 2019, markets were assuaged by further tweets from the president, assuring that solutions had been found or that negotiations would begin again.

June saw a resumption of the bull run, with May’s dip largely being erased. But Trump still wanted his rate cut and increasingly so does the market. Where markets were satisfied by the promise of no new hikes earlier in the year, by June pressure was building to see an actual cut. This quarter markets have remained extremely sensitive to any news that might prompt looser monetary policy and have jumped every time its hinted that it might happen. On June 7th a weak jobs report got the market excited since it gave weight to the need for a rate cut. This past week the Fed has now signaled it may indeed cut rates as soon as this summer.

There are, of course, real concerns about the global economy. The IMF believes that if the various trade fights continue on unabated a full 0.5% of global growth could be wiped out (roughly ½ trillion dollars). That’s already on top of signs of slowing growth from Europe and Asia and at a time when markets are at all time highs when it comes to valuations. Trump is effectively saying that markets should be allowed to creep higher on the backs of cheap credit rather than on the back of real economic growth. It’s a bit like saying that you could be so much richer if you could easily borrow more money from the bank.

People with longer memories may recall that Trump, during the 2016 election campaign, had argued against the low rates of the Fed, and believed they should be much higher. Today its quite the opposite. But Trump’s chief issue is that his own pick for the Fed has continued to exert a significant amount of independence. Trump’s response, beyond merely bullying Jerome Powell over twitter has been to try and appoint more dovish members to the Fed, including a woman who used to advocate a return to the gold standard, but is now an avowed Trump supporter and of easier money.

                “Any increase at all will be a very, very small increase because they want to keep the market up so Obama goes out and let the new guy … raise interest rates … and watch what happens in the stock market.”

  • Donald Trump

As with all things Trump, there is always some normal rational behind the terrible ideas being pursued. Trump’s tariffs, arguably a poorly executed attempt to punish China, is hurting US farmers and is a tax on the US citizenry. Its also done nothing to change the trade deficit, which is the highest its ever been. But nobody is under the illusion that China is a fair operator in global trade that respects IP or doesn’t manipulate currency.

There is also a very secular case to be made for a rate cut. Global markets are weakening and that traditionally does call for an easing of monetary policy, and globally many central banks have reversed course on hiking rates, returning to lower rates. For the United States there is a legitimate case that a rate cut serves as a defense if the trade fight with China draws on, and can be reversed if it is brought to a speedy conclusion.

Trump tweet 2

Those points run defense for Trump’s politicization of a critical institution within the economy, and we shouldn’t forget that. Underlying whatever argument is made for cutting rates is Trump’s own goals of seeing the stock market higher for political gain, regardless of the long term impact to the health of the economy. We should be doubly worried about a politics that has abandoned its critical eye when it comes to cheap money and Wall Street greed. Individually Wall Street insiders may think that too much cheap money is a bad thing, but in aggregate they act like a drunk that’s been left in charge of the wine cellar.

Lastly, we should remember that after Trump is gone, his damage may be more permanent than we would like. Structural damage to institutions does not recover on its own, but takes a concerted effort to undo. Does the current political landscape look like one that will find the bipartisan fortitude post-Trump to rectify this damage? I’d argue not.

All this leaves investors with some important questions. How should they approach bull markets when you know that it may be increasingly be built on sand? What is the likely long term impact of a less independent Federal reserve, and what impact does it have on global markets as well? Finally, how much money should you be risking to meet your retirement goals? They are important questions the answers should be reflected in your portfolio.

The next Federal Reserve meeting is on July 30th, where the expectation is that a 25bps rate cut will be announced.

As always, call or send a note if you’d like to discuss your investments or have questions about this article.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc

The Exciting New Field of Recession Prognostication

PsychicI wish to inform you about an exciting new profession, currently accepting applicants. Accurate recession prognostication and divination is an up and coming new business that is surging in these turbulent economic times! And now is your chance to get in on the ground floor of this amazing opportunity!

I am of course being facetious, but my satire is not without precedent. As 2018 has devolved into global market chaos, finally losing the US markets in October, experts have been marshalled to tell investors why they are wrong about markets and why they should be more bullish.

Specifically analysts and various other media friendly talking heads have been trying to convey to the general public that the negative market sentiment that has driven returns down is misplaced, and have pointed to various computer screens and certain charts as proof that the economy is quite healthy and that in this moment we are not facing an imminent recession. Market returns through the final quarter of 2018 indicate this message has yet to find fertile ground among the wider public.

Dow Jones Dec 31
The Dow Jones has had a wild ride this year, with significant declines in February, October and finally in December when the markets ended the year lower than they began.

While these experts, analysts and financial reporter types may not be wrong, indeed the data they point to has some real merit, I don’t think that investors are wrong to heavily discount their advice. For the wider investing audience, being right 100% of the time is not a useful benchmark to strive towards with investments ear-marked for retirement. Instead a smarter approach is to be mindful about risks that can be ill-afforded. Investment specific risk, like that of an individual stock may be up to an investor (how much do I wish to potentially lose?). On the other hand, a global recession that is indiscriminate in the assets that suffer may be more risk than an investor can stomach.

TSX Dec 31
The S&P TSX has had another dismal year, and is currently lower than it was in 2007, marking a lost decade. Making money in the Canadian markets has been a trading game, not a buy and hold strategy.

The experts have therefore made two critical errors. The first is assuming that what is undermining investor confidence is an insufficient understanding of economic data. The second is that there is a history, any history, of market analysts, economists and journalists making accurate predictions of recessions before they happen.

This last point is of particular importance. While I began this article with some weak humor on prognostication and divination, it’s worth noting that predicting recessions has a failure rate slightly higher than your local psychic and lottery numbers. That so many people can be brought forth on such short notice to offer confident predictions about the state of world with no shame is possibly the worst element of modern investment culture that has not been reformed by the events of 2008.

2008 Predictions vs reality
These are the economist predictions for economic growth at both the start of Q3 and Q4 in 2008. Even as the collapse got worse, economists were not gifted with any extra insight. 

This doesn’t mean that investors should automatically flee the market, listen to their first doubt or react to their gut instincts. Instead this is a reminder that for the media to be useful it must think about what investors need (guidance and smart advice) and not more promotion of headline grabbing prognostication. The markets ARE down, and this reflects many realities, including economic concerns, geopolitical concerns and a host of other factors outside of an individual’s control. It is not a question of whether markets are right or wrong in this assessment, but whether good paths remain open to those depending on market returns.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc

A BRIC You Can’t Build With, A Ship That Won’t Sink

The month of August has so far been a repeated drumming for global markets. Falling oil prices, the devalued yuan and a collapsing Chinese stock market have people running scared, and if we’re totally honest it’s probably too soon to know what it really happening as easily panicked sellers jump the gun.

bricInstead I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the fall of the BRICs, the supposed new economies of the developing world. Back  in 2003, two Goldman Sachs analysts wrote a paper called “Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050” which made a convincing case that Brazil, Russia, India and China would grow substantially over the next half century. For a while that seemed true, and the few BRIC mutual funds available returned solid results to investors who bought the BRIC story.

Today much of that story sits in tatters. Russia is more regional gangster than growing economic power, a victim of its own pointless efforts to reestablish hegemonic influence and maybe even undo NATO. Brazil is a longer story, but financial mismanagement has largely undermined Brazil’s early 21st century economic kick start, leaving interest rates too high and an economy on a path to recession. India is perhaps the only country that sits separate from this mess, but as a democracy (one mired in corruption no less) it’s own worst enemy is often protectionist populism that threatens to undo it’s own promise.

Yes, I have managed to shoehorn this image into my article. Have you watched this movie recently? Me neither. I haven't missed it either.
Yes, I have managed to shoehorn this image into my article. Have you watched this movie recently? Me neither. I haven’t missed it either.

But with the Chinese economy heading for what looks to be a potentially prolonged slow down (or worse) it seems safe to say that we’ve lost the path to 2050 and aren’t in danger of finding it anytime soon. This is a useful reminder that predictions about the futures of markets, no matter how grounded in math they may be, are in fact almost always misguided. That may seem obvious with much of the recent history a testament to predictions gone wrong, but it is surprisingly easy to be sold on investment ideas that seem to be an inevitable certainty.

There are a multitude of reasons for this, not the least of which is the human defect to see patterns in randomness. Attempts to control and manage huge events; to understand, tame and control random elements of nature is the underpinning of almost every story of hubristic arrogance that leads to tragedy, both literary and literal. Whether we are watching a history of the Titanic, or Alan Greenspan testifying to the benefits of derivative markets, there is always an iceberg somewhere threatening to make a mockery of our certainty.

This is what travelling the ocean was frequently like in history. Had we waited until we had an unsinkable boat we would never have sailed anywhere.
This is what travelling the ocean was frequently like in history. Had we waited until we had an unsinkable boat we would never have sailed anywhere.

I’m of the opinion that there may be somethings simply to complex to be fully understood. That shouldn’t mean we shy away from complicated markets, rather we should be mindful about the risks of participating. After all, the Titanic sunk largely as a result of the assumption it could not. But people had been sailing across the ocean for centuries with considerably greater danger. That’s a useful reminder about investing. Good investment strategies don’t seek out perfect investments, ones that cannot be undone by bad markets, instead they assume that markets are filled with risks and aim to navigate the dangers.

by The Walker Report of Walker Wealth Management and Aligned Capital Partners Inc