Tag: Tariffs

Separating Fact and Fiction in Investing

Is America’s economy failing? Has Trump undone the American economic empire? Do ports sit empty? Are people being laid off? Have world leaders conspired to control America’s debt?

These are just some of the headlines and subjects floating around the internet. Depending on who you are and where your political allegiances lay, the answers will be self-evident. Trump is either a an economic genius and unparalleled negotiator, or he is a clumsy and indifferent conman masquerading as successful businessman and politician.

For investors this presents a real challenge. These questions aren’t just thought experiments. Depending on the answers they may significantly impact where one chooses to invest, and the more polemical the question the farther we may get from a useful answer, regardless of politics. If our goal is to ask questions to reveal truth, we may find ourselves confused as to why markets have surged back from their lows (as of May 12th the major US indices have almost recovered from their tumble at the beginning of April) even while business reporting warns of a potential for a worsening economy.

One way to make better sense of what’s happening is to put ourselves in the shoes of Donald Trump’s administrative allies. Imagine what someone who believes in what Donald Trump is doing would say about his economic plans. Its not as though they haven’t heard economists and businesses express doubt and worry about the actions of his administration. So how would they defend them?

In my imagining I believe they would argue something like the following:

                The United States is enormously rich but wastes money on cheap goods from China, and while some of these goods don’t need to be made here, America has lost enough manufacturing jobs that its worthwhile experimenting with tariffs to bring jobs back. Over the past 45 years we’ve seen countless evidence that playing by the rules of globalization reduces the ability of governments to help their most vulnerable citizens, and money has become too fluid and too willing to cross borders at the expense of their domestic homes. Regardless of what people fear, America remains the richest country in the world, with the largest consumer base, and that combined with the existing strength of the US economy will be enough to bring industry back to the US in some capacity while tariffs on junk from other countries will help pay for renewed and permanent tax cuts. Market volatility will be temporary while the economy realigns itself, but the combination of lower taxes and existing economic strength will ultimately help lift the markets even higher.

You don’t have to believe in such a claim, or even pretend this was what Donald Trump campaigned on. What I’m putting forth is a set of ideas (picked up through numerous interviews and speeches) that I believe his administration finds largely defensible and recognizable, and would be a better frame of reference for understanding their actions. Let’s start with the recent indication that GDP is contracting. In traditional economic terms, two quarters of back-to-back GDP contractions constitute a recession. We’ve had more than a few of those over the past decade, but few people would say that we’ve had recessions. The reason for this might be best expressed by Jason Furman; an American economist, professor at Harvard, and former deputy director of the US National Economic Council, in a recent editorial in the Financial Times. Outlining the importance of “Core GDP” vs “GDP”, he points out that Core GDP (actually known as Real Final Sales to Private Domestic Purchasers) better reflects consumer spending and private investment while the traditional GDP includes net exports, inventories, and government spending, all things in flux because of Trump’s new administration. So, while the GDP contracted in Q1 of this year, the Core GDP was up in the first three months.

What about rumours of empty ports and empty shelves? Reportedly Trump was shaken following meetings with the heads of three major retailers about shelves being empty if the tariff’s remain at 145% on China. Trump seems to have vacillated a number of times about the size and implementation of the tariffs, but as of today they remain intact. Asked about higher prices and fewer options Trump seemed dismissive of concerns over the Chinese trade war declaring “maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls, and maybe those dolls will cost a couple of bucks more.”

Is Trump being dismissive? Yes, but he’s also not worried that shelves will be empty. Though shipping and imports are down as we head into May for cargo coming from China, far from alarmist rumours that docks are sitting empty there is still plenty of ocean-going traffic coming from China.

 Does this mean that there won’t be furloughed dock workers or empty shelves? According to the Port of Los Angeles there has been a 35% drop week over week of expected cargo, and a 14% decline from the previous year. That very well may lead to reduced working hours and fewer options in stores, but the discrepancy between what’s being shared online and what is likely to actually happen is probably enough to gird the loins for Trump’s team to continue their policies.

What about layoffs? Fears about unemployment remain high, but as the most recent jobs report shows hiring remains robust and the unemployment rate, already very low, remains unchanged.

This discrepancy between a popular public impression and the on-the-ground economic reality gives room to Trump’s administration to continue ahead with ideas that remain controversial, as well as opening up investors to making mistakes in their allocations. For the time being, Trump does have a reservoir of economic and political strength to call on. He may be using that reserve up, but may also have guessed with some accuracy that the global economy will keep doing business with America regardless of whatever feathers he ruffles.

But markets may also not be calculating the longer-term direction correctly, mispricing assets and remaining too optimistic. Since Trump’s re-election markets have been shown to be placated by the promise of deferred tariffs, as though deferring them is really the prelude of getting rid of them. Trump doesn’t help this by going back and forth on their implementation, but listening to his words, and following his actions, I feel that it would be a mistake to assume that the tariffs will ultimately be rescinded.

This past week changes to the auto-tariffs were announced, reducing some of the duplication of tariffs on steel and aluminum, but also laid out reimbursements and tariff relief for parts manufacturers need to import. These changes also make clear the groundwork for a longer and more durable tariff regime. Trump himself has been quick to correct any reporting that suggests that he’s backtracking or creating exemptions for specific products, and that some products may end up with different tariff treatment, but will still be subject to tariffs.

This seems best exemplified by the announcement of the US-UK trade deal. Called “a starting point” by the British ambassador, the Trump administration has said the deal is “maxed out”, leaving in place a 10% tariff on British imports, with a reduced tariff on British cars, steel, and aluminum (the deal effectively lowers car and steel duties to the flat 10% rates, down from 27.5%).

Whether deals such as these are anything for the market to get excited about is a question that will be answered with time, like all the unanswered questions that have been introduced this year. What investors must work on is remaining clear eyed about what is happening, and resist submitting to their own partisan preferences. Trump may yet undermine the US economy, and trade deals may turn out to simply be acknowledgements of existing tariff rates, or perhaps the opposite may happen. But recognizing that reality is more mixed and that we do not yet have a clear picture about the future will promote more time tested strategies for sensible investing.

Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (“ACPI”) is a full-service investment dealer and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (“CIPF”) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”).  Investment services are provided through Walker Wealth Management, an approved trade name of ACPI.  Only investment-related products and services are offered through ACPI/Walker Wealth Management and covered by the CIPF. Financial planning services are provided through Walker Wealth Management. Walker Wealth Management is an independent company separate and distinct from ACPI/Walker Wealth Management.

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

When It Comes to Trump, Investors Must Be Patient

This piece was meant to come out last week before the most recent tariff announcement. It was delayed, but the points it makes remain relevant.

Donald Trump’s actions since taking office have failed to deliver the kind of economic and market stimulation people had been imagining. For many professionals, business owners, and financial analysts, the assumption was that Trump would be good for markets and good for the economy. His other political views, like isolationism, tariffs, and sense of personal grievance weren’t great features, but he would fundamentally be bound by market and economic performance.

That faith eroded quickly as it seemed that Trump was intent on widespread and indiscriminate tariffs, targeting first America’s closest trading partners, and then reciprocal tariffs on the European Union, Great Britain, Australia, and Taiwan. Concerns that this might damage the American economy may have bought time on when those tariffs were to be implemented (as of writing Canadian and Mexican tariffs have been deferred twice, though Steel and Aluminium tariffs have gone ahead) but April 2nd remains “liberation day” according to Trump, a day when America stops getting “ripped off”.

Trump’s administration have pivoted away from the idea that Trump will be good for the immediate economy, and that a “period of transition” is on the way. During his speech to Congress (officially not a State of the Nation) Trump also said that farmers will sell more of their food to Americans, ostensibly a populist message but one more likely grounded in further declines of American agricultural export.

Alongside Trump is Elon Musk, a man who seems possibly genuinely befuddled by the animosity his actions have garnered. Between possible nazi salutes, his outsized time on Twitter, his heading up of D.O.G.E (which he both officially and unofficially runs, for legal reasons), his direct intervention with Germany’s far right party the AFD, and the poor sales of his Tesla cars, TESLA stock has dropped considerably from its highs. Many have thought that this heralds the end of his company, and certainly would deal a blow to his personal fortune, about a third of which is in the form of TESLA stock.

The markets peaked around February 19th, with the S&P 500 up 4.46% since January 1st. The Dow Jones had peaked a little earlier at 5.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.86%, all respectable numbers for the first 45 days of a year, especially following a very strong 2024. Over the subsequent weeks markets began losing steam and saw a significant drop. From mid February to March 12th, a period of three weeks, the Nasdaq lost 13.05%, the S&P 500 9.31%, and the Dow 7.16%. Investors were worried, a recession seemed looming, and consumer confidence had plummeted.

Figure 1Market data provided by Y Charts. Data is until March 31, 2025

Yet only two weeks later markets seemed to have stabilised. Commentators were more confident and expected Trump’s tariffs to be more “focused”. Following some fairly significant government intervention, even Tesla’s shares regained some of their lost ground, and the bond market had retreated as investor enthusiasm seemingly returned. And then, at the end of last week the enthusiasm sputtered once again.

What’s going on?

Whether you support Trump or not, his policies if fully enacted promise to reduce the size of the US economy. His expressed understanding of tariffs, how they work, what they can do, and how easily they can rewrite the global order of trade are objectively poor. Global supply chains are complicated things, and some of the most complicated aspects of them are tied up in semi-conductor manufacturing, making tariffs an expensive tax on top of essential components of the economy. His handling of international relationships has also been poor, and the seeming unravelling of the NATO alliance under his administration threatens not just global security, but also America’s defence industries, particularly the F-35 joint strike fighter, a multi-purpose fifth gen fighter whose economics only worked if it became the standard across NATO. His stated aims of building a coalition to contain China’s global ambitions run counter to his animosity towards global trade. Australia has been slapped with steel tariffs despite having a trade deficit with the United States, all while Australia now does three times as much trade with China as it does with America. Japan and South Korea are rapidly reorienting themselves towards China and seeking better relations with them for protection. The sudden rise of a hostile border force, detaining Canadian and European’s alike, seems to be shrinking the US’s tourism by up to 15%.

But these things have not yet fully come to pass. Trump’s way of engaging with government is dictatorial with a reality show slant. Rarely does he spell out what a policy will be and frequently defaults to the phrase “we’ll see what happens.” This level of uncertainty gives Trump room to maneuver, and allows the market to engage in its most common behavior; optimism. Trump may seem to be heading towards a recession, but there remains a chance he may change his mind. The market sell-off through February and March was not an indictment of Trump’s government. It was a reset on the risk for investors and an opportunity to reevaluate what might happen next. That leaves considerable latitude for Trump’s administration to back away from damaging policies, or double down on them.

Heading into 2025 it looked like the US economy was the strongest globally, and while the early days of the new administration seemed to have changed some of that math, what it means is that there is still lots of different ways that the year could still unfold. The United States may back away from its trade war, claiming victory with whatever concessions can be finagled. Elon Musk might be kicked out of the Trump inner circle, something that would certainly change the calculus about how the government would be run. Voters, which look considerably less impressed with Trump’s early policies, might be so angry that Republican members of the house find the nerve to push back on the administration. There are lots of potential futures.

For investors the challenge is to find a path that will allow them to navigate between the pessimism of Trump’s detractors and the optimism of his own administration. After so many positive years in the markets there is real wisdom in taking some of those profits off the table, and good investment policy hasn’t changed. Given the very strong performance out of the United States for the past five years, its likely that those investments have grown, especially relative to other equity positions. This is a good time to ensure that portfolios are well diversified and that assets are not too concentrated. Lastly, safety is something that should be given real thought to. Rob Carrick of the Globe and Mail wrote a piece arguing that if you need your money in the next five years, you should pull it out now. That advice should be tempered with a conversation with your actual financial advisor, but what all investors should be looking for is a blend of the following:

  1. Enough equities to participate in good markets across the globe.
  2. Enough safety that they won’t panic if markets do worse.
  3. Enough cash to be able to take advantage of bad markets when they come up.

These three principles will look different for everyone, but should be balanced by the amount of risk you can absorb, and the ability to continue to meet your financial goals.

As we get closer to Trump’s “liberation day”, how much of Donald Trump’s policy agenda is well understood by investors is up for debate. According to Bloomberg, as well as some other news sources, retail investors followed a “buy the dip” mentality over March, while big institutional investors backed away. The market is not settled on what is going to happen, and while its tempting to say that little investors might take the biggest losses, there have been many instances of mistakes by large institutional investors. At the same time, there are many reasons to be cautious now. Though markets are off their all-time highs, they remain still at historic levels, and while the news has been quick to discuss “market panics” and “market crashes”, in truth we’ve only gone back to where we were in September. Investors should be on guard that markets can still go in either direction.

This leads to my final point. Investors will need to show patience in the face of the uncertainty. Followed to their natural ends, as I’ve outlined, many of his most aggressive policies don’t bode well for the future. But many of these policies may simply not come to pass. Markets may surprise people expecting the worst, and our own personal feelings about Trump and his administration’s actions may cloud our judgement about reality. What investors need to be is patient, and prepared.

Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (“ACPI”) is a full-service investment dealer and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (“CIPF”) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”).  Investment services are provided through Walker Wealth Management, an approved trade name of ACPI.  Only investment-related products and services are offered through ACPI/Walker Wealth Management and covered by the CIPF. Financial planning services are provided through Walker Wealth Management. Walker Wealth Management is an independent company separate and distinct from ACPI/Walker Wealth Management.

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

Seriously and Literally

In 2016, Donald Trump supporters said that you should take him seriously, but not literally. His first press secretary, Anthony Scaramucci said “don’t take him literally, take him symbolically.” This defense of Trump was meant to highlight that while he may have said incredibly controversial things, much of that was just talk, and it was his message behind the words that you should really pay attention to.

But Trump himself has contradicted this view more than once, frequently saying “I don’t kid” when challenged on policy (the exact comment came about in 2020 over coronavirus testing). In other words, Trump has let people know that you shouldn’t be surprised when he does do things that seemed initially outrageous. For the wider world this has meant that you should take Trump at his word, and that even if some of his rhetoric is just that, rhetoric, you would be foolish to ignore the substance of his messages.

Since his re-election Trump’s focus has been squarely on tariffs, promising them on China (a further 10%), on BRIC nations (100%) and Canada and Mexico (25% each). He’s suggested that some of the tariffs can be avoided for Canada and Mexico over better border controls on drugs and illegal immigrants, but whether this is true is unknown. Political commentators like David Frum have pointed out that Trump’s views on trade have been consistent since his first considered run for the presidency in 1987, that he is hostile to trade and sees it as a zero-sum game.

A close-up of a piece of paper Description automatically generatedIn 2025 world leaders and policy shapers believe Trump should be taken both seriously and literally. While the current political situation in Canada has been turbulent, the view of the government and provinces is almost unanimous (Quebec and Alberta remain the perennial opponents to joining the band wagon). Doug Ford took the initiative to announce that Ontario could stop energy exports to the US in the event of a trade fight, a position seconded by BC’s premier David Eby.

But in the United States the threat of aggressive and expanding tariffs have also been taken literally, notably by Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve. On December 18th, in a move that shook markets, Jerome Powell did announce a final rate cut for 2024, but stressed that future cuts were heavily dependent on inflation, which will likely rise if Trump enacts his regime of trading tariffs. Markets were quick to react, and though 2024 will be remembered as a pretty good year for investors, the speed and size of the market sell-off was newsworthy, being the largest since August.

The next morning and markets began on a relatively positive note, continuing a trend of brief panics followed by long yawns as markets simply resume their upward momentum. Little seems to have dissuaded the bull market since 2022 and with the US economy still showing itself to be very strong there’s every chance that the brief panic on December 18th was just that, a moment of panic at the end of 2024. But Trump, like the rest of us, doesn’t live in longer and slower news cycles. Instead market panics live on in social media, and run the risk of coalescing into counter narratives that Trump might hurt the economy more than help it (its notable that the economy has been very strong under Biden, but that didn’t change the perception that Trump had been the better economic steward).

In 2018 Jerome Powell began raising rates to blunt the sharper edges of a hot economy and return interest rates to somewhere near a historic norm. Since 2008 rates had remained at emergency low levels, and there was a genuine concern that markets were becoming addicted to cheap cash. In October of that year Jerome Powell made clear that rate hikes would continue until the Fed felt they’d reached a neutral rate, news not well received by the stock market. From October to the end of the year the S&P 500 lost 18% by December 24th, before rebounding slightly by the New Year. Markets had posted decent returns to the end of September, but wiped out those gains and finished the year -6.24% . During the last months of the year Trump made repeated efforts to pressure Powell to halt or cut rates, often publicly over Twitter.

My opinion is that Trump likes the ambiguity surrounding his pronouncements. Whether he actually intends to implement all the tariffs he’s discussed, whether they are bargaining positions, or whether he can be talked out of them is a grey area that offers him a position of strength. Politicians may be particularly vulnerable to his vagaries since they often wish to protect the status quo while Trump feels free to be a disruptor. But that grey area only works as a negotiating tactic so long as people believe that deals can be reached. If nations come to believe that Trump is serious and literal about tariffs and don’t believe they can be avoided, you are only left with a trade war. Similarly if you are in charge of the Federal Reserve and believe that Trump will do what he says, then you have every reason to pursue positions that curb inflation.

Following Trump’s election Jerome Powell was asked whether he would resign as the Federal Reserve chair, and was clear in his response; he will not, he is not required to leave, and cannot be compelled to. Trump already has a difficult and publicly hostile history with Powell, and its easy to imagine that if Powell is taking Trump seriously, he will move into direct conflict with Trump because of his policies, not in spite of them. Similarly conflict may be around the corner on diplomatic issues for the exact same reason. If Mexico feels it can’t avoid a trade fight with the US, you can assume that Mexico might be less interested in working to curb migrants at the US border. In Canada the same might be true, negotiating with someone who has no intent to make a deal (or honor the one already made) is not likely to build support for concessions.

Today Trump will take office following his inauguration, and he’s expected to sign a number of executive orders kicking off his next term. He has posed as a disruptor, and has nominated a number of other unusual thinkers and people opposed to the status quo to make up his cabinet. Whether they all take those roles and can do what they say they plan too is yet to be seen, but on December 18th we may have gotten some insight into what that future might look like, a future where Donald Trump is taken at his word, both seriously and literally.  

Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (“ACPI”) is a full-service investment dealer and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (“CIPF”) and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”).  Investment services are provided through Walker Welath Management, an approved trade name of ACPI.  Only investment-related products and services are offered through ACPI/Walker Wealth Management and covered by the CIPF. Financial planning services are provided through Walker Wealth Management. Walker Wealth Management is an independent company seperate and distinct from ACPI/Walker Wealth Management.

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

When Only One Thing Matters

iStock-968895338.jpg

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.

181025-Tani-Republican-Party-Press-tease_zr23lf

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

Donald Trump & The Federal Reserve

trump-powell1-kMGE--621x414@LiveMint

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”.

generate-L-duuE7C

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