Best Blogs of the Week

Best Blogs of the Week #261

Posted by Anu Heda on Feb 20, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Quality posts from the last two weeks, led by a captivating post on trade wars.

Aberdeen – Week in review: The return of inflation – Inflation is back. Figures released this week on both sides of the Atlantic painted a picture of rising prices – and the possibility of an end to the days of ultra-low price increases. The UK’s consumer prices index was 1.8% in January – its highest level since June 2014.

BlackRock – Will tax reform hurt tax-exempt bonds? – By our estimates, the market might need to offer some 15 basis points (front end) to 50 basis points (long end) in higher yield to compensate for the reduced tax benefit.

William Blair – Trade Wars: Is Trump Bluffing? – The key is he put a lot of things forward. It creates uncertainty for trade and we don’t know how far he’ll push the actual negotiations, especially with respect to China. This uncertainty will need to be considered when building a portfolio.

Trade Star Wars

Best Blogs of the Week #260

Posted by Anu Heda on Feb 06, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Quality posts this week, led by a captivating post comparing this administration to the start of Reagan’s.

Franklin Templeton – The Sectors Most Likely to Cheer US Tax Reform – It’s always tough to gauge the impact of policy shifts in isolation. However, we think broad tax reform combined with other fiscal stimulus measures, such as infrastructure spending and repatriation of foreign profits, could be very effective (at least in the short term) in providing a boost or acceleration in gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the next several years.

Mainstay – Reagan vs Trump: Parallels, Implications, and Results – In 1981, U.S. inflation was just starting to decline from peak levels near 15%, as the Fed lifted rates above 20% to choke off inflation. An elevated unemployment rate in 1981, at 7.8%, with baby boomers still entering the workforce, meant there was considerable scope for workers to return to or enter the job market, once inflation was arrested and broader economic conditions improved. It also meant there was pent-up demand for credit. By contrast, inflation is now inching up from below 2%

Principal – Questions around financial regulation changes – For all of the fighting around Dodd-Frank, it’s one of the primary reasons the U.S. banking sector was able to right itself so quickly after the 2008 financial crisis.

Reagan: Is it morning again?

via Mainstay

 

Best Blogs of the Week #259

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 30, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

It’s been a memorable first week into the new US administration and the industry’s bloggers kept up, to a degree. This week we highlight a clear take on the administration’s rhetoric as well as multi-factor investing (smart beta).

Mainstay – Is the Tide Turning on the Dollar? – In President Trump’s inaugural address, he stated that “protection will lead to great prosperity.” The U.S. dollar, subsequently, fell.

SSgA – 3 Charts on Recent Smart Beta Trends – We continue to believe that value stocks will be the best performing factor over the subsequent year driven by their attractive valuation relative to history.

Memorable Performance Data - 2016

 

Best Blogs of the Week #258

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 23, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

Last week ended with the 45th inauguration of an American President. The week was full of blog posts related to the new administration. Last week’s SSgA post kicked off the style and many other managers followed suit. Post types ranged from what to look out for to prognostications. Below are two of the higher impact posts.

AB – Trump and Asia: Now the Good News – The biggest impact in the short term is likely to be through reflation. Markets have quickly adjusted since the US election in anticipation of higher inflation, partly from Trump’s promise of fiscal measures, such as investment in infrastructure, to stimulate the domestic economy.

Putnam – Does the market rally really depend on Trump? – We see two forces at work in the rally: First, it reflects an improvement in nominal GDP since the middle of 2016, independent of the policy situation; and, second, it indicates optimism for the new Trump administration’s proposals for tax cuts, infrastructure spending, and regulatory easing.

Inauguration

Best Blogs of the Week #257

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 17, 2017, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with

Though many blog posts this week opined on the President-Elect’s first 100 days, this post from SSgA is more original and straightforward than other firm’s posts on the topic.

SSgA – The First 100 Days: Will Trump’s Campaign Promises Translate into Policy? – Trump’s early days will allow investors to gain insight into how the Republican Party will govern and to glean details of policy platforms on which Trump campaigned but never provided specifics.

 

100

(via SSgA)