Blog Archives

Stable Genius?

Stable Genius Donald Trump

I read a very interesting theory about Donald Trump‘s master strategy when it comes to the trade war with China. Trump believes that he can win a trade war, but he can’t do it alone. He sees that the Chinese are reacting with an aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus to counter the negative impact of the trade war on their economy and believes the United States needs to do the same.

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Point Counterpoint - My Reaction to an Investors Memo

counterpointI received a memo from a very successful real estate developer and investor whose expertise is industrial properties. He produced a thoughtful memo as to why now is the time to take a pause from investing for fear that investor euphoria is elevated and there are unsustainable macro trends that pose a great risk to investors.

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I Didn't Build That!

Build

I have to confess that I’m feeling a bit guilty about something. A few weeks ago someone sent me a message on LinkedIn within 15 minutes (if not less) of me accepting his connection request. My usual experience with that one-two punch is not very favorable as it often relates to someone wanting to sell me something,

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Obsessed by Curves: Yield Curves that Is

yield curves

This is going to be a short blog post, given my travel schedule last week. I have been talking for a while now about the narrowing yield curve and the prospects for it inverting. The 10-year Treasury finally went lower than the 3-month Treasury bill,

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Cheap Trillion Dollar Insurance

stimulus Cheap Trillion Dollar Insurance

I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far with regard to how well our rent collections have held up since the onset of COVID and the corresponding economic carnage. On average, we’ve been collecting across our portfolio about 98% of what we have billed.

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Deep Freeze Skepticism

vaccine Deep Freeze Skepticism

Last Monday’s announcement by Pfizer that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing the illness sent an earthquake through financial markets, eliciting the worst day in history for momentum stocks. Momentum stocks have been the best performers and investors invest in them believing that strength creates more strength which will lead to outperformance.

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The China Syndrome - Contrarian Real Estate Opportunity? Perilous Times

Evergrande China Syndrome

China has been capturing a lot of headlines with the implosion of the country’s largest homebuilder, Evergrande. It has an estimated $300 billion in liabilities and approximately 1.4 million homes under construction or with deposits obligating them to build homes in the future.

Evergrande Group Insolvency

This is a big deal as a disorderly collapse of the Evergrande Group can have huge ramifications on the economy and social stability.

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(de)Energized Europe

natural Gas Europe

A couple of months ago I wrote about the unfolding energy challenges related to the sharp recovery out of Covid and the transition to renewable energy sources. The article talked about coal and how the demand for it has increased significantly while supply has dropped due to Covid and the utter disdain for it as an energy source due to its carbon emissions.

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Men, Women, and the Value of Doing Nothing

woman vs. men

Let us put men and women together

See which one is smarter

Some say men, but I say no

The women got the men like a puppet show

It ain’t me –

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Stocks Drop and Jobs Contract

Stocks Drop and Jobs Contract

One can see from the following charts from Sentimentrader.com that the last 100 trading days have been one of the worst periods in terms of stock returns in modern history. 

Stock History 12-31-1946 12-31-2001

And while the jury is still out as to whether we will have a recession over the next year,

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