Month: February 2022

Inflation Is Going Higher Regardless of The Fed’s Actions. Stocks Will Go Lower.

Inflation Is Going Higher Regardless of The Fed’s Actions. Stocks Will Go Lower.

Inflation is going higher regardless of the Fed's actions at its March meeting. The noise around whether the Fed will raise by 25 or 50 basis points is almost inconsequential as it relates to inflation as the inflation we are experiencing is a function of the dramatic increase in M1 during 2020 and 2021. The … Continue reading Inflation Is Going Higher Regardless of The Fed’s Actions. Stocks Will Go Lower.

The Big 3 Cloud Giants Are Poised To Drive M&A

The Big 3 Cloud Giants Are Poised To Drive M&A

AWS, Azure and Google Cloud are poised to drive vertical M&A for years to come. By vertical M&A we refer to M&A transactions that would enable to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud to build a footprint at the application layer across various industry verticals. The obvious acquisition targets would be customers and partners of AWS, … Continue reading The Big 3 Cloud Giants Are Poised To Drive M&A

Forget The Metaverse. Blockchain Is Where To Focus

Forget The Metaverse. Blockchain Is Where To Focus

The Metaverse is a bunch of noise as far as we are concerned. FB needs the Metaverse to work for Act II. For the rest of us - consumers and investors alike - blockchain or distributed ledger technologies ("DLT"), is where it's at. DLT will underpin payment systems, financial security trading systems, real estate transactions … Continue reading Forget The Metaverse. Blockchain Is Where To Focus

Inflation Will Cause The Next Recession

Inflation Will Cause The Next Recession

Our opinion is that the U.S. economy is already experiencing negative Real GDP (Inflation and the GDP Deflator are understated by the Federal Government in our view). We believe that the Federal Government's published GDP figures will eventually show flat-to-negative Real GDP in 2022 as consumers lose confidence and pull back on spending. Double-digit percentage … Continue reading Inflation Will Cause The Next Recession

The Stock Buyback Scam

The Stock Buyback Scam

Prior to the 2008-2009 Financial crisis, stock buybacks were typically used by management teams to offset options dilution and to acquire undervalued company shares. Today, companies primarily use stock buybacks to goose the value of CEO options packages as well as to goose the value of shares held by CEOs and large institutional holders. The … Continue reading The Stock Buyback Scam

Rate Hikes Are Not Perfectly Priced In

Rate Hikes Are Not Perfectly Priced In

The Financial press has pushed a variety of narratives around interest rate hikes. One narrative is that four 25 basis point increases are priced into the market. Maybe, maybe not.A second narrative that was pushed yesterday was that a 50 basis point increase for the Fed's March meeting was priced in. Unlikely so in our … Continue reading Rate Hikes Are Not Perfectly Priced In

Consumer Prices Have Upside Risk From Here

Consumer Prices Have Upside Risk From Here

Last month we wrote that peak inflation as measured by the CPI was not in sight. We saw further evidence in today's reported 7.5% CPI figure. Producers have yet to fully push through price increases for goods and services for calendar year 2022 across categories. In addition, we keep harping on the BLS' owners' equivalent … Continue reading Consumer Prices Have Upside Risk From Here

For Stock Returns, Look Where Others Are Not

For Stock Returns, Look Where Others Are Not

Small cap equities and international equities are generally good places for investors to begin their work of finding undervalued companies. In this age of ultra-low interest rates and overvalued assets it makes sense for public company investors to look for value in areas of the market that receive less investor attention than sectors that garner … Continue reading For Stock Returns, Look Where Others Are Not