Eric Hanson

As if rising inflation, a falling stock market, and the possibility of a recession were not enough, now we are here to talk to you about unhappiness. (Spoiler alert, there is hope and a positive spin at the end). But first the unhappy part. The Gallup organization has been asking people in many countries over […]

Word of the year in 2022. The Economist recently reviewed candidates for 2022’s word of the year. The Ukraine war introduced us to newfangled terms like “MANPADS,” “HIMARS,” and “Loitering Munitions.” In grocery stores we have to deal with “Shrinkflation” (the same price but a shrunk product–think candy bars). Facebook (sorry, forgot the new name […]

Back in 1960, America made 100% of the world’s semiconductor chips. Names like Fairchild Semiconductor, Texas Instruments (TI), and eventually Intel dominated. Today we make just 12% of the world’s chips domestically. Before you panic, just remember one reason is that many U.S. companies set up plants abroad to take advantage of lower costs. A […]

The U.S. is running out of money! Well not exactly, but the Treasury has run out of borrowing power based on the current debt ceiling of $34.4 trillion. It is using “extraordinary measures” now to extend the time Congress has to approve an increase in the debt ceiling. If Congress doesn’t act by the middle […]

Back at the end of October, Barron’s posed the question, “Is China Investible?” The MSCI China Index had gone nowhere for over 25 years, GDP growth was stagnating under the weight of the zero-Covid policy, the property market was teetering, and the government was clamping down on private entrepreneurs. There was little doubt these policies […]

No one has actually asked us for our 2023 forecast, but it is customary this time of year to say something about the upcoming twelve months, so into the abyss we go. The problem is, as Hugh Hendry a British hedge fund manager has said, none of us have been to the future so we […]

The stock market is very much like Patty Griffin’s lyric. There is an excess of short-term noise on Wall Street. The nuggets of important wisdom get lost in the daily waterfall of information. A valuable source of enduring Wall Street wisdom is Howard Marks, the co-founder of Oaktree Capital, the largest U.S. investor in distressed […]

I am talking about our relationship to fossil fuels. Most Americans favor taking the steps to become carbon neutral. But at the same time a majority of Americans (see chart below) want to keep a mix of fossil fuels and renewables. Where you stand on this depends very much on where you sit. Democrats, especially […]

This is the question Barron’s posed recently (10/30/2022). Over the years, China has been a frustrating puzzle not only for foreign governments but also for investors. Look at the growth of the country since 1981 (chart right). How could such rapid growth not translate into great returns for investors? Well, growth has not equaled investment […]

I pay attention to final articles by departing financial columnists. These pieces always cut through the chaff and get right to the kernels of truth that the writer has learned over the years. Buttonwood is the financial column in The Economist. Buttonwood refers to the tree where trading was originally transacted on Wall Street. In […]

Some say this may be the biggest investment bubble in the world today. Let’s do the math and see. China has been on an incredible growth curve since 1979. The economic initiatives Deng Xiaoping put in place in the late seventies have lifted more people out of poverty, more quickly than has ever been done […]

Dust off the passport. We are goin’ traveling. The dollar is stronger today than it has been in 20 years. Now is the time to go. This year alone the dollar is up 15% against a basket of world currencies, and for the first year in ages the dollar is worth more than the Euro. […]