RESEARCH & THOUGHT PIECES FROM OUR TEAM

In the hierarchy of business threats confronting corporate leaders in 2022, Covid-19 still rules. But inflation has quickly closed the gap. Concerns about rising prices skyrocketed in the past year, according to a survey of more than 900 global CEOs conducted by the Conference Board, a business...

The Covid-19 pandemic threatened to ruin Americans’ finances. For many, the opposite happened. Though initial shutdowns caused unemployment to surge to levels not seen since the Great Depression, trillions of dollars in government stimulus and the economy’s swift, if turbulent,...

It can be difficult now to remember what the U.S. economy looked like a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, with 10 million fewer people employed than before the pandemic. Expectations were that it could take years for the labor market to heal.

• Financial Times: "ESG Shares...

Americans have more money in their pockets than they ever have before. That sounds like really great news, but it isn’t, because the cost of living is rising much faster than our incomes are. In addition, much of the “new wealth” that has been created over the past couple of...

There was a huge merger in 2021: the combination of popular culture and modern finance. Tom Brady and Matt Damon were suddenly shilling for cryptocurrency exchanges. Digital tokens that started off as elaborate pranks represented tens of billions of dollars of paper wealth. And cartoon pictures...

The Covid years are littered with predictions that didn’t work out. For anyone looking ahead into 2022, that should be enough to give pause. Most forecasters, including Bloomberg Economics, have as their base case a robust recovery with cooling prices and a shift away from emergency...

While most savers recognize it is increasingly their responsibility to fund retirement rather than relying solely on a pension or Social Security, 43% worry about what will happen if Social Security runs dry, a separate survey by personal finance site MagnifyMoney found.

• The Economist: "Evidence...

Americans are hoarding cash because of fatigue and uncertainty, with little chance the trend will reverse soon. Over the past two years, households have socked away close to $1.6 trillion in “excess savings,” or resources they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to save before the...

Bigger private-market bets, inflation fears and a surge of retirees are putting public retirement funds at risk of a cash crunch that would force them to sell assets at losses to pay pension checks.

• Yahoo Finance: "Elon Musk In Texas, Zuck In California: Here Is The Richest Person In Each U.S....

U.S. inflation rose at the fastest pace in three decades in October, with prices increasing more in some parts of the country than in others. Consumer prices were up 7.3% last month in the region that encompasses Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota....

Whether you knew it or not, the new space race that’s unfolding is about Internet access. Since 2019, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has put more than 1,000 of its Starlink satellites into low-earth orbit as part of a plan to provide broadband Internet to undeserved communities around the world.

Rising prices eat away at the purchasing power of your assets. But taking on more risk to fight inflation can do more harm than good.

• The Wall Street Journal: "The Megaships That Broke Global Trade"
• The Wall Street Journal: "How Does Eric Church Keep Touring in the Pandemic? With a One-of-a-Kind...