RESEARCH & THOUGHT PIECES FROM OUR TEAM

Japanese institutional managers -- known for their legendary U.S. debt buying sprees in recent decades -- are now fueling the great bond selloff just as the Federal Reserve pares its $9 trillion balance sheet.

• Open Insights: "The Energy Shortage is About to Get Bad . . ."
• The Strategic...

Rochester, MI, April 29^th, 2022 -- Managed Asset Portfolios, LLC (MAP) was awarded Morningstar’s coveted 5-star overall rating as of March 31, 2022, for two of its portfolio strategies, the Global Equity Composite¹ and Global Equity Composite Ex-Options.²

The Morningstar rankings add to the...

Soaring fertilizer costs have rice farmers across Asia scaling back their use, a move that threatens harvests of a staple that feeds half of humanity and could lead to a full-blown food crisis if prices aren’t curbed.

• Bloomberg: "Rising Fertilizer Costs are Catching up to Rice...

“Globalization is not something we can hold off or turn off,” former President Bill Clinton told an audience in Vietnam in 2000. “It is the economic equivalent of a force of nature—like wind or water.”

• The Wall Street Journal: "Globalization Isn’t...

The mood among sellers seems to have shifted in recent weeks from apathy about the slow boil of higher rates to urgency, financial advisers and real-estate agents said. Sellers are seeking advice on how best to time the market and tame their anxiety.

• Visual Capitalist: "Understanding...

Wages continued to grow in March, but the pace has cooled slightly over the past few months, suggesting employers are feeling less pressure to offer pay increases as more people return to the workforce, which could ease inflation pressures.

• Bloomberg: "Soaring Mortgage Rates in U.S. Dent...

Investors faced several daunting challenges during the first quarter. The war in Ukraine stole the spotlight during the second half of the quarter, but even before that tragedy began to unfold, the investment landscape was changing dramatically for investors. Inflation went from being...

Nearly half of millennials say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, up 6 percentage points from a year earlier, a new survey found. And with so little cash to spare, more millennial workers—those between the ages of 25 and 40—feel they can’t handle an unexpected financial...

Michael Dzialo, President and CIO, is joined by Zachary Fellows, CFA, as they discuss the global macro environment, with a focus on the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, and inflation. Messrs. Dzialo and Fellows will also review where the Investment Team is finding risks as well as where...

Apparel retailers and department stores are bumping up against pockets of price resistance, a sign that consumers are curtailing spending as inflation remains at the highest level in four decades.

• The Wall Street Journal: "Shoppers Reach Their Limits on Some Price Increases"
• The Wall Street...

It was a lot more fun to be in your 20s in the ’70s than to be in your 70s in the ’20s. Not that I would know personally (yet), but this wry baby boomer lament, making its rounds on the internet, hits uncomfortably close to home.

• Barron's: "Don’t Expect an Investor Bailout...

As MAP president Michael Dzialo notes, “Sometimes history repeats itself, and sometimes we make history.” We are at one of those rare moments when history is being made. Can the Federal Reserve (the Fed) and our free-spending elected officials restrain themselves enough to bring...