I hope that this note finds you safe and healthy.
I know that we are all deeply affected by the recent public deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. It is hard to believe that this is still happening in the United States in 2020. But it is, and there is no denying that the social contract between the citizens of our great Nation is simply not being upheld. Trevor Noah of the Daily Show put things into perspective in this video, it is worth watching.
Who would have thought six months ago that we would be hit by the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and the 1968 Riots all at once? We are truly living through an extraordinary time in history; these events will define the decade for many.
My hope is that new leaders will begin to emerge and that we as a Nation will address past injustices and move beyond partisan politics. That we will start to focus on fixing a broken education system (35% of California’s students do not graduate from high school), address dysfunctional government (@ all levels) and ensure social justice for everyone.
GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT:
Gross Domestic Product, which tallies the sum of goods and services across the economy, is on track to crater at an annualized rate of 52.8% in the April-to-June period, according to a running measure kept by the Atlanta Federal Reserve released on June 1, 2020. If you want to peel back the onion, check out the GDPNow website.
QUANTITATIVE EASING:
The Federal Reserve balance sheet has almost doubled over the last three months. In fact, the FED is adding approximately $50 billion US Dollars per day to their balance sheet. Think about that for a minute.
Hmm….. I wonder why stocks and bonds continue to levitate when the real economy is crashing. NOT!
At some point, these two opposing forces will have to reconcile, but when is anybodies guess. And as Lord Keynes used to say, “markets can remain irrational longer than you and I can remain solvent”.
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Be well and stay safe. - Sean Bill / MacroCrunch