Bad Bad News

The last 2 weeks has shown us that volatility is still present in the market. It’s hard to not point out that the political risks in the US are rising at levels we haven’t experienced in the recent past. But, like with everything in 2020, the word unprecedented comes to mind. A divisive election is coming up, the Supreme Court Justice seat is trying to be filled before the election, and in all honesty, it feels like it’s one big circus. I keep asking myself, how did we get here? Political risk is what investors are usually worried about in developing countries, not in developed countries like the US. But, here we are.

We’ll start off with looking at newly released economic data. Then, we explore the impending poverty crisis, how it will shape the future, and what we need to do to avoid it. We then jump into the European View, where this week we discuss how Europe is responding to the Covid crisis with Dr. Dimitra Papadovisilaki, an assistant professor of Finance at Lake Forest College.

As always, we will start with hard economic data and make sense of it all. We’ll then talk about the similarities between 9/11 and the current crisis we are facing with Dr. Clemens Kownatzki, currently the Department Chair of Accounting, Finance, and Real Estate at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. Then, we’ll end with the European View, where we look into how Europeans are re-inventing office space.

First off, my apologies for the one week delay. If you subscribe to my email list on my website, you can get updates about new podcast episodes and blog posts straight to your email. www.rockwellconsultantsllc.com

There has been a lot that has occurred over the last three weeks, but that seems to be the way things are going right now. Everything seems to constantly be changing. Anytime I watch the news it baffles me when I see media outlets trying to spin economic data one way or another. It’s hard to look at everything going on with unbiased eyes, but there is a lot of political pressure to spin it one way or another. It’s my hope that my blog and podcast can help people understand what the data means. I’m not persuaded by any political ideology when I research the data. Though I will admit that I have more of a negative view on the economy, hence the title of my podcast is called Bad Bad News. But I stand by the fact that I think it’s better to over-prepared than to be underprepared. As always, I like starting with hard data, so we’ll look at some economic indicators to let us know how things are going. We’ll then dive into a real estate market update. And finally we’ll end with the European View, where this week we’ll be looking at commercial real estate investments being made in Europe and how it compares to the US.

I don’t need to tell you how crazy the last few weeks have been with all the new economic indicators coming out. We’ve seen the biggest GDP contraction in modern history but we are also seeing other economic indicators turn positive. What does this all mean? We talk with Chris McGee, a senior investment analyst for Yamaha, about a way forward through this economic uncertainty. Finally, we end like we always do with the European View. This week we’ll be discussing the German housing market and how it’s been fairing through the coronavirus economic crisis.

Let’s first start by diving into new economic data that has been released. We’ll look into a number of indices that can tell us what is happening right now in the economy. We then look into US banks and how they are bracing for the worst to come. Finally, we dive into our bi-weekly segment of the European View. We’ll talk about their recent stimulus deal as well as a strict housing measure introduced in Barcelona, Spain.