2023-12-01 Markets

“Unfortunately civility is hard to codify or legislate, but you know it when you see it. It’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.”
Sandra Day O’Connor

“If people weren’t so often wrong, we wouldn’t be so rich.”
“Capitalism without failure is like religion without hell.”
Charlie Munger

“No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.”
Henry Kissinger

[Thank you Colin for the Kissinger quotation.]

While the inflation news continues to improve, to the point where some are beginning to voice the possibility of deflation in the next few months, it’s impact on the markets has moderated since the US CPI release a couple of weeks ago. Expectations have changed and so have market reactions. Nevertheless it’s notable that most equity indices are now either above (Japan) or within less than 10% of the maxima reached at the end of 2021.

Some people still pay with cash in crowded supermarkets or small stores with one employee. It should be outlawed: standing in a cue behind any of them feels like being back in the era of barter.

[Sources: The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; The Economist]