Clean Yield Insights
Night School: Company Performance vs. Stock Performance
Surely a successful company results in a successful stock market investment. Not necessarily. At its simplest, the stock market – or any market – reflects the intersection between demand and supply. The more intensely participants want to buy, the higher… Read More >
Q4 2020 Market Update: The Amoral Market
There are times when it is discomfiting to be in this business. This is one of them. In a year of misery for millions and constitutional democracy in this country at its most perilous moment since the Civil War, financial… Read More >
Q3 2020 Market Update: Political Parties, the Economy, and Financial Markets
We are all riveted by COVID-19 and by the presidential election. Nothing else seems to matter. We claim no insight on either, but as investors who respect history and who relish debunking conventional wisdom and market myths, we would like… Read More >
Night School: Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Even casual followers of economic and financial news sense that GDP is critically important to economists, investors, and policymakers. What is it, and why is it so important?
According to the International Monetary Fund, “GDP measures the monetary value of… Read More >
Q2 2020 Market Update: Follow the Money
These are troubling and confounding times. In a recent poll, the vast majority of Americans said the country is going in the wrong direction. Amid a global pandemic, the Trump administration bungled its response, shirked any responsibility, declared victory, and… Read More >
Patient Capital in a Pandemic
In this environment, where gap between the market and the real economy is vast and growing, we believe that patient, local capital is key to sustaining communities. Community development financial institutions (CDFIs) play an important role in making sure that… Read More >
We Cannot Be Silent
The murder of George Floyd is the latest in a string of brutal killings of black people by police that have shaken the Clean Yield team. We have felt a range of emotions, from anger to deep sadness to helplessness.… Read More >
Night School: Modern Monetary Theory
Why, you might ask, is Clean Yield writing about an arcane economic theory in the midst of a pandemic and economic implosion? We were already planning to write about it due to its emergence as part of the progressive agenda… Read More >
Q1 2020 Market Update: Wrestling with the bear
Whew, what a quarter! As of our last full market commentary in January, the main stock market indexes were near record highs after more than a decade of gains. The conventional wisdom was that even though global manufacturing was in… Read More >
Night School: Bond Basics
At Clean Yield, we manage many “balanced” portfolios, which own stocks and bonds. Though stocks usually grab the headlines, bonds also have a critical role as the ballast in many portfolios.
What Is a bond?
A bond is a debt… Read More >
Q4 2019 Market Update: Is it different this time?
We enter the new year—and new decade—with more questions than usual. What has happened to democracy and the rule of law in the U.S.? Is the global alliance of liberal democracies kaput? Do truth and evidence still matter? Are historical… Read More >
Q3 2019 Market Update: Cracks in the Foundation
We see cracks developing in the foundation of the bull market in stocks. As we know from the bizarre reality of 2019 life in America, most people believe what they want to believe – and make their own “facts” if… Read More >