Clean Yield Insights
Q3 2021 Market Update: Market Anatomy and Today’s Diagnosis
Many stock market observers focus on “fundamentals.” They eagerly scrutinize the latest economic report or company earnings results. Market participants quickly (over)react to the latest news. Yes, the economy and corporate profits are important to future returns, but investor psychology…
Night School Summer 2021: International Investing
For many years, most U.S. investors invested only in U.S. companies on U.S. exchanges. And why not? The United States was the dominant economy, had the most important stock market, and the most sought-after currency. Its financial markets were the…
Q2 2021 Market Update: Signs of a Top
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana
There seems to be a widespread lack of a historical perspective among investors today. This is particularly common in the late stages of a market mania. People…
Q1 2021 Market Update: Caution: Slippery Road Ahead
Why caution at a time like this? The COVID vaccine rollout is far exceeding expectations, the federal government is pumping trillions of dollars into the economy, consumer and investor confidence levels are high, and the Federal Reserve has set short-term…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…