The extraordinary pandemic support measures enacted last year by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury were a critical component of the U.S.’ so-far successful navigation of pandemic disruption. Still, those support measures would have had little to work with if the U.S. economy had not already undergone substantial digitization in Read more
For a few weeks we’ve been explaining our optimistic view of the waning SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United States. Data suggest that vaccine or no vaccine, the pandemic is already beginning to fade. Positive tests, hospitalizations, and deaths are all continuing to fall, even as life continues to return to Read more
Since the pandemic broke, it’s been apparent to us — as it has to many other investors — that the virus would bring significant social and economic change in its wake. The post-covid world would be different from the pre-covid world, and those changes would benefit some sectors, industries, and Read more
Colony Capital [NYSE: CLNY], after a disastrous 2017 merger with NorthStar Asset Management, is reinventing itself, and its plan says something interesting about economic and real estate trends. CEO Thomas Barrack announced two weeks ago that the company would be shedding as much as 90% of its existing portfolio — Read more
Internet Marketing’s Growth Story Is Still Strong Last week we commented on some of the social and political pressure that has recently been building against the giants of U.S. internet tech: primarily Amazon [NASDAQ: AMZN], Facebook [NASDAQ: FB], and Alphabet [NASDAQ: GOOG]. Regulators are accusing them of using opaque financial Read more
Is E-Commerce an Employment Wrecking Ball? Nope: It Creates More, Better-Paying Jobs and Boosts Productivity After strong stock-market performance in the year to date, several big U.S. tech firms have begun to receive some negative attention from the public, as well as from regulators and politicians. Alphabet [NASDAQ: GOOG] and Read more
Is Pure E-Commerce Really An Unstoppable Juggernaut? Why the Future May Be Different Than You Expect The narrative of the total and relentless dominance of e-commerce over brick-and-mortar retail is beginning to break down. Above, we wrote about the big Chinese tech firms, and how they’re leveraging consumer data to Read more
Retail Tremors Shake the Payment Ecosystem Consumers who use credit and debit cards are typically aware only of the card they’re using and the merchant they’re buying from; the payment process is a “black box” from a consumer’s perspective. But as the first image below shows, the black box hides Read more
Global e-Commerce Adoption Isn’t Slowing — It’s Accelerating, and Has Massive Tailwinds U.S. e-Commerce Share Gains (vs Retail) Source: Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Most investors probably have the impression that e-commerce has moved beyond its initial stages of rapid growth and into a slower and more “mature” growth pattern. However, Read more
Step Aside, Boomers: “Gen Y” and “Gen Z” Will Soon Be Driving the Global Economy With apologies to the Baby Boomers, they like to talk about themselves. We’ve read a lot about the influence Boomers have had on U.S. culture and politics. The present writer sat with a group of Read more
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