by Thomas Aubrey | Aug 28, 2018 | Uncategorized
When improved 19th century optics technology enabled astronomers to observe the trajectory of Mercury around the sun, they discovered it didn’t follow the path anticipated by Newton’s laws. But instead of disputing Newton’s theory, many astronomers decided that...
by Thomas Aubrey | Jun 1, 2018 | Uncategorized
The first quarter of 2018 was tough for asset allocators. Between January 26 and April 2, the S&P 500 dropped 10%, while 10 year government bond yields continued to widen. This shift in market sentiment combined with an intense newsflow of a pending global trade...
by Thomas Aubrey | Mar 10, 2018 | Uncategorized
American trade policy and free trade have rarely been bedfellows. President Trump’s arbitrary tariffs on imports of steel (25%) and aluminium (10%) announced on March 1st might be better understood as part of an American mercantilist tradition that stretches from...
by Thomas Aubrey | Oct 19, 2017 | Uncategorized
In his novel, “War and Peace,” Leo Tolstoy rants at the idiocy of the intelligentsia for providing simplistic descriptions of the causes of events. The view that France invaded Russia because Napoleon gave the order and as a result, 600,000 people followed him across...
by Thomas Aubrey | Jun 8, 2017 | Uncategorized
Concerns about persistent underinvestment in the U.S. economy resulting from the financial crisis are overblown. The underlying issue is that the lack of a robust anti-trust framework has made it too easy for dominant firms to increase profits. Without sufficient...
by Thomas Aubrey | Mar 13, 2017 | Uncategorized
On March 1, the Dow plowed through the 21,000 barrier. Many market commentators sought to attribute this rise to President Trump’s congressional address the day before. Given that there was little policy detail in the speech, there seemed to be general agreement...
