A recession is nothing to fear
We have lost sight of the fact that a recession helps to right the wrong of the billions allocated to bad businesses while getting people refocused on investing in profitable enterprises
As a longtime market observer, what I find most interesting about the latest correction in equities has the feeling of inevitability that it will turn into something worse. It wasn’t this way in late January, when everyone wanted to buy that dip. It certainly wasn’t this way in 2007, when the magnitude of the recession was grossly underestimated. Even the US Federal Reserve is getting into the pessimism. Chair Jerome Powell signalled last week that a pause in interest-rate hikes might be forthcoming. What’s interesting about that is Powell surely knew that such a reference might be interpreted as bowing to pressure from US President Donald Trump and yet he did it anyway. In essence, he risked the perception of the Fed’s independence probably because he knows the economic data is worsening. Just about everyone I talk to in the capital markets, including erstwhile bulls, acknowledges that things are slowing down. Yes, the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly manufacturing index r...
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