Wealthtrack

The original firm that Ed Hyman co-founded - ISI Group, International Strategy and Investment, recognized from the very beginning that China would have an important role to play in the world economy. How right they were. As China allowed the private sector to flourish and opened up to foreign investment, it became the world’s second-largest economy. Under the dictatorial regime of President Xi Jinping, many of those policies have been curtailed to China’s detriment. Hyman’s view of China has changed as well.   WEALTHTRACK Episode 1927, published on December 30, 2022 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

WEALTHTRACK will be focusing on the theme of "what a difference a year makes" in 2022 and 2023, as there have been major changes in the economy and markets, including an acceleration in inflation, rising interest rates, a withdrawal of monetary stimulus, and a shift from liquidity-driven speculation to risk aversion.  Jason Trennert, a financial thought leader and CEO of Strategas Research Partners, a leading provider of economic, market, and policy research, and his team have become bearish on the market due to the rapid rise in inflation and the Federal Reserve's commitment to its anti-inflation policies.  Trennert discusses the ongoing pressures on the economy and markets and why there may be more market pain ahead. WEALTHTRACK #1925 broadcast on December 16, 2022. More info: https://wealthtrack.com/leading-strategist-jason-trennert-is-uncharacteristically-bearish-he-explains-whats-changed/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Ed Hyman, the number one ranked economist on Wall Street for 42 years, has warned of the unintended consequences of the Federal Reserve's rapid tightening policies. Hyman, who is Vice Chairman of Evercore and leads the economic research team at its Evercore ISI division, has been monitoring the factors behind the recent nominal GDP growth, including record low-interest rates and a surge in the money supply. However, inflation has been surging, and the Fed is raising rates at a faster clip, leading to weakness in the economy. Hyman's recent reports highlight the impact of the Fed's tightening measures. WEALTHTRACK Episode #1924 broadcast on December 09, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/legendary-economist-ed-hyman-worries-about-the-unintended-consequences-of-feds-rapid-tightening/ Bookshelf: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator: https://amzn.to/3FhYoex One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market https://amzn.to/3uBS2BM --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/w

Money problems are a major source of conflict for couples and a leading cause of divorce. Victoria Collins, one of the country’s top financial advisors for many years, has strategies to handle it.      WEALTHTRACK #1922 published on November 25, 2022   Bookshelf: Couples & Money Why Money Interferes with Love & What to Do About It https://amzn.to/3V5DJRM --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

In an extended, exclusive interview newly retired Treasury bond manager Robert Kessler elaborates on his earlier warnings of the likelihood of a financial crisis and prolonged downturn in the markets. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Part 1 of 2 The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent except change.” Charles Darwin certainly observed that in his trailblazing work on evolution more than 2000 years later. In a quote widely attributed to him, he is alleged to have commented, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptive to change.” As the markets fluctuate around us, how much should investors change? This week’s guest has his own historical perspective on that question because he has lived through a momentous evolution in the markets. He is Charles Ellis, whose storied career started on Wall Street in 1963 after graduating from the Harvard Business School.  He was a skeptical analyst during the go-go years of the 60s and founded Greenwich Associates, the top Wall Street consulting firm to major investment firms, institutions, and governments. He was an influential board member of Yale’s endowment advising its legendary head, David Swensen. He’

Here’s our new financial reality, which we have become all too familiar with: higher inflation, higher interest rates, and higher levels of debt among consumers, corporations, and governments, which all add up to significantly higher costs of doing business, living life, and borrowing. To fight higher inflation, the Federal Reserve continues to hike short-term interest rates. This week’s guest has experienced multiple economic and market cycles during his more than 50 years of managing money and thinks the current one is particularly perilous for investors. In an exclusive WEALTHTRACK appearance, he felt it was important to tell us why and what steps we should consider taking to mitigate its effects. Robert Kessler was the CEO of his namesake Kessler Companies from its founding in August of 1986 until he made the decision to close the business in October 2021.  Until then, he was a manager of fixed-income portfolios, specializing mostly in strategies using U.S. Treasuries for institutions and high-net-wo

Income and quality should always matter, but it’s markets like these when those characteristics really count. Historically, since 1930, dividends have contributed about 40% of the S&P 500’s total return. Their input has varied widely from decade to decade, however.  According to a recent Insights Report from the Hartford Funds, dividends played a large role in terms of their contribution to total returns. What sort of a role will dividends play now? We have a new guest on WEALTHTRACK with a long and distinguished track record of investing in high-quality, dividend-paying stocks. She is Clare Hart, who Morningstar calls “one of the industry’s most impressive managers.” Hart has been the Lead Portfolio Manager of two highly-rated funds since 2004. Hart will discuss the benefits of focusing on quality and dividends, particularly in a   difficult market environment. WEALTHTRACK #1918 broadcast on October 28, 2020 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/clare-harts-laser-focus-on-quality-income-has-p

We are in the midst of a sea change in our financial lives. Here are the headlines: -Inflation is surging for the first time in years and has reached the highest level in forty years. -The Federal Reserve is embarking on the fastest and steepest tightening cycle in decades. -Value stocks are outperforming growth stocks after lagging them by record amounts for nearly a decade and a half. Is it time to make some changes to our financial plans? Our guest this week is an award-winning personal finance journalist who has been a WEALTHTRACK regular since our launch in 2005. He is Jonathan Clements, the founder, and editor of HumbleDollar, a free weekly online newsletter devoted to telling you “everything you need to know about money.” It is worth visiting. Clements was the personal finance columnist at The Wall Street Journal for 20 years and is the author of several personal finance books, including From Here to Financial Happiness and How To Think About Money. Clements will give us his perspective on the much-cha

Part 2 of 2 When was the last time you heard an investment discussion about capital allocation and what difference it makes to investment results? It is not a widely discussed topic on Wall Street or in the financial press. First of all, what is it? According to Investopedia, “Capital allocation is the process of allocating financial resources to different areas of a business to increase efficiency and maximize profits.” These decisions are made by the management teams and boards of companies. They include decisions like building a new plant, expanding into a new market or geography, increasing or decreasing the research and development budget, making an acquisition, paying a dividend, and repurchasing shares. The lack of attention being paid to capital allocation decisions by companies has bothered this week’s guest for years, so he decided to write a book about it. It's titled Capital Allocation: Principles, Strategies, and Processes for Creating Long-Term Shareholder Value. He is Great Investor, David Giro

“What do we want to own when things are cheap?” is the question driving great investor David Giroux on a daily basis.  Giroux is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Investment Strategy for T. Rowe Price Investment Management. His reputation as a great investor has been earned as the  Portfolio Manager of T. Rowe Price’s Capital Appreciation Fund, which he has run since 2006.  It’s been a rough year for the markets and Capital Appreciation, although it’s down less than the market and its category. In this weekend’s episode, Giroux will give us his view of the state of the market, its risks, and potential rewards.  WEALTHTRACK #1915 broadcast on October 7, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/award-winning-investor-david-girouxs-laser-focus-on-what-he-wants-to-own-when-things-are-cheap/ Bookshelf: Capital Allocation: Principles, Strategies, and Processes for Creating Long-Term Shareholder Value https://amzn.to/3CFDyWn --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/suppo

Volatility is the name of this market’s game. The Dow and S&P 500 both entered bear markets this week, although they both put up a brief fight with a robust rally on Wednesday. Yields on U.S. Treasury securities also bounced around. These stomach-churning moves are hard to ignore unless you can take a longer view. This week’s guest is focusing on bigger investment themes and identifying cheap global sectors as the market sorts things out. A year ago on WEALTHTRACK, in September of 2021, Research Affiliates’ Rob Arnott made two macro observations. One, he predicted there were “very high odds” of a resurgence in inflation. Two, that the multi-year outperformance of growth over value stocks was probably finally over. He dated the turn to August of 2020. He proved prescient on the inflation call and so far seems to have gotten value’s comeback right. Rob Arnott is Chairman of the Board and Founder of Research Affiliates, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.  Research Affiliates describes

This episode's guest is a longtime holder of Berkshire stock and has been an avid student of Buffett’s style of value investing since meeting the legendary investor at Stanford Business School in the early 1980s. He is Tom Russo, managing member of the investment advisory firm Gardner Russo & Quinn, where he oversees the Semper Vic Partners Funds, which he launched in 1983 after hearing Buffett address his class at Stanford. The global value manager focuses on owning a small group of exceptionally well-managed, well-known brand name firms, many family-owned, with dominant, almost unassailable positions in their mostly consumer-oriented businesses, and then holding them pretty much forever. Berkshire Hathaway has consistently been one of his largest positions. In this weekend’s interview, we will learn how Buffett’s talk in graduate school made such a huge impression on him. WEALTHTRACK #1913 broadcast on September 23, 2022 More Info: https://wealthtrack.com/how-a-concentrated-portfolio-of-global-brand-nam

How times have changed. It wasn’t many months ago that the entire financial world was singing the praises of inflation. The greatest fear among Wall Streeters and other financial lights was lower prices that might actually decline more and turn into that monster known as deflation. The thought conjured up nightmarish scenes of bread lines and bank runs. Ever since the global financial crisis of 2008 and especially since the Covid pandemic, central banks and governments around the world have pulled out all stops to prevent such an occurrence. And guess what? It finally worked. After declining since the early 1980s, inflation has roared back to life, recently hitting 40-year highs. But no one is celebrating. In fact, now central banks around the world have declared war on inflation, and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is leading the charge. The Fed has dramatically raised the federal funds rate several times this year, with more action to come. This week’s guest has long been an avowed enemy of inflation

The bond world changed dramatically in 2022.  From several years of historically low to negative interest rates, as far as the eye could see, the horizon is now filled with rising rates across the globe. It’s a welcome change for yield starved investors and fixed income managers who have been coping with a record breaking yield drought.  One of them is this weekend’s guest who recently reopened his fund to new investors because of the “improved opportunity set.” He is Tom Atteberry, now Senior Advisor to FPA New Income Fund having just retired, as planned, from his portfolio manager duties in July of this year.  He had been Portfolio Manager of the fund since 2004.  Atteberry will discuss why they have reopened the fund and where they are investing now. He will also share his current preference for asset-backed bonds over Treasuries and corporates.  WEALTHTRACK #1911 broadcast on September 09, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/the-new-investment-opportunities-being-discovered-b

Global bond manager Jack McIntyre says central banks around the world are determined to stamp out inflation. Their success will determine the direction of markets and economies. He explains how he is investing for several outcomes. WEALTHTRACK #1910 broadcast on September 02, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/why-inflation-is-now-key-to-investing-with-brandywine-globals-jack-mcintyre/ Bookshelf: Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, https://amzn.to/3CWQho7 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

We are joined by ClearBridge’s Investment Strategist Jeff Schulze. He will explain why he now believes that there is a 55% chance of a downturn, why a recession is not inevitable but what conditions could push it one way or the other. He will also discuss market implications and strategy. WEALTHTRACK #1908 published on August 20, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/a-widely-followed-investment-strategists-indicators-now-signaling-heightened-recession-risk/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

A special WEALTHTRACK podcast with influential economist and Fed watcher turned professor Paul McCulley. McCulley is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Business School and a very much in-demand speaker in financial circles because of his deep understanding of Fed policy, honed at bond giant PIMCO, where for many years he was Senior Partner, author of the influential Global Central Bank Focus and manager of its huge short-term trading desk. In this week’s podcast, McCulley shares his thoughts on where we are in the Fed’s tightening cycle, economy, and markets. WEALTHTRACK 1907 published on August 14, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/influential-economist-and-fed-watcher-paul-mcculley-on-fed-policy-recession-prospects-and-the-markets/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Global value investor Tom Russo says today’s investment environment is the most challenging of his 40-year career. He explains why his core companies are up to the challenge. WEALTHTRACK episode 1906 broadcast on August 05, 2022 More info: https://wealthtrack.com/how-a-concentrated-portfolio-of-global-brand-name-companies-is-faring-in-this-challenging-market/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Making money by losing less is how legendary small-cap value manager Charlie Dreifus has succeeded for over 50 years of investing. It's even more important now as he expects more economic and market pain ahead. WEALTHTRACK 1905 broadcast on July 29, 2022  More info: https://wealthtrack.com/making-money-by-losing-less-in-this-bear-market-with-legendary-value-manager-charlie-dreifus/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support