Jeroen Blokland

We are at a crossroads when it comes to incoming macro data. While it was long hoped for some disappointing figures to give the Federal Reserve the final push to move away from the “higher-for-longer” faith, good news is now “just” good news again.

Columnist Jeroen Blokland takes a look at persistently declining industrial production in Germany.

It is high time for asset managers to reassess their private equity allocations, argues Jeroen Blokland.

With the United States facing another daunting budget deficit of seven percent of GDP this year, such alarming depictions of debt are proliferating.

Financial markets and economies are often inscrutable. As an investor, you just have to put up with that.

The European election results have sent shockwaves through traditional media and financial markets alike, primarily due to the significant shift towards right-wing parties.

The stock markets have had a fantastic rally. And while I am all for rising prices, it has also been a bit boring at times. But with the latest set of macro figures, things are getting a bit more exciting again, with a likely good outcome as a result.

I have regularly been called a “permabear” over the past 12 months, if not longer. Because even though the US economy in particular was steaming ahead, the chances of a recession have never been zero, in my opinion. 

US house prices have climbed over 6% in the past year, pushing the value of homes nearly 3% above their peak from June 2022. This increase came despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at curbing rampant inflation. Clearly, the traditional models for predicting house prices are no longer reliable.

China’s recent massive sell-off of U.S. government bonds has financial headlines buzzing. This unprecedented move comes on the heels of President Biden’s decision to hike import tariffs on various “strategic” goods, including electric cars, by a staggering 200 to 400 percent.

In recent months, there has been a notable absence of discourse surrounding the prospect of a recession. The prevailing discussions among economists and financial analysts now revolve around whether we will experience a soft landing or no landing at all. The notion of a hard landing seems to have fallen out of favour. However, it is premature to entirely dismiss the possibility of a recession.