Thoughts from the Frontline: Tag = "mauldin"

Bullish Highlights
  • May 30, 2025

Bullish Highlights

I call our annual event the Strategic Investment Conference for a reason. Understanding the macro trends is only the first step. We all have to apply that knowledge in our own portfolios so we can tolerate short-term fluctuations and achieve our bigger goals.

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Inflation Standoff
  • May 23, 2025

Inflation Standoff

The Strategic Investment Conference is over. I’m now in my annual recovery period, during which I try to absorb the informational firehose I (with thousands of others) just experienced.

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How We Got Here
  • May 16, 2025

How We Got Here

We are in the middle of the Strategic Investment Conference, a fabulous gathering of some of the best economic, political, and geopolitical minds anywhere. I’m really proud of what we’re doing. And at the last minute, we’ve added Dr. Mehmet Oz, nationally regarded cardiovascular surgeon, author of numerous best-selling books with my friend Dr. Mike Roizen, and now head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He will be joined by Dr. Robert Redfield, former CDC director, virologist,...

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Tension in the Sandpile
  • May 9, 2025

Tension in the Sandpile

I’ve been writing about tariffs for a couple of months now, focusing mostly on the macroeconomic harm and the costs they impose on small businesses. Today I want to consider something else: the new risks they are adding to the financial system alongside the old risks. We had a small taste of it when markets convulsed in early April. That episode passed, but I don’t think the risk is gone. Different and potentially worse may be coming, as the disruptions compound.

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Soft Data Gets Softer
  • May 2, 2025

Soft Data Gets Softer

Economic data can be soft or hard. “Soft” data reflects attitudes, expectations, opinions, and feelings. It’s a step removed from the “hard” data reflecting actual events. Soft data is still valuable because future expectations shape the hard data that follows.

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Tariff-Induced Paralysis
  • April 25, 2025

Tariff-Induced Paralysis

In some kinds of surgery, it is necessary to keep the patient extremely still because even small, involuntary movements can cause damage. Anesthesiologists administer “paralytic” drugs so the surgeons can do their work safely. Thus, a condition we would normally dread actually helps restore us to health.

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The Uncertainty World
  • April 18, 2025

The Uncertainty World

Markets don’t like uncertainty. It is a cliché, but for a very good reason. It is more than a truism. In fact, businesses don’t like uncertainty. You and I don’t like uncertainty in our personal lives. When we go to the store, we want to be certain that what we are looking for is there, and at a reasonable price. We want our food orders to be certain. We want our relationships to be certain. In fact, the relationships we value most are the ones in which we feel certain whether it’s personal,...

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The Uncertainty Recession
  • April 11, 2025

The Uncertainty Recession

You probably noticed we are having one of those “weeks when decades happen.” Notice also, however, that we are still here. Your investments and businesses may be bruised but you’re still in the game.

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Do Trade Deficits Matter?
  • March 28, 2025

Do Trade Deficits Matter?

Financial market news has seemingly become all tariffs, all the time. The president’s plan, whatever it is, seems to spring from his belief that trade deficits are bad and must be eliminated. Tariffs are just a means to that end.

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