Cornerstone 4th Quarter 2023 Commentary

“Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth.” — Ecclesiastes 11:2 “As I have repeatedly said, inflation is a form of taxation without representation.” – Milton Friedman “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was…

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Cornerstone 3rd Quarter 2023 Commentary

It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong. George Soros Following the surprisingly strong results of the first and second quarters of 2023, the third quarter proved to be quite the dismal refrain.  Markets fell across the…

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Cornerstone 2nd Quarter 2023 Commentary

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” – Soren Kierkegaard  “There are two kinds of people who lose money: those who know nothing and those who know everything.” – Henry Kaufman (German-American economist) to Robert Lenzner in Forbes 10-19-1998 who added, “With two Nobel Prize winners in the house, Long-Term…

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Cornerstone 1st Quarter 2023 Commentary

I sincerely believe with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. – Thomas Jefferson (To John Taylor 1816) If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.…

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Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Commentary

Readers who have followed the financial news over the past few days have seen headlines about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).  We wanted to provide a brief commentary about what happened and address investor concerns about the safety of their capital or any fears that a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis is…

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Cornerstone 4th Quarter 2022 Commentary

Wall Street Bull Statue

As for it being different this time, it is different every time.  The question is in what way, and to what extent. Tom McClellan We are nowhere near a capitulation point because it’s at that point where it’s despair, not hope, that reigns supreme, and there was scant evidence of any despair at any of…

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What’s Going on With Bonds?

There’s no way to sugarcoat it.  We’re currently in the worst period for bonds in history.  As of October 31, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate is down 15.7% year-to-date.  The Bloomberg Global Aggregate is faring even worse, with a year-to-date decline of 20.4%. Bonds are supposed to be a steady asset class.  Why are we experiencing…

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Cornerstone 3rd Quarter 2022 Commentary

Volatility is a symptom that people have no idea of the underlying value. Jeremy Grantham This quote from a man who nearly lost his firm during the bull market leading up to the 2000-2002 bear market is, in our humble opinion, a perfect explanation of the third quarter!  The market rocketed off the June lows…

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Cornerstone 2nd Quarter 2022 Commentary

Whoever watched the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. Ecclesiastes 11:4 Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine did not end, inflation did not dissipate, and Covid-19 has a new variant!  We suppose it follows that the second quarter of 2022 was a rough continuation of the first, ultimately culminating in…

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Cornerstone Fixed Income Commentary

Conquering Bond Bears “I was absolutely unemotional about numbers.  Losses did not have an effect on me because I viewed them as purely probability driven, which meant sometimes you came up with a loss.  Bad days, bad weeks, bad months never impacted the way I approached markets the next day.” James Leitner – Flacon Management…

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