TRILOGY WORLD REPORT
IS THE U.S. HEADED FOR JAPANESE-STYLE DEFLATION? | December 2008
In the wake of a collapsed real estate bubble in the 1990s, Japan experienced more than a decade of weak growth, price deflation and abysmal returns on invested capital. A reasonable question among many investors is whether the U.S. is headed for a similar fate. A related question is why the U.S. should expect quantitative monetary easing to meet with success, when such policies did not appear to succeed in Japan. <full report>
Snakes on a Plane | July 2008
Hollywood film producers have developed a shorthand way of communicating a great deal of information about potential film projects in terms of older, well-known films with a new twist. For example, the film Speed was pitched as "Die Hard on a bus." Or the film Alien was "Jaws in space." In a class by itself (the best bad movie ever?) was the 2006 film Snakes on a Plane, where the pitch, the plot summary, and the advertising tag line were all summarized in the title. <full report>
Foggy Bottom? | Spring 2008
Foggy Bottom is an old neighbourhood in Washington, D.C., so named because of the vapours rising from the swamp. We are hopeful that it is also an apt name for the current market environment, which has numerous characteristics associated with stock market bottoms. That said, the outlook is clouded by noxious vapours rising from the financial swamps. <full report>
Will 2008 be a Happy New Year? | December 2007
Global equity investors may be forgiven for approaching the new year with more than the usual degree of trepidation. There is certainly no shortage of things to worry about, with the financial media devoting considerable ink to the global credit crisis, high oil prices, the weak U.S. dollar, and associated fears of global recession, stagflation, or worse. <full report>