Thoughts from the Frontline

• March 21, 2025

The Inflationista Illuminati, Part 2

The theme among so many writers seems to be “vibe shift.” And indeed, there is a concern the economy is slowing and may even be in a recession. That is certainly what today’s writer and my friend, Danielle DiMartino Booth, points to in this second part of her data-driven inflation analysis, which I share below. She believes the mainstream media, both financial and otherwise, is missing the fact that inflation is going to come down faster than most analysts expect—including those at the Federal...

• March 14, 2025

The Inflationista Illuminati

Last week we published a chart of the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model, which had just dropped sharply to a -2.4% real GDP growth forecast for the first quarter of 2025. This model can be volatile. Its latest big swing was mostly an artifact of spiking gold imports. Economic growth prospects do seem to have dimmed considerably, though.

• March 7, 2025

When Valuations Collide…

“Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”

—Yale economist Irving Fisher 12 days before Black Monday in October 1929

• February 28, 2025

The Bull’s Eye Matrix: Updated

Bull’s Eye Investing was published on January 1, 2004. It quickly became a bestseller. The main thing that people still ask me about was a trifold spread color chart of stock market returns since 1900. Returns were color-coded so readers could see the ebb and flow of returns over time. That remarkable representation of market performance was created by Ed Easterling of Crestmont Research. Ed and I shared a very nerdy, wonkish fascination with markets and trends. We spent a great deal of time...