2Q 2020 Market and Economic Overview

Regular readers of our missives may have realised that we have a penchant for using laws and theories from the world of physics to try and put into perspective that which takes place in the world of the financial markets and the consequent impact our investments. The corona crisis including the consequent government response has been a disaster for modern civilisation, causing an exogenous shock to the global economy the likes of which we have never experienced. If someone had told you six months ago that we would have a global pandemic and a global economic shutdown in response to that pandemic that resulted in the biggest surge in unemployment in the modern era and the most negative quarter for GDP on record, that the stock market would only fall 30-something percent and then be back near all-time highs* in three months, you would most likely have laughed them out of the building