RESEARCH & THOUGHT PIECES FROM OUR TEAM

The U.S. employment-cost index—a quarterly measure of wages and benefits paid by employers—showed that costs continued to rise at the highest rate in two decades. The fourth-quarter gain, compared with a year ago, was 4% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said...

Last year, China’s tech stocks cratered. This year, America’s are following suit. But their selloffs have very different drivers, and therein lies a potential inflection point in the emerging competition between the two countries. The Nasdaq correction is the natural consequence of...

In the hierarchy of business threats confronting corporate leaders in 2022, Covid-19 still rules. But inflation has quickly closed the gap. Concerns about rising prices skyrocketed in the past year, according to a survey of more than 900 global CEOs conducted by the Conference Board, a business...

The Covid-19 pandemic threatened to ruin Americans’ finances. For many, the opposite happened. Though initial shutdowns caused unemployment to surge to levels not seen since the Great Depression, trillions of dollars in government stimulus and the economy’s swift, if turbulent,...

It can be difficult now to remember what the U.S. economy looked like a year ago. The unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, with 10 million fewer people employed than before the pandemic. Expectations were that it could take years for the labor market to heal.

• Financial Times: "ESG Shares...

Stocks marched higher during the fourth quarter as investors shrugged off mounting inflationary pressures, increasing prospects for higher interest rates next year, and a surge of new COVID-19 infections stemming from the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Investors applauded favorable corporate...

Americans have more money in their pockets than they ever have before. That sounds like really great news, but it isn’t, because the cost of living is rising much faster than our incomes are. In addition, much of the “new wealth” that has been created over the past couple of...

There was a huge merger in 2021: the combination of popular culture and modern finance. Tom Brady and Matt Damon were suddenly shilling for cryptocurrency exchanges. Digital tokens that started off as elaborate pranks represented tens of billions of dollars of paper wealth. And cartoon pictures...

The Covid years are littered with predictions that didn’t work out. For anyone looking ahead into 2022, that should be enough to give pause. Most forecasters, including Bloomberg Economics, have as their base case a robust recovery with cooling prices and a shift away from emergency...

While most savers recognize it is increasingly their responsibility to fund retirement rather than relying solely on a pension or Social Security, 43% worry about what will happen if Social Security runs dry, a separate survey by personal finance site MagnifyMoney found.

• The Economist: "Evidence...

Watch recording of Webinar hosted by MAP’s President & Chief Investment Officer, Michael Dzialo where we share our thoughts and insights on the markets and the economy.

Americans are hoarding cash because of fatigue and uncertainty, with little chance the trend will reverse soon. Over the past two years, households have socked away close to $1.6 trillion in “excess savings,” or resources they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to save before the...