A Change Is Gonna Come
This week, I’ve asked former Earth Equity team member, Jake Gandolfi to write a piece for us. Jake is now a graduate student studying public affairs at American University in Washington, DC. He took part in the Black Lives Matter protests recently and was in Lafayette Square when it was forcibly cleared out.
|
|
|
We are so grateful to call Jake a friend and colleague and are very proud of his dedication to social justice (he’s a former Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Nicaragua). Read his story on the Earth Equity Blog.
|
|
|
The 2nd quarter has ended, and as promised, we’ll be hosting a Q&A webinar. I’ll let you know the details next week as to the day and time. Stay tuned!
|
|
On to business…
COVID-19 cases continue rise in the united while cases in Europe and other developed nations are falling. This will be a challenge as markets and the economy try to regain some footing. Meanwhile the developing world, especially Brazil and India are seeing mass infections which could profoundly impact their economies for an extended period.
Goldman Sachs came out this week with a report stating that unless there is a federal directive to require masks and social distancing, that it could impact the US GDP by as much as five percent. Hopefully this report will push lawmakers to implement just such a directive.
In the meantime, there was an uptick in hiring in June (short-lived I believe) and markets reacted positively. We still don’t see any reason, other than hope, for the markets to maintain such high levels. One thing I learned years ago during my days at Merrill Lynch is that hope isn’t a strategy – especially when you’re investing!
So, we continue to stick with our conservative investment strategy. Yesterday we rebalanced all of our diversified mutual fund accounts, removing a couple of funds that weren’t performing up to par and adding some that are what we call “non-correlated.” What that means is that their underlying investments don’t move in the same cycles as the stock or bond markets. The theory of including complimentary, non-correlated assets, is that they spread out risk and reduce volatility.
Thanks, as always, for your business, friendship and introductions. I would encourage you to share this week’s letter and especially Jake’s blog with your family and friends directly or via social media. If you would like to respond to Jake’s piece, simply reply and we’ll make sure he gets your comments.
Please don’t forget to send us feedback and let us know how we can serve you better.
My Best,
Peter Krull
CEO & Director of Investments
Earth Equity Advisors, LLC
|
|
|
|
