As we move through 2022, it becomes very clear that the heightened inflation numbers are not a trifle but are something that should be followed closely. Why is that? While central banks were chasing inflation during the last three decades, now as inflation finally arrived, it seems they did not see it coming. Let's take a look at the kinds of inflations we see out there and how to wade through them.

First and foremost, I want to wish you and your loved ones a very Happy New Year! If we learned one thing in the past two years, it is to be grateful for what we have because we do not know how long the nice things last. Keeping our focus on the financial environment, there were different surprises that might have brought up doubts about how markets work. While it is important to stay open-minded to new developments, the environment we have lived through during the pandemic is everything else than representative of how markets usually work. Thinking back to pre-coronavirus, discussions about helicopter money were more of a theoretical construct. Now, however, governments sending out cash to the people, covering losses that usually are borne by banks and insurance companies, and governments working hand in hand with central banks have become normal.

When we think of financial health, a few things might come to mind. We may think of our own financial status, our investments, the Dow Jones Industrial Average performance, the stock market as a whole, the economy, the country’s employment status and so on. While some aspects may be interrelated on some level, they are not all one and the same, nor do they all indicate the status of one another.

After the markets broadly corrected during September, they once again recovered relatively quickly. Accordingly, we are seeing new record highs once again. Investors may ask what is going on at the markets. While a clear answer is impossible to give, we believe that it has to do with the enormous amount of money in the system. Some investors missed performance because they were convinced at the beginning of 2021 that the recovery could not endure the way it has over the year. We had a similar perspective. Some of them lost their patience and used the correction in September to get back into the markets. However, we believe that changing the strategy due to frustration is the wrong move. We feel that the situation did not change for the better. Despite the markets rising, there are several new risks like the real estate market in China, the rise in inflation, and the rising tensions between China and the U.S., and Japan due to their provocations of Taiwan.

Did you know people are Googling the word "Inflation" at a record-breaking rate? If the economic uncertainty of the past year has you scratching your head as well, here's what you need to know about inflation and your investments.

Central banks have a problem. No matter what they do, investors are not satisfied… This is at least the idea you get when reading the central bank’s publications and the reactions at the stock markets. However, maybe this statement reveals a deeper laying issue. When thinking about the central bank’s functions you will find a variety of duties but nowhere will you find their raison d’etre as pleasing investors. Looking back at the last decade, this fact can easily be forgotten. Printing endless money and keeping up purchasing programs did please investors. But not necessarily the general public.