It is done… after a challenging first half of the year, the U.S. economy added an overwhelming 528,000 jobs in July and brought the unemployment rate down to 3.5%. Additionally, the consumer price index rose by “only” 8.5% instead of the expected 8.9%. Having this news in mind, one could think that the technical recession (two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth) in the U.S. is already resolved. However, on the other side, we are hearing that big companies like Amazon, Shopify, or Microsoft started sending blue letters to their employees and will probably continue to do so. These days, there is many different, mutually contradictory news out there. This can be frustrating when trying to make sense of the current global situation.

In this podcast episode, Jamie Vrijhof-Droese, Urs Vrijhof-Droese, and Jess Roberson sit down to discuss the differences between the U.S. and Switzerland when it comes to inflation, interest rates, and recession definitions. The team will start the podcast by discussing the recent celebration of Swiss National Day, the equivalent of Independence Day in the U.S. We hope you enjoy it.

Managing the markets has not been easy in the last two and a half years. Who would have thought that after a global lockdown markets would immediately start a new rally bringing them to all time highs? It was clear to us that this rally could not be sustainable. When the markets started to tumble this year, many financial advisors started shouting that now is the time to “buy the dip”. If you had followed their strategy, it would not have ended well so far.

Brush up on your investment terms and what this means for our economy, your investments and the possibility of a recession. A bear market refers to a period of time in which stock prices decline and the overall market outlook is pessimistic. Beyond the daily fluctuations of the market, a bear market is typically marked by a 20 percent or more fall in the market index over at least a two-month period. Bear markets throughout history have varied greatly in severity and length of time. For example, two of the longest bear markets experienced in America include the Stock Market Crash of 1929, which lasted 34 months, and the more recent 2007 financial crisis, in which the bear market lasted over 27 months.

This year, making the right investment decisions has been quite challenging. Markets are down double digits year-to-date. The game was therefore not about gaining the most but about losing less than everybody else. Investors are unsure about how to position their portfolios. While some say that this is the beginning of a bear market, others state that the current weakness in the markets is a buying opportunity. We believe that the current downward movement will not be reversed until there is a mutual effort to change something about the current situation. Accordingly, from our perspective counter-movements represent opportunities to get out at a better price instead of giving confidence that the markets go up further. However, there are always exceptions where it makes sense to stay invested or even take in new investments.

Test your own financial knowledge by reviewing these 5 must-know investment basics. Working with a trusted financial professional is important when it comes to strategizing and preparing to meet your financial goals. As most of us handle money on a daily basis, it’s important to have an in-depth understanding of the fundamentals of financial literacy, especially when it comes to investing. In our blog post we’ve identified five financial basics everyone should know. Understanding these important concepts can serve as a basis for your financial investment standings.

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.