“You are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue.” - Warren Buffett

From the Desk of Joe Rollins

The above phrase was an excerpt from Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders related to the 2022 year. Basically, what he is referring to is that the economics of his buyback program are correct and the Biden administration and other opponents of it have misunderstood them. What is shocking about this is that Warren Buffett has been a Democrat his entire life. He was a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton and has elected not to criticize Washington in the past. I guess all of that has changed and I will explain.

Joe with the Guest of Honor/expectant mother Elizabeth Flores

I have a lot of things I find interesting to discuss in this posting. The major headline in Barron’s recently was “What everyone got wrong about the economy and the ominous implications for the Fed.” I have been posting for the last year and a half that things were never as bad as they seemed and certainly were not as bad as the media led you to believe. I think we can now reflect on why the so-called experts got it wrong.

I also want to explain the economy and why it continues to be stronger than anticipated by virtually everyone. I also want to go through the numbers and tell you exactly how much each segment of the population pays in income tax. You would believe from the rhetoric of the administration that the rich do not pay their fair share and I can give you the exact numbers that prove to you that they do. I also want to explain why you should not be concerned about the debt limit or Taiwan. Most important of all, I have a solution that could have prevented the Ukrainian War from even getting started.

Client Stephanie King’s love of horses is more than just a hobby!

Before covering all of those terribly interesting subjects, I have to report on the stock market for the month of February 2023. Basically, this month was down a little from the incredibly hot January we had recently. Interestingly though, virtually all the growth segments of the markets were higher than the value components. That is an unusual turnaround where growth lost less than value during February. The strongest segments of the market were the small-cap growth stocks, which is a good sign. Usually, the small-cap growth stocks are the ones that will rally first if a market increase in forthcoming.

For the month of February 2023, the Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index was down 2.4%, but was still up 3.7% for the year then ended. Just for comparison, the 10-year return on this index was an annual increase of 12.2% even with the horrible year of 2022 included. The NASDAQ Composite stock index was down 1% for February but was up 9.6% for the year 2023. Its 10-year returns are 14.9% annually. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index was down 3.9% for January and is down 1.1% for the year 2023. Once again, its 10-year returns reflect an annual gain of 11.3%.

Bond funds are getting hit historically hard since the increase in interest rates continues to rise. The Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate bond index was down 2.6% for the month of February and is up 0.6% for the year 2023. Its 10-year returns are 1.1% annualized. As you can clearly see, bonds continue to be underperformers of the markets, and with interest rates likely to go higher, that will most likely impact bond funds negatively. Why anyone would want to buy bonds with interest rates rising is beyond my comprehension.

Josh introducing Ava to some greens she might actually enjoy

During the President’s State of the Union Address, he focused some of the speech on the negative impacts of companies buying back their own stocks. One of the points that he emphasized was that the oil and gas companies bought back stock rather than using the money to invest in production to keep gas prices lower. It almost seemed to be comic relief that the President was criticizing the oil companies after all he has done to limit oil exportation and production in the United States. However, he could not resist criticizing them for not investing more in future production even given the enormous restrictions that he has imposed to limit their growth. Clearly, he does not understand oil economics.

Basically, what the President was proposing was that he would quadruple the tax on corporate buybacks and encourage long-term investments. There is currently a 1% tax on buybacks, and he is proposing a 4% new tax to limit this repurchasing. In Warren Buffett’s quote above, he is saying that if you do not understand the economic positive implications of stock buybacks, you are either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue. Unless I am reading that incorrectly, Warren Buffett is calling the President those exact names.

Robby and the lovely Caroline all gussied up for the
Daddy Daughter CKS Dance

I too have wondered why politicians criticize buybacks. If you think about it in its truest form, the people selling the stock back to the company must pay tax on that transaction. The company that is buying back the stock does not get to deduct the cost of the buyback. So, for revenue going to the Federal Government, it is a win-win. They collect the income taxes on the person who is selling the stock back, but the corporation does not get to deduct the cost of that buyback.

I would think that any reasonable politician after reviewing the economic effects of the buyback would agree with Warren Buffett that they do not harm shareholders and do not enrich the chief executive officers. What is incredibly interesting about this statement by Warren Buffett is that he appears to be openly criticizing the President and the party for which he has been a lifelong voter. I am not sure what that means for the political future, but rarely do you see Warren Buffetf saying anything political and certainly nothing politically negative.

I have asserted in these posts all along that I thought the media and Wall Street in general were overexaggerating the economic effects of the current economy. I wrote that there will be no recession in 2022 and still believe there will not likely be a recession in 2023 even though investors were being bombarded with statements to the contrary. I have gone back and reviewed some of the information I have previously written and came across the following fact that seem to be relevant.

DeNay, Alexis, and Lauren dressed in pink to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby Penelope

In March 2022, Goldman Sachs forecasted that there would be a 20% to 35% of an economic contraction within 12 months. One of the most respected CEOs in America is the CEO of J. P. Morgan Chase, Mr. Jamie Dimon. In June, he was shouting to all the news outlets that the U. S. was in store for an “economic hurricane.” I guess he was wrong about that also. Even Bank of America predicted a mild recession would hit before the end of the year of 2022. To double up on this policy, the Federal forecast for economic growth for the year 2022 was going to be a meager 0.2% for the entire year. All these so-called experts in the field of economic forecasting were absolutely just “slam dunk” wrong. Not one of the predictions above came true and everyone in fact suffered a price.

It is almost a foregone conclusion that if you keep pounding the public with this negative economic forecast, sooner or later the public will begin to believe it. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy when those times come. If the public believes that recession is on the way, almost immediately they will start cutting back on employees, new construction and virtually everywhere else they can cut so that they can weather the recession that was coming. But what happened when the people realized that these predictions were false? Did you see even one of these so-called experts above come back with a correction of their projection? Not even one. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

Clients Wyatt and Beverly Foster enjoying the daffodils at Gibbs Garden

The Wall Street Journal said that, “The depressing outlook dragged down consumer sentiment and convinced roughly three-quarters of Americans by late fall that the country was already in recession.” Think through that statement for just a second. Three-quarters of Americans believed, due to the media’s reflection on the economy, that we were already in recession last fall, yet we are not even in recession now, five months later.

Many of the major financial publications are trying to explain why the economy has not fallen into recession yet. The biggest reason they quote is that the consumer continues to hold up the economy. I am not exactly sure as to why they find this concept so hard to understand. When you have 3.4% unemployment, that means virtually everyone that wants a job is working. Even the lowest-paid person still has to buy groceries, gasoline and various other consumables.

Each of those purchases by the lower-paid people produces Gross Domestic Product. When the lowest-paid person buys goods at the grocery store, the grocery store pays its employees, an electric bill and buys more products to sell. It is said that the velocity of money is seven times, which means it has been spent seven times before it has finally returned to the Federal Reserve. If everyone is working and everyone is consuming, why would these so-called expert economists not realize that you cannot fall into recession when the labor market is so strong?

Jose realizing that there is no chance of the
packages containing a PlayStation 5

The Federal Reserve has been surprised that their unprecedented increases in interest rates have not slowed down the economy dramatically. They thought that increasing interest rates eight times over the last year, and likely another time this March, would have dramatically slowed down the economy, but it has not. There are many reasons why the economy has not slowed but the overwhelming evidence is that a great many Americans are insulated from these rate increases. Back in 2008, most homeowners had adjustable mortgages. Now only 10% of homeowners have adjustable mortgages, and the vast majority of Americans have locked in low interest rates, so these increases have little or no effect on them.

It is true that higher interest rates have slowed the purchasing of new residences by the American people, but this is a short-term effect. As I explain to anyone who wants to purchase a home, if you are waiting for interest rates to come down, you are clearly making a mistake. By waiting, you have allowed the cost of housing to go up due to inflation and you are much better off biting the bullet and pay the higher rates with the hopes of refinancing in the future. Staying another year in an apartment where you are paying rent creates no economic benefit to you in any way.

Lauren and Mia thinking Friday lunches at Ansley Golf Club should become a regular occurrence

The biggest obstacle that the Federal Reserve cannot overcome is that many Americans continue to spend their savings to keep their lifestyle at a high level. We are only a couple of years removed from the enormous cash the government transferred to individuals and as every report indicates there is still over $5 trillion in money market accounts that consumers are pulling down to go out to restaurants, make purchases and even take trips.

History has indicated that if you increase interest rates, eventually you will throw the country into recession and therefore slow inflation. As I commented in the last posting, do you really think that the Federal Reserve is willing to destroy the economy to improve it? Given that this year is an election year, and we are only one and a half years away from a new Presidential election, I do not believe that the Federal Reserve has any desire to further hurt the U. S. economy.

What is even more baffling in this wacky U. S. economy is that the Atlanta Federal Reserve is forecasting GDP for this first quarter to be 2.0% positive. Since we are approaching the end of the quarter and the Atlanta Federal Reserve has been closer to right than anyone else regarding projecting the economy, it must be a huge let-down to the Federal Reserve that given all their extraordinary rate increases the economy continues to be positive and the employment market continues to be fully employed. Every employer I know is still seeking more employees to hire.

Erik, Danielle and Robby just excited to be out of the office!

One of the most favored phrases by politicians that you hear virtually every day is, “Make the rich pay their fair share.” I guess the politicians have never bothered to look up the correct information, otherwise they would not use that phrase so often. The facts indicate almost exactly the opposite.

Using the Internal Revenue Service’s own records, it indicated for the year 2020 that the top 1% of earners paid 42.3% of this country’s income taxes. That is a two-decade high in the share of taxes that 1% of earners paid. What is even more interesting is that the 1% reported 22.2% of the adjusted gross income of all the tax returns in the United States, but they basically paid double the income tax as their earnings. You can make no other assumptions looking at these statistics than to understand that the income tax rates in America are highly progressive already, and do not need to be further increased since the 1% pays the vast majority of taxes.

Pinewood Derby Car Champion of the World – Reid Schultz
(ok, maybe not world but he sure is cute)

But if you look at the numbers a little closer, the 1%, which reflects income above $550,000, had an average income tax rate of 26%. Those making more than $220,000 but less than $550,000, paid a tax rate of 17.5%. If you look at the next grouping between $220,000 and $150,000, the tax rate is 13.1%. Above $85,000 is 9.5%, above $42,000 is 6.5% and the bottom 50% of the taxpayers whose income was below $42,000 paid an average rate of 3.1% income taxes. I am not sure exactly how you can get a clearer definition of a progressive rate structure than these numbers indicate. These numbers do not indicate any social security tax, excise tax or fuel tax. This just solely reflects income tax. I hope that once and for all we could stop this argument that the wealthy do not pay their fair share.

I have been confronted by clients in recent months related to the fact that the Federal Reserve is now in excess of their federal debt limit. Some clients have expressed outrage that there might be a shutdown of government and we will default on our Treasury Bonds which are held around the world. I am not sure exactly why these clients are concerned about this situation since it is clearly academic and certainly not troublesome.

Let me give you an example of why this is not a problem. Imagine if you, as an individual, went through a troubling financial time and maxed out all your credit cards and did not have enough income coming in to fund your lifestyle, pay all those credit cards and you are facing ultimate default on all. But wait, due to the magic you have you can go down to the basement and print some new money which can then be used to pay off all your debts. Magic has been done, and even though you are above all your debt limits, you were able to pay off and satisfy all your creditors.

Cutest sister-in-laws - Carter and Ava Rollins

That is exactly where the United States stands today. Even though they do not have the congressional power to borrow more money to pay off their debts, they just conveniently go down into the basement and print more dollars and use that to satisfy them. You should never be concerned with these types of political shenanigans, since as long as the United States has the capacity to print money, it will do so when it is in danger of a credit default.

I have used this example many times before, but it bears repeating. People were always bewildered by the fact that Nazi Germany could fight a war around the world even though this county was a relatively small industrial power at the time. Basically, how they financed the war was to print more money and use that money to fund the war. It was believed that near the end of the war, their money had become so worthless that they were having to pay their soldiers daily because the value of the money could not keep up with the cost of inflation.

Proud soon-to-be parents Jose and Elizabeth – Congratulations!

A good example today is Argentina, which reports inflation exceeding 100% annualized. Yes, there is great danger to printing money to pay off debts. But due to the overall strength of the United States economy, the printing of several billion dollars of new money will have minimal effect on the currency.

I am always fascinated by clients that get concerned with the potential of China invading Taiwan, taking over Taiwan or, in recent days, providing military support to Russia in the Ukraine War. I think these fears are unfounded due to the economic effect of the relationship between China and the United States. China’s major export consumer is the United States. Why under any circumstances would they take the risk of overturning that economic relationship with relatively small ventures like taking over Taiwan or helping Russia with their war in Ukraine?

This does not have anything to do with the bullets that would be fired, it has everything to do with the economic effect. If China were to invade Taiwan today almost assuredly the United States would completely stop any type of economic relationship with China. It is extremely important for China to keep its population working and being paid to prevent backlash or violence from the population. If China did not have the United States as a consumer of its products, most assuredly there would be major unemployment and economic disaster to the Chinese population.

Ziming happy to be enjoying a meal outside of the office
– no fork and knife required

Think about the consequences of providing lethal military armaments to Russia. People are completely confused about Russia and its economic prowess. Russia after its breakup in 1989 is a relatively small country. The GDP of Russia is not as high as the GDP of Texas. It is a very small country economically, and certainly the economic consequences of this war are huge.

Think for a second of the generational long-term effects if it is true that Russia has lost 100,000 military troops in Ukraine. Firstly, you have to consider the demographics of how many babies will not be born in Russia due to the loss of manpower. Also, consider that these are the young men that provide workers for their industries and keep their economy moving. These men will no longer be available to do that work.

Some tailgating that even Ava could enjoy with Josh and Carter

Notwithstanding the fact that Ukraine has reduced Russia’s military capabilities by a significant amount and with Russia’s loss of manpower, the long-term economic effects for Russia are historic. Also, it is hard to fathom that if Russia does win the war in Ukraine, that would be a peaceful relationship. Does Putin himself even believe that due to the damage that Russia has done to that country, it could possibly be a country that they could govern?

Russia certainly does not have the manpower to maintain that country by military force and it is hard to fathom that the citizens of Ukraine would be loyal to the Russian government given the damage they have done. In Ukraine, you have entire cities that have been leveled and you have entire utility systems that are no longer functional. Who could possibly afford to rebuild that country other than the United States or China? Therefore it makes it even more improbable that Putin will be successful in his venture, given that even if he wins the war, he will not be able to govern the country. Putin has made a serious mistake.

As we move into spring in the United States, the economy continues to be strong, and employment continues to be even stronger. There has been a very strong start to the year with the economy and with the stock market. We are finally seeing some stabilization and growth and to this point there is certainly no sign of recession on the horizon. To create recession, the Federal Reserve would have to find a way to reduce the workforce by over 4 million people and force those people out of their jobs and into unemployment. So far, all we have seen are layoffs in the high-tech industries which puts highly skilled people back into the labor market who will quickly get brand-new jobs. I realize that the Federal Reserve is frustrated by their inability to create chaos in the economy, but that has more to do with the strength of the United States economy and less to do with the weakness of the rate increases.

New Rollins team member, Josh Portschy,
hitting the field with his brother

There will be a slowdown in the economy as we progress through the year 2023 by no other reason than the Federal Reserve will continue to force rates up to try to reduce the influence in the economy. However, it is my opinion that they are going to be unsuccessful in creating recession in those acts because the economy is just too strong at the current time to turn around so quickly.

As I mentioned in the last posting, the international markets are certainly strengthening, and we need to be invested. China has now reopened again from its shutdown from Covid-19 and Europe appears to have turned the corner, and there is unlikely to be recession in Europe. In fact, the economies around the world appear to be improving and I believe that bodes well for future stock increases.

Pi Kappa Phi’s newest member, Bailey Musciano-Howard

In the opening, I indicated that I have a solution that would have prevented the Russia-Ukraine War from even proceeding to begin with. It was rumored that Putin wanted direct access to the island of his territory in Crimea but had no access since Ukraine controlled all the roads between Russia and Ukraine. It seems to me that if Putin was a rational human being one of the ways that you could have satisfied both sides at the beginning of this war would have been to build a very nice four-lane superhighway, right down the middle of the highway to provide Russia direct access to Crimea. I know that it is a simple solution, but sometimes simple solutions have the potential to avoid hundreds and thousands of casualties and billions in properties destroyed.

One of the things I am currently seeing as a tax preparer is that people owe less income taxes than in the last few years. Due to the sharp correction in the stock market in 2022 we do not see the capital gains that taxpayers have been experiencing for years. What is interesting about this concept is that this is a direct hit on the revenue that the United States government receives. Roughly 45% of all the revenues that the United States government collects is from individual taxpayers. Since these taxpayers are paying less tax due to the market selloff in 2022, that will make the deficits worse than anticipated.

We are now 1.5 years away from a Presidential election and I have to think that sooner or later the Federal Reserve will indicate that they do not want to be a part of the political process and will announce that they are sticking with their current economic forecast and will wait and see what effect rate increases have on the economy before increasing again. Whenever that speech is given by Chairman Powell, where he concedes that rate increases will stay at current levels, you will see a dramatic increase in the value of the stock market. You cannot participate in that rally sitting in cash. I know people are excited that they can make 4% on a money market account now but they are oblivious to the fact that the stock market has already far exceeded that level through the first week in March.

Ziming and Josh taking a break from taxes

If you have an interest in coming down to visit with us, we look forward to seeing you. We are in the midst of tax season for our Firm, but I will have the time to sit down and review your portfolio, taxes, or anything else you might be interested in.

As always, the foregoing includes my opinions, assumptions, and forecasts. It is perfectly possible that I am wrong.

Best Regards,
Joe Rollins

All investments carry a risk of loss, including the possible loss of principal.  There is no assurance that any investment will be profitable.

This commentary contains forward-looking statements, which are provided to allow clients and potential clients the opportunity to understand our beliefs and opinions in respect of the future.  These statements are not guarantees, and undue reliance should not be placed on them.  Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from our expectations.  There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Unemployment rate falls to the lowest level since 1969 – a 53-year low. Do we have to destroy the economy in order to fix it?

From the Desk of Joe Rollins

The title of this posting sums up my views regarding how there could there be a recession this year with virtually everyone who wants to work having a job. One of my biggest mistakes in 2022 was that I did not believe that the average investor would accept the fact that recession was imminent in 2022, as the so-called experts were projecting. In fact, I was correct, and they were wrong. There was no recession in 2022. But the big question now, as we sit here in February, is there a recession expected in 2023?

I must admit I was surprised by the huge January 2023 rally in the financial markets. More than anything, it was just a reversion from the oversold market in 2022. But there are some very interesting trends going on that confound investors, which I will try to explain in this posting. I also want to give you an update on employment, which has been extraordinarily strong and the resurgence in Europe and China that will make this year better than most people expect.

Carter and Josh Rollins in Chicago with festive Foster and Freddy

I also want to teach a remedial course on the valuation of the dollar and international commerce and the effect it had on corporate profits in America in 2022. I have so many interesting things I want to discuss in this posting, but I must report on the excellent month that we had in January.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index was up 6.3% for the month of January after being down 18.1% for all of 2022. The NASDAQ Composite stock index was the winner in January by being up 10.7% after being down close to 30% in 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index was the laggard at 2.9% for the month of January and in comparison, even the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond index was up 3.2% during the month of January. By all standards, the month of January was an excellent month and both stocks and bonds made money.

It is hard to draw a conclusion from just one month’s performance; you really need to look at a longer time span to judge an index. As an example, the S&P 500 stock index for the 10-year period ending January 31, 2023, was up 12.7%. The NASDAQ Composite stock index was up 15.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index was up 12% for the 10-year period. These are annual returns, not cumulative returns. Only the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate bond index had a dismal 10-year performance at 1.4%. It is clear to see that even with the huge losses we incurred in 2022, these indexes produced double-digit returns for the full ten-year period.

Shane and Alexandra Jarmin hanging out
with Cameron, Mickey and Cooper!

Understanding the excellent news on the performance in January, the result of the performance for 2023 will hinge upon whether there is in fact a recession in store for the U.S. economy this year. As I have been arguing for the last two years, there are no obvious indicators that would imply recession is imminent in 2023. I fully recognize that in 2022 we had two negative GDP quarters. Just as a refresher, in the first quarter of 2022, the economy was down 1.6% and was down 0.6% in the second quarter. But then suddenly, the GDP turned around and in the third quarter, the U.S. economy expanded on an annualized basis at 3.2% followed by a 2.9% growth in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The old standard was that if you had two back-to-back negative GDP quarters, you were in recession. However, the strong comeback of GDP in the last half of 2022 belies that old standard. In fact, if you review the entire year of 2022, you will note that GDP increased by 2.1% for the year, which is quite a satisfactory performance given the very difficult Covid-19 situation and the worldwide increase of interest rates.

Partners Danielle, Robby, Joe and Eddie
still waiting for you to come see them soon!

I must admit that I was totally amused when they announced that the GDP for the fourth quarter of 2022 was 2.9%. All these so-called experts on TV rushed to explain that they were not wrong about a recession in 2022, it was just postponed. Their thinking, even though we were able to dodge the recession in 2022, almost assuredly it will occur in 2023 as they proclaimed. These “experts” were predicting basic carnage to the U.S. economy, which I assume included bread lines and mass unemployment. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe those who found their way onto TV are not as well-educated in the signs as older economists like me.

The last really bad recession we had in the United States was in 2008. We have had some small blips along the way with Covid-19, etc., but 2008 was a bona fide recession. Perhaps these so-called experts that appeared on TV were just not around during 2008. Remember, that was 15 years ago.

Can you imagine their disbelief when the employment numbers for January were reported at an almost unbelievable growth of 517,000 jobs? January, for the most part, has always been a negative month for obvious reasons. In many years in the past, retail will lay off a sizeable number of their employees after the holiday season. Therefore, retail almost always suffered negative trends during the month of January. But, not so during the month of January 2023. Virtually every segment of the employment market showed net increases in jobs in January except for the tech industry. Maybe what we are seeing here is that it is so hard to hire people in this full economy that employers are holding on to them rather than suffering the risk of not being able to hire others when needed. As a reminder, the same has been true for almost one year.

Ava in Quebec City, Canada – “C’est le fun!”

We will get back to the same equation that I have been discussing for the last two years. With the unemployment rate at 3.4% and at a 53-year low, virtually everyone in America that wants to work is working. Job openings in December jumped up to 11 million and the total number of unemployed dropped once again to 5,694,000. Once again, this month showed that there are twice as many job openings as there are unemployed; but with the lowest unemployment rate in 53 years, there is just no one to fill that many job openings.

The so-called experts are now saying that unemployment will accelerate as the year goes forward and that we might see as many as 600,000 job losses monthly. I find that assumption to be almost absurd and should be taken with great skepticism. Just run the numbers and you can see exactly what I mean. There are 5,694,000 people unemployed, yet there are 160,138,000 people employed - divide the two numbers and you get, short of rounding, the unemployment report.

Patrick Reaves, Josh and Joe on Hole 6 at Pebble Beach Golf Club

In order to reach the recession numbers that the Federal Reserve is forecasting at 6%, there would have to be 9,608,000 unemployed Americans. Note, that even at this level, there are still enough job openings for every unemployed person. But in essence, that would mean that there would need to be four million additional unemployed people in 2023 to meet the Federal Reserve’s goal of 6% unemployment by the end of the year.

With the announcement of over 500,000 new jobs created during the month of January, the Commerce Department also increased the number of new jobs in both December and November. If you take that 90-day period, the average increase in jobs monthly has been 350,000 new jobs per month. What is astonishing and almost hard to believe is that this number is higher than the number of jobs that were being created in 2019 prior to the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.

The reason that I am so skeptical about these numbers even being obtainable is that people seem to forget that we are in a Presidential election cycle, even today. Already, there are announced candidates and the election is only 18 months away. To think that the Federal Reserve would orchestrate the unemployment of four million Americans over the next nine months, during a Presidential election cycle, borders on absolute insanity.

Joe Rollins and the late, great Craig Sager at
the Lonely Cypress at Pebble Beach

I think what we will see coming up is that the Federal Reserve will propose another increase of 0.25% at their next meeting in March, which will meet their goal of having the short-term interest rate at 5%, and then they will go away. The reason that the Federal Reserve does not want to be held accountable for problems in an election cycle is that they deem themselves to be anti-political. If they can achieve their goal of reaching 5% Federal funds rate in March, it would be fully understandable that they would take no further action for the rest of 2023. The very day that the Federal Reserve announces that they are through with rate increases, you will see a substantial movement to the upside in the equity markets.

The downward drift in the market during 2022 was no doubt substantial and followed a previous year filled with wild and crazy speculation. Who can forget the GameStop fiasco of 2021 that ran the stock from $10 a share to $360 a share to subsequently drop 90%? This was a company that was never profitable and certainly did not deserve those types of valuations. But when you have rampant speculation without any type of financial analysis, you are going to get those wild swings.

“When I was your age…” Joe Rollins with his first computer in 1983.
$6,200 with 12% interest

As we were watching substantial losses being accrued on our mutual funds in 2022, I took great confidence when reviewing the holdings of the mutual funds and noting that they held the same stocks that were being targeted in concerted effort by professional traders. Despite moving technology down close to 30% in 2022, there was a massive rebound in technology stocks in January of 2023 from the oversold positions of 2022, allowing investors to feel a little vindicated.

There are many interesting things occurring in 2023 that will offset some of the negativity that we suffered through in 2022. It was projected early in 2022 that the European countries would suffer a severe energy crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine. In fact, it was noted that virtually all the natural gas and oil in Europe were sold to them by Russia. Many so-called experts projected that the European continent would freeze over the winter with no natural gas to heat their homes. Further, the long-term stability of their economies in Europe would be compromised since they had no natural resources of their own. Absolute chaos would attack the European countries since they could not heat their homes, factories or produce goods and services.

Client Scott Weiss celebrating with grandsons,
Cooper (1) + birthday boy Cameron (4)

In China, the country was working on a zero Covid-19 mentality. Even if they only had a few cases in a particular city, the Chinese government would shut down the entire economy. For long stretches, many of the major cities were not allowed to work. In fact, they were not allowed to even leave their homes to get food. The Chinese government was imposing essential embargos around the world and the citizens of China were suffering without normal goods and services. How quickly have things now changed?

In 2023 we now know that Europe did not freeze over the winter. Now it is reported that they have obtained enough natural gas to fill 90% of their storage. A great deal of that natural gas came in from the United States in the form of liquified natural gas. Also, the European countries have cut off all purchases of oil from Russia and it was reported that the oil pipeline from Russia directly to Europe has had its capacity cut by 90% with virtually no oil flowing from Russia into Europe. Here we have a situation where at the anniversary of the first year of the Ukrainian War, Europe has dealt a major blow to Russia by no longer purchasing oil through Russia, thus cutting off a major economic stimulus.

Reminiscing – Client Liz Mercure surprising Ava
at the Aquarium on her 6th birthday

Also in 2023, China has now completely reopened and has basically taken the opposite position from before, letting Covid-19 run through the population so they can put the country back to work. It is now projected that the GDP of China will be up closer to 5% in 2023 given their reopening. You do not have to look far to know that the Chinese economy is virtually the same size as the U.S. economy. The fact that they are now reopening, and their citizens are now consumers will greatly enhance the economy of the entire world. It is really difficult to buy iPhones if you are not able to leave your apartment as was the case in China. Certainly, the fast food restaurants of the U.S. companies located in China were unable to sell product during the shutdown.

Now all that has changed and there will be a surge in consumer purchasing throughout Asia due to the opening of China. Do not forget that much of the growth from Asia has been in Southeast Asia. When you see the growth of Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, this is growth transferred out of China during the Covid-19 shutdown. Once China is back up and running at full speed, along with the strength of the South Asian countries, you should see a dramatic increase in economic activity from Asia. One of the most powerful countries in the world in the next decade is likely to be India. With their huge population and their technological innovations, India should become a major consumer along with China in the coming years.

In recognizing this trend, we are starting to reallocate substantial assets of ours to emerging markets where these companies are represented. I think you will notice that we are buying a great deal of international investments. What is clear is that whether the U.S. has a recession or not, there will be a slowdown in growth in 2023 which is the sole goal of the Federal Reserve. So as the U.S. slows down, the rest of the world will speed up.

Josh and Carter Rollins in Hawaii – A hui hou!

Do not be surprised to see the economic rate of growth in Asia and South America exceed that of the United States in the coming years. That is a natural evolution of their economies starting back up as ours slows down. The U.S. has enjoyed extraordinary growth in the last 10 years, but to contain inflation, it is not only correct but important that we slow growth down for the economy to catch up. Inflation is not good for anything other than making you feel better that your assets are growing year over year. But it also diminishes the value of everyone’s lifestyle by making necessities more expensive.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of everyone working, not only in the United States but in China and Southeast Asia. It is the little things that make a difference in the economy. One additional job creates income to that employee and he passes down that income to not only his family, but to local merchants. He spends that money at the grocery store and the grocery store pays their employees. He buys gas at the gas station and the gas station employs more people.

The most important component of increasing GDP is to keep everyone working. As long as everyone has a job, they have discretionary spending and that discretionary spending increases GDP. For the Federal Reserve to want to decrease that consumer buying, they will have to destroy jobs for millions of employed Americans over the next 9 months. I think the odds of that happening are close to zero. No president could survive with unemployment growing.

Joe’s favorite picture of little Ava (5)

If you review all the numbers that are now currently available, you would have to squint to see a recession anywhere close to being around. There is just too much strength in the economy to turn that battleship around over such a short period of time. I am not saying it cannot happen, but it does seem highly unlikely. I projected a huge increase in our performance during the start of 2023 and quite frankly a good portion of that in January has already been realized. I feel sorry for those investors that drank the Kool-Aid and got out anticipating that recession in 2023. They really missed out on a fabulous month during January.

In the recent Apple report for the 4th quarter of 2022, the so-called experts were astonished that the revenue for Apple actually decreased in the 4th quarter by 5%. They were visibly baffled since this was the first time that Apple has decreased revenue in several decades. However as often is the case with stock analysts, either they did not understand the effect that foreign currency has on corporate America, or they just elected to ignore it for whatever reason. As mentioned above, a great deal of the public that would buy the Apple products were locked down in China and could not get out to purchase new iPhones. But the main reason for the decline was the strength of the U.S. dollar compared to the rest of the world.

For a remedial lesson in currencies, we must look back to the beginning of 2022. In March of 2022, the Federal Reserve decided that it had been behind the curve on increasing interest rates. At that point, they launched the largest increase ever in interest rates in one year. They significantly increased interest rates all 2022 and even into the early weeks in 2023. When they did that, they strengthened the U.S. dollar since money goes where it is treated best. Suddenly you could get 4% on Money Market rates in the United States and money flowed from all over the world into the U.S. currency system.

Josh sharing basketball tips with “Sir Charles” Barkley

It is pretty easy to understand that in a worldwide economy, in the blink of an eye money can be transferred from countries all over the world into the U.S. When that happens, they sell local currency from wherever they are coming from and they buy U.S. dollars, thereby strengthening the American dollar. Conversely what happens when you sell into those foreign currencies, you receive a reduction of the value of that currency by converting it from U.S. dollars to foreign currencies. The substantial run-up in American dollars put a serious decline in earnings from all U.S. companies doing commerce in international countries. It is believed that the decline was somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of currency transfers.

Therefore, if you analyze Apple’s sales and you do it on a stable currency like in the United States, their sales were actually up and not down. Now if the increase in the dollar were going to be consistent year over year in the same direction, it would not be beneficial to add back that change. However, now that foreign countries are starting to increase their own interest rates to match the United States, the increase in the dollar is declining. You are starting to see every country, other than Japan, desiring to slow down a recession by increasing their interest rates.

Just compare the numbers. Currently, in the United States the 10-year treasury is at 3.519%, in the United Kingdom that same bond is at 3.046%. In Germany the 10-year is at 2.214% and in Italy the 10-year is at 4.025%. France is at 2.644% and Japan is at 0.486%. As you can see most of the world is behind the U.S., but they are quickly gaining ground. It looks like we will be at the end of rate increases in the United States after the March meeting of the Federal Reserve. As the rest of the world catches up, this will bring the dollar better under control and will increase profits of U.S. companies that deal in international commerce.

Lucky #9 - Happy Birthday, Caroline!

What is also interesting is even though the Federal Reserve has increased interest rates to 1.5% over the last three meetings, bond yields which should be rising are currently falling. Falling interest rates reduce borrowing costs for companies and homebuyers. This helps the real estate market. The U.S. dollar index is off by 10% from its 2022 peak; a boom in earnings for U.S. corporations competing globally. And the most interesting part is that with the decrease in interest rates, the S&P 500 is actually up 16% from its mid-October lows. It is very unusual to see the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates as bond rates are falling. I think it is fairly clear with the action of the bond market that they are anticipating that interest rates will have to fall over the next couple years and the Federal Reserve will have to cut the Federal funds rate.

I found it amusing when the current administration in the White House decided to attack big oil companies because of excess profits. I am reminded that during the late 1970’s the same thing happened in Washington where they accused big oil of exploiting the shortage of oil due to the Middle-East oil embargo and proposed and passed an excess profits tax in the United States to punish them for their excess profits.

May there always be Tradewinds behind you,
Rainbows above you and Aloha all around you!

In a great many ways, the reason why the price of oil went up was, in fact, the very actions of the current administration in Washington. By restricting permitting and not approving drilling on government land, the current administration forced up prices, improving the profit of oil companies and unfortunately enhancing the ability of Russia due to the sale of oil to fund their war in Ukraine. I am not exactly sure whether the administration understands how oil is priced. It is not an election set by a particular company but a worldwide phenomenon with how oil is traded in international commerce.

As an example, Exxon does not price its oil based upon its interpretation of the market, but rather the price of oil is dictated by market conditions. I am not exactly sure what the administration would like for these companies to do, but clearly they have never understood the economics of oil since they were trying every way possible to eliminate fossil fuel production in the United States.

What is interesting to me is that if you look at the oil companies, they are a dying industry. It is absolutely clear that in 20 or 30 years from now, the use of fossil fuel in the United States will have to decline. The evolution of electric cars and other oil reduction techniques will dramatically decrease the amount of fossil fuels needed to run the U.S. economy. That is not today, tomorrow, or even 10 years from now. But clearly that day will come.

Josh and Carter hoping to be recruited by Christmas carolers

But what is even further interesting is that the corporate profits realized by the oil industry are certainly not anywhere near the profits earned by big tech. While Exxon had a $56 billion profit in 2022, Apple had a profit of close to $100 billion.

Even Google and Microsoft had profits greater than any of the oil companies. It just goes to show that if you really want to punish and tax wealth in the U.S. as the current administration does, positioning that target on oil is certainly misplaced.

As we go forward in the next 10 years, I fully expect to see big tech far exceed the profits of oil. I wonder how long it will be before Washington realizes that the true windfall lies within tech and not oil? You cannot forget that tech has distanced the U.S. from the rest of the world over the last decade. Big tech companies are now the most vulnerable companies in the world. It will be interesting to find out whether Washington will attack tech in the same way they attack oil in order to find more tax dollars for them to waste in Washington.

Edna Taylor – a client for 30 years!

If you have an interest in coming down to visit with us, we look forward to seeing you. We are moving into tax season for our Firm, but I will have the time to sit down and review your portfolio, taxes, or anything else you might be interested in.

As always, the foregoing includes my opinions, assumptions, and forecasts. It is perfectly possible that I am wrong.

Best Regards,
Joe Rollins

All investments carry a risk of loss, including the possible loss of principal.  There is no assurance that any investment will be profitable.

This commentary contains forward-looking statements, which are provided to allow clients and potential clients the opportunity to understand our beliefs and opinions in respect of the future.  These statements are not guarantees, and undue reliance should not be placed on them.  Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from our expectations.  There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

“The stock market is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient.” – Warren Buffett

From the Desk of Joe Rollins

I guess it could be said that I really missed the mark on my 2022 stock market prediction. When you looked at all the data and financial activity, it was pretty clear to me and most analysts that the market would be up in 2022. The analysts and I just assumed that we would have normal economic activity in 2022, which would lead to higher prices later. I guess Casey Stengel said it best, “Never make predictions, especially about the future.”

I forecasted the year-end for 2022 at roughly 5,200. The actual ending number was 3839.5. As you can see, there is quite a gap between my prediction and reality. However, many people were on the same wavelength as me. As an example, Merrill Lynch forecasted 4600, Barclays forecasted 4800, Citi Bank forecasted 4900, Credit Suisse forecasted 5200, and Oppenheimer forecasted 5330. I guess we were all taken by surprise by the economy and stock market’s performance.

I have many subjects that I want to talk about in this posting, including things that people probably have not read about or fully understand. However, virtually all of them are positive with respect to the economy. I have interesting thoughts on the disruptive natural gas supply in Europe, oil prices in the United States in the coming years, the revolution in building microchips in America, and why all the so-called layoffs of employees is actually not the bad news the media would like you to think.

Pals Judge Jerry Baxter and Liz Mercure out for a hike in NC

We are in a period of time where good news is bad news, and bad news is good news. I know that the average observer of the stock market does not understand that mentality, but that is where we are today. Any good news whatsoever makes the market go down since that would presume that interest rates would be higher and, therefore, negative for stocks. Only when you have bad news does the market go up. I know it does not seem logical, but that is the mentality on Wall Street today.

Before I get into those terribly interesting topics, I need to report on the absolute bloodbath that was the financial markets in 2022. I was looking at the list of approximately 150 separate mutual funds at Fidelity. Of those 150 funds, less than 10 had positive returns in 2022 and virtually all of those were oil stocks or oil-related securities. Even the more conservative bond funds lost money in 2022 and the so-called famous 60/40 portfolio mix lost 16.1% for the year. That means if you had a portfolio during 2022 that was represented by 60% bonds and 40% stock funds, you would have lost 16% as compared to the S&P which lost 18.1%. There was truly nowhere to hide during 2022.

The Schultz Family
It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters,
it’s who is around it.

The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was down 18.1% during the year, but the good news is that it was up 7.6% during the final quarter of 2022. The NASDAQ Composite was even worse as it was down 32.5% for the year 2022 and 0.8% for the last quarter of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 6.9% for the year 2022 but was up nicely 16% in the final quarter. Just for a basis of comparison, the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate bond index was down 13% in 2022 and up 1.7% during the final quarter of 2022.

Although the numbers above were truly bad, you have to realize that this was the first significant loss year of the S&P 500 since 2008. We have enjoyed 14 years of excellent growth in the above indexes. Even with these large losses in 2022 the 10-year average on these indexes is still quite excellent. The 10-year average return on the S&P 500 is 12.6%, the NASDAQ Composite is 14.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 12.3%. Even with the huge losses in 2022 year, these three indexes have annual gains in the double digits for the last 10 years.

Ava and CiCi taking turns opening presents

There are a great many things that happened in 2022 that were clearly unexpected which affected the market. One of the first things that happened was the Russian invasion of Ukraine which caused the price of oil to go up to roughly $125 a barrel in March. Given that the price of a barrel of oil today is roughly $72, you can see the dramatic change that has occurred in that inflation-rich factor. I guess we can all thank President Putin for that price increase. I had originally thought that the Russian/Ukraine War would be swift to complete but due to the heroic efforts of the Ukrainian military, they have done substantial damage to the Russian army and have provided a favor to all western countries in demilitarizing the Russian army.

After ten months of military conflict, it appears to be a stalemate or maybe Ukraine has somewhat of an advantage. But the longer the war goes on, the clarity is that Russia does not have the military capability to attack a NATO-bordering country. Back when the war broke out in February of 2022, historical forecasters were predicting that Russia would take Ukraine and then attack Poland. As I wrote in these pages, that assertion was ridiculous, given that NATO has roughly ten times the number of soldiers that Russia maintains.

Cameron visiting a newcomer in isolation at the
Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone

We were also surprised by China’s heavy-handed Covid-19 crackdown. For much of the year 2022, China was going around shutting down factories and cities over even minute Covid-19 cases. By the end of the year they had abandoned that, but the result is that China is roughly two years behind the United States in spreading group immunity. During the year 2022, these massive crackdowns led to supply chain issues which slowed down the economy in the United States and certainly hurt shipments coming out of Asia. However, as we sit here today, the supply chain has caught up and now you are seeing not only reasonable prices but reasonable delivery dates on products coming out of China to the U.S.

However, the most disruptive news during 2022 was that the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 4.25% in just nine months. It has been rare in American finance history that interest rates have been driven up by the Federal Reserve so quickly over such a short period of time. The enormous volatility in the financial markets was a result of these huge increases. Of course, the real reason for these increases was to slow down the economy and create a period of time where inflation could actually catch up to the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2% annually.

The year 2022 will also be looked at under the spectrum of the Federal Reserve trying to slow the economy while the Federal Government was flooding the economy with money. We had the unusual situation where the U.S. Government continued to provide funding for numerous programs, thus funding the U.S. economy and inflation as the Federal Reserve was attempting to slow down the economy and inflation. You would think they would have at least attempted to work together to slow it down in concert.

Bundle of Joy
Client Mike Battle bonding with his first grandchild

Did you realize that during the year 2022, there was an increase in employment every single month in the U.S. economy? The U.S. economy added 4.5 million jobs and there was not a single month that there was a decrease in jobs. The year 2022 was the second-best year for job creation since 1940. If you recall, 1940 was the year preceding the ramp-up of the U.S. economy for WWII. The first was in the Covid-19 year of 2020.

So, was the Federal Reserve successful in slowing the economy during 2022? At the beginning of the year, the unemployment rate was 3.9% and at the end of 2022, the unemployment rate was 3.5%. As you can see, contrary to the desire of the Federal Reserve, as the year progressed, the economy actually got better. You may recall that there was much handwringing in the first two quarters of 2022 by the so-called experts that we would clearly have recession in 2022. What was interesting is that the GDP in the United States actually rose higher as the year went along. In the first quarter GDP was -1.6% and in the second quarter of 2022, GDP was -0.6%. Virtually to everyone’s surprise during the third quarter of 2022, the GDP bounced higher to 3.2%. The Atlanta Federal Reserve is forecasting that the GDP for the fourth quarter of 2022 will be an outstanding 3.8%. In fact, if the forecasters are correct in that assumption, rather than the U.S. economy falling into recession, it will have actually increased in GDP as the year went along.

Caroline + Reid
“May you never be too grown up to search the skies on Christmas Eve.”

While certainly, it is not easy to forecast 2023, it is satisfying that the Federal Reserve itself is not forecasting recession. While clearly there may be a slowdown, I too do not believe that we will fall into recession in 2023 since there are just too many positive economic events going on for that recession to come true. Just for the record and for those that ask me often about job openings, as of late November, there are 10,458,000 job openings and only 5,722,000 unemployed Americans.

One of the great mysteries that we will look back on in 2022, is why on earth do we have twice as many job openings as we have unemployed people. The unemployment rate today at 3.5% is one of the lowest unemployed percentages ever in the history of American finance. To this very day, employers are struggling to hire any employees whatsoever. It is just hard to conceive that recession could be coming in the near future given the absolute strength of employment in the United States.

We heard so many projections in 2022 that have failed to be realized. One of the projections was that due to Russia turning off the oil and gas supplies to Europe, the entire continent would suffer frigid winter months. Here we are halfway through winter already, and Europe has announced that they have solved their natural gas issue and have adequate natural gas to heat Europe through the winter. All that was required was for the U.S. and other countries to provide Europe with liquified natural gas which they could store in the summertime and have available for winter. It was announced over the weekend that Germany’s natural gas storage is above a 90% level. So much for the dire predictions that Germany would freeze during the winter months.

Catch anything?
Ziming Yu and a friend checking out the
Georgia Aquarium over the holidays

One of the main reasons why the economy has been so strong during 2022 is the generous funding of numerous plans by the federal government despite no tax revenue to cover those expenditures. In fact, the government wanted to spend a whole lot more money, but due to the split in congress they were not able to fund the various welfare plans that they had hoped to. Unfortunately, while it is not a problem today, it will be a problem in the future due to the deficits in the economy exploding during 2022.

Virtually all the money spent for these favored programs was deficit money with no specific revenues to cover them. Due to the stock market doing so poor in 2022, there will not be any capital gains revenue to offset these deficits. In 2021, the treasury generated almost a trillion dollars in capital gains taxes. In 2022, it is highly likely that it will generate none.

"Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines
from generation to generation." — Lois Wyse
Harper and Lucy got to spend time with
both grandmothers over Christmas

I could write a whole posting on deficit spending and how it helps the economy and whether there really is a problem creating deficits. At the end of the day, deficits are not a real problem. Any time you have the ability to print your own money and the money is not guaranteed by any asset, and as long as there is a willing partner who will accept that printed money, deficits are not an issue. However, in recent years the federal government has gone crazy and has run up our national debt close to $30 trillion. The interest on that debt alone will become more challenging as we go forward. Once again not a problem for today, but certainly a problem for the future.

It is very interesting that in 2022 the automobile industry in particular was held back by the fact that they could not get microchips for their cars. What was so confusing to many investors is that every chip manufacturer was sold out and could produce no more chips for the next year yet their stocks were all down 50%. Much of the automobile manufacturing in the United States was held up for lack of these chips. Only recently have chip deliveries started to catch up for the auto industry.

However, there is really good news on this subject. Due to the money given to chip manufacturers by the U.S., they are building huge manufacturing plants in the United States. Intel Corp. is building a huge facility in Ohio and Taiwan Semiconductors Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is building a comparable plant in Arizona. If ever we had a national defense problem, it would be in chip manufacturing. If in a time of war we were cut off from chip manufacturers in Asia, we would be virtually handcuffed from building military armaments. The fact that we are building these plants in the United States at the current time is extraordinarily bullish for the future of America.

Ava and Joe watching the game. I wonder who Ava was cheering for?

Almost everyday you read some article in the financial press about big tech companies laying off employees. When Amazon announced that they were laying off 18,000 employees, it was the leading headline all day long. They rolled out a number of so-called “experts” to explain how serious the financial situation was with Amazon in that they had to layoff 18,000 office workers.

Obviously, people who get hysterical regarding that information do not bother to look at the facts. Yes, there are layoffs occurring in beg tech at the current time, but there needs to be. Just to give you an example of the growth in that sector, look at the actual number of employees, both pre-Covid and post. In 2019 Amazon had 798,000 employees, in the third quarter of 2022 they had 1,544,000 employees. Therefore, when they announced that they were laying off 18,000 employees, it was just a little over 1% of their employee base.

The same can be said for virtually all of tech. Alphabet Inc. had 118,899 employees in 2019 and 186,779 employees in 2022. Meta Platforms which is the old Facebook had 44,942 employees in 2019 and in the third quarter of 2022 they had 87,314 employees. As you can see, virtually all of these have grown their employee base over the last couple of years by 100%. It would be irresponsible for them not to consider layoffs at the current time given their bloated employee situation at work.

Happy Pawlidays from CiCi

Another thing that has come up lately is that the productivity of workers has fallen in the United States. This is the first year in many where productivity has actually inched down. Many experts believe that is due to the work-from-home concept, but I think it has more to do with the fact that we have too many employees trying to do the job. Down through time we have found that if an employee is not pushed to produce, productivity fades away. I rather suspect that is the real reason in the fall of productivity, rather than the work-from-home concept.

A few people realize the effect of currencies in corporate earnings. When the United States started increasing interest rates in March of 2022, that made the U.S. more attractive to foreign currencies. As people rushed to move money to the United States, it forced the value of the dollar up. A higher dollar is actually a negative for corporate earnings. That makes U.S. based products more expensive internationally and makes international products less expensive here in the United States. During the second and third quarters of 2022, this huge increase in the dollar dramatically reduced earnings of U.S. corporations.

During the fourth quarter of 2022, foreign central banks caught up with the trend and started to increase their interest rates which forced the value of the dollar down. The dollar has fallen dramaticlly over the last several weeks and months and now should be a net positive for corporate America. This fact alone should increase earning in 2023 as a net positive as compared to the net negative that it was in 2022. I know these points are technical in nature, but they are very meaningful to understanding corporate profits in international commerce.

Cecilia Cmeyla and her Aunt Brisa over the holidays,
leaving no doubt that they’re related

So, I would like to give you some predictions you can hold me accountable to this time next year. It is interesting what is going on in the oil industry. As I mentioned above, the price of oil has gone from $125 a barrel down to roughly $72 a barrel at the current time. What you do not realize is that rotary drilling operating in the United States is up almost 32% over the last year. This time last year, there were 727 rigs working and now there are 961. It seems that the oil industry has caught on to the higher prices and is beginning to produce at a higher level. I think what will happen is what has happened so often in the past. Due to a shortage of oil in the United States, we are working our way back to a glut of oil here at home. This is a very good thing.

It has taken roughly two years to overcome the restrictions on drilling oil that the new President installed. I personally believe it was his clear desire to get the oil prices up, and by restricting their permitting he was able to accomplish that. A great deal of that help can be attributed to Putin beginning a war that nobody wanted in Ukraine. But all of a sudden American oil is gearing up for higher production.

It is my projection that before the next President is installed in office, the U.S. will once again be energy independent. We reached energy independence during the Trump Administration but due to the restrictions on new drilling, we lost that advantage several years later. If oil production in the U.S. continues at the current level, we will not care about the price of oil produced in the Middle East or Russia.

The economic effects of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia are crushing the Russian economy. I would hate to think of the pressure that the Russian government is undergoing now due to the bad news coming out of Ukraine. The one aspect of any war that affects people’s feelings is the reality that sets in when they send back deceased soldiers to their families. When you have a death of a son or daughter, a brother or sister, or a father or mother, it has a huge emotional impact on a country.

Evan Bentley and Alexis Chambers under the lights
at Truist Park for Evan’s company party

Even though they are not allowed to express their outrage in Russia, it is clear that the population is beginning to suffer due to this war that no one wants or really needs. The Ukrainians have done the U.S. a great favor in demilitarizing the Russian government and therefore will reduce the cost of building military armaments for decades to come. It is also clear that a winding down of the Ukrainian war will have to occur due to depleted military supplies by both sides.

From an economic standpoint, inflation is starting to fall and the November numbers were very encouraging. November was the fifth consecutive month of declines suggesting that inflation has clearly peaked. The next big number that all of us we will have to watch out for is what corporate earnings are going to do with the upcoming projected recession. During the fourth quarter of 2022, it was thought that corporate earnings would be up 5.1%. So if corporate profits are higher in the fourth quarter 2022, what will they project in 2023 based upon the so-called upcoming recession?

This gets us into the meat of the question as to what we expect in 2023. Based on my reading of the economic tea leaves, I do not think we will have recession in 2023. We might have a slowdown, but definitely not recession. One of the beauties of investing is that the stock market projects far before the economy bottoms. Most people believe that the stock market will rally six to eight months prior to the economy bottoming out. Based on this information it would seem that the first half of 2023 should be rocky and volatility will continue to capture the market. It looks to me like the second half of 2023 should be excellent in almost every respect.

Finally, now stock prices are at a level that seems to be more than reasonable. At the current time, the S&P P/E ratio of 19.1 is well in line with the long-term averages. Over time this index has averaged a P/E ratio of 19.8. In late 2020 that same ratio was 30 times earnings. So, the correction in 2022 dramatically reduced the fair value of the stock market.

Fake it till you make it!
Elizabeth Flores’ dog, Rico, convincing Santa to add him to the “Nice List”

We are seeing inflation fall fairly dramatically and even by the Federal Reserve’s projection, inflation at the end of 2023 should be at 3.5%. All the economic forecasters that I review indicate that we are very close to a bottom and the fact that the fourth quarter of 2022 yielded positive financial results should indicate that 2023 should be quite satisfactory.

Based on that information, I forecast that we should see gains in the financial markets in 2023 of roughly 20%. While that amount will not completely recover the losses of 2022, it will build a strong foundation for many profits in the future.

If you have an interest in coming down to visit with us, we look forward to seeing you. We are moving into tax season for our Firm and will have the time to sit down and review your portfolio, taxes, or anything else you might be interested in.

As always, the foregoing includes my opinions, assumptions, and forecasts. It is perfectly possible that I am wrong.

Best Regards,
Joe Rollins

All investments carry a risk of loss, including the possible loss of principal.  There is no assurance that any investment will be profitable.

This commentary contains forward-looking statements, which are provided to allow clients and potential clients the opportunity to understand our beliefs and opinions in respect of the future.  These statements are not guarantees, and undue reliance should not be placed on them.  Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from our expectations.  There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.