When I am trying to understand the macroeconomy, I often find myself resorting to one of my favorite sayings: All propositions about real interest rates are wrong. For starters, let’s define the real interest rate, or more properly a term series of real interest rates. If the long rate is published at say 6%, that is the nominal long rate. ...

The fastest growing niche of the global smartphone business isn’t the latest, greatest upgrade. It’s used phones, and American companies are leaders in supplying them to consumers at home and abroad. It’s a commercial success story with environmental and social benefits. But thanks to a provision hidden in a sprawling legislative trade- and industrial-policy package recently passed by the US ...

  Much of the commentary about the Ukraine war’s implications for the investment-management industry has tended to be both immediate and narrow, particularly in discussions about the spillovers for different segments. By zooming out, however, some longer-term ramifications become more apparent for both public and private markets. The war is amplifying and accelerating six important secular evolutions that were already ...