As we all know 2020 had no shortage of coronavirus headlines, and the economic shocks from the pandemic are likely to reverberate for the foreseeable future.
Big government have managed to fake a comeback with monopoly money, where it became the new normal to supplement employee wages and offer direct payments to their citizens. A big restructure in economics also changed minds about public debt, with federal deficits ballooning with no ends in sight as central banks jumped back into the money printing business while getting interest rates notched record lows.
Shocks hit supply chains across the globe and made businesses and governments even more skeptical on their reliance on China. Things were even tougher on the domestic front. Low-paying work in services, where there’s more face-to-face contact, took a gigantic hit, while higher up the income ladder, remote offices became commonplace. Stock markets returned with a vigor that many thought would take years, compliments to the fed of course…who insisted on interfering with financial instruments to keep this bubble
blowing.
With planes grounded for sometime and travel at a near halt, Big Oil felt a real threat that the world was getting concerned about the climate. Crude prices shockingly did the unthinkable and went negative at one point as people stayed home under lockdowns, giving impetus to the phase out of fossil fuels, while California announced plans to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars by 2035, along with many European countries. Eight oil majors even announced an agreement to apply a common set of “energy transition principles” across their businesses, including a commitment to industry decarbonization, and President-elect Joe Biden promised to rejoin the Paris climate accords.
If there was a show series of “earth†this would be one of the most dramatic episodes! Now with the year coming to a complete close the unthinkable hasn’t stopped not for one second. Our beloved Bitcoin has reached a new all time high which of course was inevitable, currently trading at $28,447. Bitcoin started the year at a mere 7.3k with a yearly low at $3,858 which is roughly a 640% gain from its low to high! Zooming out a bit and looking at Bitcoins relative gold, which had a very good year as well. Gold started the year at $1,524 and had a yearly low at $1,477 which is now closing the year at $1,899. Gold was a very safe play this year with decent gains and very low volatility compared to other asset classes , it even managed to make a new all time high at $2,051. There’s no denying this was a great year for financial markets across the board pretty much aside from bonds , which yields are dwindling to nothing …. but this is okay because the only ones buying are the FED!
With that wrapping up the year, I want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Now let’s make 2021 another amazing year for the books..Set your goals and stay true to them until they’re achieved!