Dear valued client,
Markets suffered a rare week of losses as Jerome Powell’s remarks alluded to the possibility of further interest rate hikes before the end of the calendar year, barring upcoming economic data. The Fed Chairman said inflation remains sticky in a number of areas and with the labor market still tight, the central bank may need to further tighten monetary screws to slow growth and pull prices lower.
Important political meetings took place this week. The first was between U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Relations between the two world superpowers have been dicey lately, but reports show both sides agreed to stabilize their relationship and keep it from deteriorating further. The second was at the White House between President Joe Biden and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The goal of the meeting was to deepen their economic ties; with India’s growing population and tensions with China, American companies are looking to diversify their manufacturing base – an opportunity India has been seizing. Companies such as Apple and IBM already have significant footprints in India, while others including Tesla and GE are looking to expand in their direction.
Canada’s population recently became 40 million strong, mostly by welcoming in foreign workers, students, and refugees. The goal is for newcomers to help bolster the economy, keep the workforce young, and invent new tech. Skeptics, however, have pointed out that surging home prices in large cities is evidence that the immigration ramp-up is straining resources. Supply and demand will have to recalibrate to help attenuate the economic issues Canadians are facing.
I’d like to close with a passage from the Daily Stoic newsletter on the importance of finding your why.
“What kept the Stoics going? Through those dark times, that real and unvarnished understanding of human nature and human life? Marcus Aurelius kept going despite terrible tragedy and loss. Epictetus pushed through terrible injustice. What drove them?
Clearly, it was something. They never explicitly said what it was or why… former President Jimmy Carter tried to explain it this way, ‘I don’t know exactly how to express it. I feel I have one life to live. I feel like God wants me to do the best I can with it. And that’s quite often my major prayer; let me live my life so that it will be meaningful.’
This is the idea Marcus was trying to remind himself of when he struggled to get out of bed in the morning (Book 5 of Meditations). That he was put on this planet for something… and it wasn’t huddling under the covers. This is what James Stockdale and Viktor Frankl thought about as they languished as prisoners – they wanted to carry on living, not out of basic self-preservation, but because they were intent on transforming their experiences and suffering into something meaningful.
It is what we must think about as we arise each morning, as we struggle in our own lives. We have just one life. How will we spend it? How will we make this day – this existence – meaningful?”
Have a terrific weekend,
PW
