Economic Insights Archives - Catalyst Insights

4 min

Behavioral Economics: The Psychological Shifts Driving the Current Financial Ecosystem

Throughout 2020 and so far in 2021, consumers, investors, and politicians have attempted to navigate an unpredictable coronavirus pandemic, heated U.S. Presidential Election, and turbulent international relations. We saw in real-time the transformation of individual consumer decisions and the pre-pandemic status quos.

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5 min

Economic Insights

Opportunities in Clean Energy Alternatives: The Accord of “Green Hydrogen” to Combat Climate Change

In retrospect, the year 2020 was riddled with market dislocation and uncertainty. However, 2020 was also a year of "fast-forwarding" and innovation. Industries, companies, and policies that would have otherwise taken years to become mainstream quickly became the center of economic, industry, and investment attention. One viewpoint that has emerged from 2020 and has started to show signs of potential in early 2021 is the idea of a "hydrogen economy" and a positive correlation toward reversing climate change.

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5 min

The Right Sector Mix for 2021 Portfolios: Consumer Staples, Technology, and Healthcare

You certainly did not need 20/20 vision to see that 2020 was not an ordinary year. From a global pandemic, civil unrest to an election like no other, news headlines took many twists and turns throughout the year. Despite the vast amount of negative news, financial markets ultimately shrugged off the bad news.

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6 min

2021: Consumption Trend Change

As human beings, we consume from the day we are born until the day we pass. Personal consumption is the largest and most predictable phenomenon there is. Seven billion people spending money to acquire things they want and need always offers interesting investing opportunities. Sometimes, however, certain spending categories become more important than others.

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6 min

The Housing Market Remains a Shining Star amid the Real Estate Market’s Unprecedented 2020

Throughout 2020 economic dislocations ran rampant. However, one segment of the economy that we believe has fundamental strength and has remained vibrant throughout this pandemic is the U.S. housing market. Social distancing, historically low mortgage rates, robust refinancing appetite, a mass exodus from densely populated cities, and increased demand for suburban residential housing continues to enable the U.S. housing market to surge from the March lows.

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2 min

Why Active Management for Fixed Income?

Over the past decade, there has been much debate between active and passive investing. Many modern-day investors, including fixed-income investors, have shifted to the passive investing approach. Although this approach has worked well for equities, it has generally fallen behind for fixed income as active fixed income managers generally outperform their passive counterparts.

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3 min

The Most Wonderful Time of Year: Tax Loss Selling Time

At some distant point in the future, as memories of a tumultuous 2020 fade, stock market returns for the year will live on as data points in a long string of annual return data stretching back hundreds of years.

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6 min

2021: Massive Spending Potential Could be Unleashed

This weeks blog is a continuation from last weeks theme of a return to social gathering and normal consumption spending as we head into 2021. Mean reversions are one of the best opportunities in the investment business.

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7 min

Brands Expert Calls It: The Social Gathering Recession

When one plots the full business cycle on a chart it looks a lot like a mountain range or a roller coaster. There are peaks and valleys and period of “goldilocks” in between. Unfortunately, as investors we have to take the boom and bust cycles together.

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6 min

Deciphering a (COVID-19) Vaccine-Driven Economic Recovery: An Equity and Fixed Income Perspective

The tail end of 2020 has started to show signs of a potential end to the uncertainty and fear beset by the coronavirus pandemic. Most notably are upbeat FDA documents and early-stage Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine mass inoculations in the United Kingdom and authorization in Canada, upbeat peer studies on AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine results, and numerous other biotechnology firms in late-stage clinical trials.