Life of Brian
Canada lost one of its most effective prime ministers in its 157-year history and the world lost one of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century. Brian Mulroney sadly passed away yesterday at 84 years young and what he accomplished in his near-decade in office from 1984 to 1993 was most impressive, taking Canada out of the dark ages of economic sclerosis after years of inept government rule under the Liberals (talk about being back to the future given what is happening in Ottawa today) — Reagan-style deregulation, tax reform, breaking the back of inflation, and embarking on the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
And not just domestic politics, but much like Lester B. Pearson in the 1960s, he had Canada punch well above its weight when it came to tackling global issues of all kinds. For those who know their history, Brian Mulroney would regularly be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
The controversial but powerfully positive policies he embarked on that cost his Conservative Party the 1993 federal election ended up being nurtured by the ensuing Liberal government even though it had pledged to abandon all those pro-growth, supply-side initiatives. The country, and the world, lost a true visionary and statesman — leadership that is so woefully absent today.
We were fortunate enough to have the former prime minister on our webcast series right after Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago and we will be re-releasing this for the general public next week. He was as erudite and cerebral as ever and what he had to say back then about the state of the world and the leadership vacuum still resonates today. It will definitely be worth a watch, both for those who joined that call and especially for those who did not.
Highlights
Japan and India continue to shine
Tech productivity booms don’t alter the course of the business cycle
Shelter continues to skew the inflation data
FOMC Minutes suggest rate cuts are coming later this year
While We Were Sleeping
It is another mixed performance in global equity markets to end the week — a day after the Nasdaq joined the S&P 500 in closing at a record-high for the first time since 2021 (with AMD’s surge helping take the semiconductor space up a whopping +2.7%). U.S. futures have swung from green to red; European markets have advanced +0.3%; and Asia rallied with some exceptions: gains in Japan’s Nikkei 225 (+1.9% — and closing at a record high), India (+1.7%) — two of our favorite markets — as well as China’s Shanghai Composite (+0.4%), but Thailand was flat, while Singapore (-0.2%) and Taiwan (-0.2%) finished the session lower. Bonds are little changed — yields on 10-year government bonds are up a smidge across the Atlantic, but have managed to drop -2 basis points in the U.S. to 4.22%.
The preliminary February CPI data for the EU just came out and were actually rather light — up +0.9% MoM, and was below the +1.1% consensus view (and took the YoY trend down to +2.7% from +3.1% and a tick below consensus views of +2.8%).
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