Bond investor Bill Gross warns a global slowdown in productivity as a result of the financial crisis will make it impossible for President Donald Trump to get economic growth back above 3 percent and will reveal financial markets as overvalued.
“Equity markets are priced for too much hope, high yield bond markets for too much growth, and all asset prices elevated to artificial levels that only a model driven, historically biased investor would believe could lead to returns resembling the past six years, or the decades predating Lehman,” wrote the Janus portfolio manager in his monthly investment outlook. “High rates of growth, and the productivity that drives it, are likely distant memories from a bygone era.”
Economists including Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen seem puzzled as to why productivity over the last five years has averaged just 0.5 percent, when it totaled 2-percent-plus before the financial crisis, Gross said. The answer was made pretty clear to Gross, however, in a report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Slowing business investment/trade and an ongoing level of low to negative interest rates have resulted in a misallocation of capital to low-risk projects and a slowdown in small business creation. Longer-term secular demographic factors such as an aging population also play a significant part since older consumers consume less of almost everything except health care,” Gross’ outlook states, in reference to the IMF report.
via CNBC
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.