Over the next 14 months, leading up to the next general Congressional and Presidential election, you are going to be inundated with information and statistics. As I have listened carefully to much of what has been shared to this point, I have been stunned and dismayed by the lack of actual facts that candidates from both sides of the aisle confidently assert in their desire to gain more backing for their campaign.
To that end, over the next year, I will attempt to share some data points with you, our friends and clients, to help put some of what you hear online and on screen in perspective. I will do my best to share data without taking a political position or giving my opinion in this format.
The first chart that I would like to share with you is from Bloomberg BusinessWeek. It shares data from June 2009 and June 2019. The data from 2009 comes during the depths of the financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. The data from 2019 shows how far we have come over the last 10 years by a number of economic measures. These statistics come from the Labor Department, Commerce Department, International Monetary Fund, Federal Reserve Bank, Gallup and Bloomberg. Please take a few moments to understand and appreciate how far we have come.
As many of you have heard me quote Warren Buffett before, I would like to remind you of this gem that was pulled from one of his recent annual reports. "Every decade or so, dark clouds fill the economic skies and they will briefly rain gold. When downpours of that sort occur, it's imperative that we rush outdoors caring washtubs, not teaspoons".
There has been a lot of talk recently about such economic storm clouds...recessions, trade/tariff issues and the Fed. I think it is important that we put these things in long-term perspective, understand the facts, and look for the opportunities as Mr. Buffett has done so successfully all of these years. As I tell people regularly, he is the most admired and least emulated investor of all time. He does what other people are afraid to do, which is why he has results unlike anyone else.
I hope this series puts things in some perspective, makes you think, and sparks important dialogue as we all continue "moving life forward" together.