Can the Strong US Dollar Environment Persist?

Yes. The hawkish Federal Reserve and energy market challenges have contributed to a strengthening of the US dollar in recent quarters, and we expect that trends in both factors may continue to be supportive of the dollar in the short term. Nonetheless, on a longer horizon, historical precedents suggest that the dollar is approaching the […]

September 2022

Video: Digital Assets for Pension Plan Sponsors

Pensions have lagged other institutional investors in the digital asset space and may be letting one of the most profound changes in the digital economy pass by. Hear from Joe Marenda, Head of Digital Assets at Cambridge Associates, on how blockchain technology could disrupt plan sponsors’ current portfolio investments and about its potential to generate […]

September 2022

Ethereum’s Merge Is a Transformational Event, but Don’t Expect Digital Assets Prices to Come Out of Their Slump

A major Ethereum blockchain software upgrade was successfully completed earlier today, marking a landmark event for the digital assets industry. The upgrade, known as the “merge,” changes how transactions are verified on Ethereum’s blockchain and dramatically improves its energy efficiency. While this is welcome news, we doubt this means the rout in digital assets prices […]

September 2022

Fed Tightens by 0.75% and Projects Softer Economy

The Federal Reserve announced that it was raising the target range for the Fed funds rate by 75 basis points (bps) to 1.50%–1.75%. An apparent briefing to the financial press last week meant that this course of action was fully priced in by the rates market beforehand, despite just 50 bps being priced as recently […]

June 2022

VantagePoint: Resilience in a Time of Uncertainty

Global inflation has been higher and more persistent than most economists anticipated. Some inflationary pressures related to the pandemic have started to show signs of easing, but new pressures related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and lockdowns associated with China’s “zero-COVID” policy create new challenges. At the same time, central banks have declared war on […]

May 2022

Fed Raises Rates and Begins Balance Sheet Run-off

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced it would raise the target range for the Fed funds rate 50 basis points (bps) to 0.75%–1.00%. It also formalized plans to reduce its $9 trillion balance sheet starting June 1, with an initial monthly cap of $47.5 billion, rising to $95 billion per month on September 1. At that […]

May 2022

Charting New Waters: What Pension Plan Sponsors Should Know About Digital Assets

Pensions may be missing out on a technological disruption that could represent the most profound new development in the digital economy since its start in the late 1990s. To date, they have lagged other institutional investors in the digital assets space. Barring a few well-publicized exceptions, investments by pensions into digital assets on the blockchain […]

May 2022

Is Bitcoin a Better Disaster Hedge Than Gold?

No, we don’t think so. While bitcoin and gold share some qualities, these two assets are different and should not be viewed as interchangeable in investment portfolios. Bitcoin is much more volatile than gold and has recently been trading more like a pro-risk asset, suffering significant drawdowns during periods of market turmoil. Bitcoin is often […]

February 2022