Week of February 3, 2025 Last Wednesday, the European Union announced new measures to stimulate economic growth, including easing certain climate policies. This move seems to be a response to slowing economic growth, driven at least in part by the cost of climate regulations. If effective, these measures could help reverse Europe’s economic trajectory and … Continued

Week of January 27, 2025 From ChatGPT: “When calculating equity investment performance during each presidential term, the inauguration date is typically used. This is because the inauguration marks the official start of the presidential term and the point at which they assume the powers and responsibilities of the office.” We would argue with this “conventional … Continued

Week of January 13, 2025 A New York Times article from January 9th reads with the headline; Iran Was ‘Defeated Very Badly’ in Syria, a Top General Admits. The article states that General Esbati revealed in a speech in Tehran, “I don’t consider losing Syria something to be proud of…We were defeated… we took a very big blow … Continued

This is the title of a January 1, 2025 commentary in The Wall Street Journal, in which the author summarizes the significant cost difference between green energy and fossil fuel generated power. On January 30, 2023, Sigma posted a blog titled “It’s Going to Take a Lot of Green to go Green.”  As noted at … Continued

Week of January 6, 2025 “It is possible to have too much of a good thing” is a quote traced back to the Greek storyteller, Aesop. A nearly universal idiom that applies to everyday things; food, water, and, yes, the stock market. Calendar year total returns for the S&P 500 in 2023 and 2024 were … Continued

Week of December 16, 2024 Niall Ferguson, a British historian and public intellectual renowned for his work on economic history, geopolitics, and global finance, recently published a Substack piece titled “The Vibe Shift Goes Global”. With the byline, “At home, Yale Law School and DEI committees are out. Abroad, strength and escalation are in,” Ferguson … Continued

Proof of concept is generally associated with product development and is used to demonstrate the feasibility or viability of an idea by collecting evidence of its practical or business potential.  It might also be a useful discipline for investors as companies pursue new, and largely untested products and services.  For example, the potential for generative … Continued

Week of December 9, 2024 We changed our Middle East signal from red to yellow last week and less than one week later, the Syrian government, led by the Assad family for five decades, fell. If we had not changed the Signal last week, this week we surely would have. Syria was kept afloat the … Continued

The Tariff Act of 1930 was a law that implemented protectionist trade policies in the United States.  The Act prompted retaliatory tariffs by many other countries.  It is important to note that the consensus view among economists is that the Act did not cause the Great Depression, but worsened it. Investors should note that tariffs … Continued