Bellwether Consulting is an investment consulting firm
for institutional investors. Our clients look to us for insight on the financial markets, recommendations concerning investment decisions, and fiduciary oversight.
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Keith Hocter's book,
Setting the
Table, provides practical advice to investment decision-makers sponsoring
401(k) or other employee-directed plans. Available directly from the
publisher at
xlibris.com.
The final quarter of 2009 was a rewarding one for
risk-takers, punctuating a volatile decade and (most likely) the “Great
Recession” itself. In this quarter’s Market Recap
newsletter we take note of expansionary signals across the broad economy
except the consumer, and expectations for rising interest rates ahead.
Recessions in the recent past were quickly followed by periods of
resurgent consumer spending. As we’ve explored in past issues, the
years 1985 – 2007 composed an era of steadily decreasing savings,
arrested only by the credit crisis. Whether conspicuous spending
resumes or we revert back to double-digit savings rates of the previous
three decades will have a profound impact on the growth rate and “shape”
of the economy going forward. In our Focus section, we discuss
psychological norms that help explain aggregate spending behavior.
