Why You Can’t Always Swing at the Fat Pitch During a Crisis

CNBC reported last night that the biggest banks in the United States would be stopping their buybacks to shore up their balance sheets because of the crisis: The group — which includes JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and two other banks — said in a statement that the pandemic was an “unprecedented challenge.” “The COVID-19…

Levels of Losing in the Stock Market

Bill Simmons wrote a piece for ESPN back in the day called The 13 Levels of Losing when it comes to life as a die-hard sports fanatic. I thought about this column recently as it pertains to the markets. The worst was ‘That Game’ which refers to something like the 1986 World Series where the…

Animal Spirits Emergency Podcast: Preparing for a Recession

Things are getting crazy, not only in the markets but society at large with the realization of the massive impact the coronavirus is creating. So Michael and I decided to record an extra podcast this morning to share our thoughts on what’s going on and what it might mean going forward. We discuss: Last night…

Creating an Overreaction Plan for the Coronavirus

Last night felt like we were all in a movie. It’s like everyone collectively realized the gravity of the situation. The President addressed the nation, the response was underwhelming and the stock market is yet again crashing. The NCAA announced March Madness will continue but with no fans (I would be shocked if it wasn’t…

Some Random Thoughts on a Big Down Day in the Stock Market

Here’s what I’m thinking about after watching the stock market fall more than 7% today: The S&P is now down nearly 19% in just 13 trading sessions. These losses aren’t astronomical in a historical context but they’ve happened so quickly that I’m willing to call this a market crash. The problem with market crashes is…