No. of Recommendations: 2
Prof. Peter Atwater made 2 rather interesting new observations in 2025.
A. for the first time, he states that geographies and leaders (i.e., macro) should be the first priority in investing, displacing the traditional top 3 (valuation, sentiment, management) e.g., if i am a foreign owner of a chinese ADR, can i be confident my macro positioning is likely to be one where my interests are the priority of the country and CCP?
in practice, it seems they are not too many such 'easy' conclusions.
B. using a 4-quadrant framework, atwater describes inequality ('K'-economy, etc...) as the dominant cultural force.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-li...a strong emphasis is that the inequality is NON-LINEAR with the stacking of
Wealth * Health * NetworkWhen a small group enjoys the confidence of all 3, they become an outsized force in control, risk, and culture imposed on the entire population.
notably, this is more influential than politics or political leanings.
an extreme cynic would say that gop and dems only differ in their ability to manipulate this inequality gap.
the 4-quad framework is not necessarily static.
e.g., conservative voters have ceded control to trump and the gop, and even though many cannot functionally describe their changing destination, they are confident the team will get them there. that places them firmly in the 'passenger seat' quadrant :
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media-li...