Diversification, Inflation Hedges, & Tuning Out the Noise
February 21, 2025
Each week, the Stokes Family Office staff puts together a list of our favorite news and updates on all things wealth management. From financial planning, portfolio construction, tax and estate planning, retirement plan services to anything we found interesting. Enjoy this week’s curated list for your weekend reading!
Simple Explanations to Complex Topics
Ben Carlson says stock market pundits, analysts, and portfolio managers spend a lot of time and energy analyzing economic and financial data noting that it pays to cast a wide net when trying to understand the drivers.
He breaks down simple explanations in the markets he believes people do not pay enough attention to.
Deglobalization: Diversification Rather Than Decoupling
Joachim Klement writes that most businesses cannot simply decouple from supply chain hubs like China. It takes many years to do that, and it is often too expensive to justify.
He presents data showing the world is not in a deglobalization trend but in a derisking trend where diversification of supply chains leads to new investments in certain areas like Southeast Asia that in the past would have been made in China or Russia.
Why Dealers Are Flying Gold Bars by Plane From London to New York
Tariff fears push JPMorgan and others to stash bullion on passenger planes to sell at record prices.
The Best Inflation Hedges Turn Out to be the Simplest
Felix Salmon of Axios writes, “If you want to protect yourself against the risk of resurgent inflation and you have some savings to spare, you could do worse than just invest them in the stock market, where dividend income has grown impressively in real terms.
In response to the question, “How will this new administration affect my stock, bond and real estate holdings?” Barry Ritholtz says, “Flood the Zone is very good at exhausting you politically, but don’t let it exhaust your discipline as an investor.”
With the advent of efficient and less costly AI models like DeepSeek’s R1, Daniel Rasmussen examines a reshaping AI landscape—with both challenges and opportunities for the Mag 7—and the actual ROI on all of this AI spend.
Stokes Family Office is 100% Family Owned, and has been continually operating in the New Orleans Area for over 35 years. As a family office, we are focused on family wealth, financial planning, and tax planning. We are your local experts for Gulf South wealth management. Want to hear more from our team? Check out the Lagniappe Podcast.
*Stokes Family Office does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstances.
