It’s America for now, but not forever

My mother was a very creative and free-thinking person. She was also pragmatic and to the point.

I’d like to think those are some traits that I absorbed from her over my years.

She died in 2009 from cancer, but I don’t think there’s a day in the years since that I’ve not drawn upon her wisdom and creativity.

I remember back in the early depths of the 2020 pandemic, when the world was freaking out and the markets were crashing, I penned an essay for a free e-letter we published at Southbank titled, Exponential Investor, if you’ve been with us long enough, you might even remember it.

I had been writing about the situation in the markets that the government had imposed on us all.

My take was that whatever was going down would be relatively short- lived, that we would rise from the draconian restrictions and that industry would find a way to soar back to life.

The reason I could see that inevitable outcome was the simple task of taking a beat, thinking with pragmatism and without ego.

Do that, and you’ll start to see the investing landscape in a different way…

Point #1: The UK is a great country

I recently reviewed an essay I wrote from April 2020. This was peak pandemic, where to many, the entire world was imploding and there was seemingly no escape from it all.

I’ve included it below, because while the world is certainly a long way from where we were in 2020, there’s several parallels I feel right now that are still applicable (hence why I was reviewing several of my old essays from 2020) and to the way in which we approach UK markets.

The fact is very quickly there will be a plan, a roadmap, and outcome to end the forced house arrest. The world will move on, life will not end, not grind to a year-long halt.

Industry that has been decimated will return and spark to life. And that means you will have a chance to make a couple of decisions.

One is to continue to live according to the ‘adversity’ that’s rammed down our throats. The other is to make active decisions to get ahead of the masses and make some financial moves in the market as the bounce-back swings into full effect.

My mother was a teacher. She was practical, pragmatic, and utterly creative. But she didn’t piss about either. She’d be pretty forthright with her assessment of things.

And she’d have said to me about now to not worry about all this (not that I really am). She’d say be smart and think about our family’s future. Now isn’t the time to crumble under the pressure of this perpetuated ‘adversity’. Now is the time to do the right thing for your family.

That makes my decision making easy.

And when you really look at this crisis, the opportunity it presents rather than the pessimism most people live in, means your decision making should be pretty easy too.

I bring this up because the pessimism in the UK right now is palpable. Not even the touring cricket team over in Australia seems to be delivering much good news…

But while things might feel dour, in reality, decision making has never been easier.

The state of the UK economy and markets right now is a legacy of the COVID-years and a legacy from ongoing irresponsible and irrational actions by central banks and government since 2008.

The reality is central banks will continue to be central banks. Governments will continue to be governments. That sort of thing is unlikely to change any time soon.

You can get swept up in political rhetoric, mainstream pessimism and a minority of loud talking heads on social media that represent but a tiny slither of the real community.

Or you can wind your head in, draw upon the basics and look at the likely outcome over the coming decade (or two or three).

Two of the key elements I draw on are simple pragmatic creativity.

Think rational but piece together the puzzle to see what’s really in play over the longer term. Be simple, don’t overcomplicate things. Don’t allow ego or stubbornness to lead you to choices that are detrimental to the situation at hand. Be humble. And always look for the good, the positive.

That’s because ultimately things are pretty good, and the world will always keep moving forward.

Now I don’t mean to get too preachy here, but right now when I use those principles and put them into practice, it leads me to a couple of conclusions about the UK economy and markets.

First off, the UK is a great country. Regardless of what the mainstream media rams down your throat. Sure, it’s got its problems… government, central banks, and a list of other things… but then again, so does everywhere.

On balance, it’s a great place. It has been a great strong economic power previously (still is really) and will be great again in the future. It is now in a somewhat troubled state, but I do believe that won’t last forever.

And when it changes back for the good, the UK will be a great place for investment, for growth, for companies on the UK markets to thrive. It will be a smorgasbord of small and exciting companies built on high-knowledge industry that will reshape how the world works.

We will not be here in a decade or two, talking about the slum and cesspool the UK has become. Capital will come back. Sentiment will lift and excitement and optimism will permeate through the economy.

It just won’t happen in the next year, or two or three, even, but it will return.

Point #2: Two lakes, one fisherman

Which brings me to my next point, frankly, in terms of the markets, right now, the UK isn’t a great place to be investing, looking for growth and opportunity in the market.

If you’re a fisherman, standing in front of two lakes, one bristling with fish, the other with nothing but a rusty bucket and a Wellington boot at the bottom, where are you going to fish?

This is representative of the US and UK markets right now.

There’s certainly no need to give up hope or be devoid of great things in the future for the UK market, but there’s also no point fishing in a relatively empty lake.

If you want optimism, growth, excitement and opportunity in your investments, then you look to America right now.

A stubborn person might refuse to do so because of preconceived ideas of what America stands for. A person who lets ego get in the way of simple, pragmatic creative thinking may say I’m only investing in the UK.

That would be a mistake.

And this isn’t just my view either. Ask yourself, where is the investment money flowing right now? When companies want to raise capital, to IPO, which markets are they going to? Why are they doing that?

Again, simple, pragmatic, creative, non-ego-driven investing says that if you’re serious about building your wealth right now, then you must look to the US.

This is the approach we’re taking, I’m taking, with what we’re recommending to investors.

This is why we now have key experts, like Jim Rickards, James Altucher, Zach Scheidt and Dan Amoss as part of our editorial offering.

In fact, it’s right at this very moment that Jim and Dan are releasing a new Situations Report briefing outlining exactly how investors can best capitalise on the US market ripping into life based off two Executive Orders the Trump Administration has fired off in his first year of his second term. You must get clued up on what this entails and how investors could stand to profit.

These “stateside” views help with filtering through the massive US markets to ensure the best opportunities find their way to you.

So yes, we certainly do focus on the US a lot right now, but for bloody good reason. It’s where the best action is. Now, I don’t expect it will be that way forever. The UK market is not completely empty, but for now, pragmatic, creative thinking and approaches to investing says the US is where we look first.

Until next time,

Sam Volkering
Contributing Editor, Investor’s Daily

P.S. In the piece above, I explained why—right now—the real opportunities lie in the U.S. market, not here at home. If you want to understand exactly what’s driving that shift and how UK investors can position themselves early, make sure you watch Jim’s urgent new briefing. With America firing off major policy moves and momentum building fast, you don’t want to be the one still fishing in an empty lake when the real action kicks off. Click here to learn everything you need to know.