Research & Insights

In a recent panel hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, Director of Investment Research Rebecca Patterson was asked whether investors seem overly bullish about the prospects for a vaccine and pandemic recovery.

Is the gold rally behind us? Why hold an asset that doesn’t offer any yield? Is it really wise to add exposure to such a small market? Greg Jensen and our research team address these questions, share some perspective on gold, and explore its unique role in protecting portfolios in the new paradigm — a world of ongoing pressure for policymakers across the globe to print and spend, zero interest rates that make bonds more or less dead weight, tectonic shifts in where global power lies, and conflict.

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, it was clear that traditional economic measures had increasingly diverged from social outcomes. Despite a decade of economic expansion and falling unemployment, social conditions deteriorated across a variety of measures. COVID-19 has brought these pressures to a head. Looking ahead, social conditions will have rising impacts on markets as policy evolves to more explicitly consider such issues in evaluating its goals. Fiscal policy is likely to take on a greater role in the decade to come, and is inherently distributional. The Fed, too, is increasingly taking into account social disparities.

In a recent appearance on Bloomberg TV, Bridgewater’s Director of Investment Research Rebecca Patterson discusses how to achieve diversification and balance in a zero-rate environment, the differentiated outcomes seen across economies in response to the pandemic, and drawing lessons from Japan to think about the Fed’s latest policy shift and what it might mean for inflation.

Co-CIO Greg Jensen joined Squawk on the Street to discuss the degree and speed of policy response and its effectiveness, how outcomes may vary between markets and within the US economy, and investment considerations given the massive shift out of nominal bonds.

In a recent interview with Barron’s Randall Forsyth, Co-CIO Bob Prince discusses how persistent zero bond yields are impacting a traditional 60/40 portfolio, where investors should now look for store holds of wealth, and why geographic diversification in portfolio construction is more important than ever.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Director of Investment Research Karen Karniol-Tambour explains why policy makers must now turn to coordinated monetary and fiscal policy to drive economic cycles (Monetary Policy 3), and why geographic diversification is ever more important in today's tri-polar world.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Bridgewater Co-CIO Bob Prince describes the market impacts of zero interest bonds, the challenges of managing a portfolio in this environment, and implications for the dollar as reserve currency.

In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, we have built out our framework for understanding economic policy going forward: what we call Monetary Policy 3. In short, with interest rates around the world at zero and traditional methods of monetary stimulus now ineffective, policy makers have been forced to turn to coordinated monetary and fiscal policy in order to engineer any hope for a sustained recovery. Senior Portfolio Strategist Jim Haskel sits down with Co-CIO Greg Jensen and senior investor Jason Rotenberg to discuss how we’re tracking MP3 implementation around the world, the divergences we’re seeing between countries, and the challenges policy makers are facing.

We believe the most important topic facing all investors today is how to manage money in a zero interest rate environment. Recently, Bridgewater’s research team published a three-part paper that outlined the challenges and potential solutions, exploring some of the commonly asked questions that investors continue to wrestle with, such as: how to get diversification in a world of zero bond yields, the increased importance of geographic diversification, and how to think about managing the risk of deflation. Read the paper by Co-CIOs Bob Prince and Greg Jensen and Investment Associate Melissa Saphier, or listen to the podcast, where Bob and Greg discuss these themes with Bridgewater’s Senior Portfolio Strategist Jim Haskel.

The rapid policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented speed of asset reflation. What took almost two years to achieve during the 2008 financial crash and almost four years during the Great Depression has unfolded in only one month during the current crisis. Co-CIO Greg Jensen and members of our research team explore the unique lengths and the potential limits of policy makers’ efforts to stimulate the economy.

As part of the Bloomberg Invest Global virtual summit, Co-CIO Bob Prince spoke with Jonathan Ferro of Bloomberg TV about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy and global markets, as well as what recovery efforts might look like.

By guaranteeing very low interest rates years into the future, the central bank can leverage Yield Curve Control (YCC) policies to finance large government deficits without putting upward pressure on the cost of borrowing. Karen Karniol-Tambour and members of our research team explain how YCC has moved from an abstract concept to a practice that the world’s largest central banks have adopted or are heavily considering.

As policy makers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with coordinated monetary and fiscal measures of unprecedented size and scope, they are faced with two risks: deflation as a result of too little action, and stagflation as a result of doing too much. Senior Portfolio Strategist Jim Haskel and Co-CIO Greg Jensen discuss our global outlook, the challenges policy makers face in this environment, and prospects for either deflation or inflation.

The coronavirus has accelerated a new paradigm of coordinated monetary and fiscal policy where central banks are printing money to finance large budget deficits and spark spending. Senior Portfolio Strategist Jim Haskel and Co-CIO Ray Dalio explore why the by-product — zero or near-zero interest rates across the developed world — is a critical issue for investors to understand and how similar moments in history can provide valuable lessons to navigate volatility.

Co-CIO Ray Dalio joins David Brancaccio on NPR Marketplace Morning Report to discuss what should change in a post-pandemic economy and how capitalism can be restructured to better serve more people.

The economic downturn and policy response resulting from the COVID-19 shutdowns are different than in past recessions, as a collapse in income, rather than credit, drove the collapse in spending. Co-CIO Greg Jensen and Jason Rogers from our research team examine the holes that this has created in the real economy and asset markets as well as the challenges policy makers are likely to face when filling them.

In conversation with Senior Portfolio Strategist Jim Haskel, Co-CIO Bob Prince examines the forces COVID-19 unleashed on the economy, the measures that will be required to restart the flywheel between income and spending, and the range of ways the shock is impacting different countries, sectors, and companies.

In our continued efforts to measure the financial impact of the coronavirus, we estimate that corporate losses could result in a $20 trillion global ripple effect — a hit that will be felt from incomes and household balance sheets to central banks and governments. Co-CIO Greg Jensen and our research team explore the scale of the holes, and how managing them will impact economic conditions and markets going forward.

We have been describing an impending paradigm shift in economies and markets as the forces that drove the environment over the last decade have reached their limits. Co-CIO Greg Jensen and Jason Rogers from our research team examine how the shock of the coronavirus has accelerated a shift that we expected would unfold much more gradually over time.

In recent years, social outcomes have increasingly diverged from traditional macroeconomic measures of how economies are performing. Explore how different economies are performing along measures such as inequality, education and health, and the implications of those outcomes for policy.

Explore how portfolios with geographic diversification can help investors create a more consistent return stream by remaining resilient to the range of ways the world could unfold.

Almost every major driver of global corporate profit margins has improved in the last two decades, boosting equity returns. Co-CIO Greg Jensen examines the sustainability of these forces going forward.

Founder and Co-CIO Ray Dalio's study on the rises and declines of past leading empires puts today’s economic, political, and policy situation into perspective of the big picture.

In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, CEO David McCormick wrote about the elevated role megafunds play in financial markets and how blocking the flow of capital between them can have negative implications for the global economy — particularly during times of volatility.

Investing in China today provides opportunities for US investors beyond just the potential for a higher return stream. It also equips them with the knowledge and experience to engage with a massive foreign economy in the future. In an appearance at UTIMCO, Co-CIO Bob Prince discussed why it’s critical to be informed on China and ready for the next decade.