It was the week before Christmas: Mawer’s 2022 in review

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Every year the folks at Mawer Investment Management Ltd. their year-end perspective in the form of a poem to the readers of Financial Post.

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It was the week before Christmas
So time to review
The economic story
From 2022.

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What you all know is coming
We would be negligent
To not increase inflation
It caused little happiness.

As most of us can attest
Pump prices rose enormously
Our food is more expensive
Everything costs more 🙁

While inflation continued to rise
To highlights of several decades,
Central banks continued to make commitments
To bring about his downfall.

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They rolled out the rate hikes
To tame the great beast
But despite their strong actions
CPI increased.

And the impact on markets
It’s true and it’s sad
For both stocks and bonds
The drop was bad.

The impact was the greatest
For high-flying technology
unprofitable cash flows
Looks like a wreck now.

While stronger companies
With power to price
Were able to maintain their margins
With little sacrifice.

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But volatility loomed
Throughout the year
When Powell spoke
It was risky or great fear!

Devastating conflict
Originated in Ukraine
Raw materials went up
Supply chains felt pain.

More came from China
That gave us the yips:
Much consternation over
Tiny chips.

Deglobalization can lead
Towards a multipolar world
Will the dollar stay
Currencies high roller?

Cryptocurrency collapsed
In the middle of the spiral
From FTX Exchange
The collapse went viral.

We avoid all crypto
On it, were chewy
With regard to our criteria
It’s not boring enough.

We acknowledge the content
From this poem seems gloomy
Uncertainty remains
There are answers to look for.

Is a recession certain?
Hard or soft landing?
Is this just a bear meeting,
Or one that has been standing for longer?