Our Q4 2021 Letter & Look Ahead

January 22, 2022

We’ve spent the past year marveling at our COVID recovery.  Despite the starts and stops, the Alpha, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants plus ones we’ve never heard of, despite the openings, closings, and mitigation measures, we’ve collectively muddled along.  We’ve swung between the extremes of fear and hope like a Newtonian cradle, but ended up in an arguably better place after all the hand wringing and consternation.  The world didn’t fall apart and the sun continues to shine.  This is our recovery and this is how we recover.  We’re all striving towards “normalcy” these days.  Yet, many don’t realize we were never “normal” pre-COVID to begin with.  Normal isn’t exporting everything we dislike (i.e., drilling, mining, manufacturing, low wage jobs, garbage, climate change demands, etc.) and importing only those we do (i.e., iPhones and anything from Amazon).  Normal isn’t underinvesting in raw materials and expecting to have an abundant and secure resource base to advance our society.  Normal isn’t suppressing wages via globalization, but maintain such a lax monetary policy that income disparities blow out, and not expect a political backlash.  Normal, most definitely, is not storming the Capitol.