Interview of the Year 2022 — The Wonks

Last week, I highlighted the best interviews I’ve done with creators (Dan Pink, Annie Duke, Spencer Jakab, Abigail Disney) in 2022.

This week, we look at Wank, who helped break through the chatter and explain economic and market trends happening in real time.

Guy Burger

As the economy reopened after the worst of the pandemic, something very strange happened to the US labor market. Suddenly, workers of all types were rethinking their options. As analysts breathlessly cite statistics (Jobs and Turnover Surveys, or “JOLTs” were ready for a close-up!), the term “great resignation” has taken hold.

Earlier in 2022, we spoke with LinkedIn’s chief economist Guy Berger. He called the trend a “great makeover.”

As soon as Berger described his case, I started hearing from people about the changes he described. Americans of all ages and income levels were rethinking their relationship to work. Some sought more consistency or less time, others chose to lower their stress levels, and quite a few used the pandemic as a jumping-off point to start their own ventures. 25-54), Berger also correctly predicted that the pre-COVID baby boomer retirement trend would accelerate.

James Mackintosh

Long before politicians made environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments a wedge issue (OK, months in this case), James McIntosh wrote a stinging series for The Wall Street Journal, Exposed the flaws of ESG investing.

Reports from large companies and the consultants that back them, both of which often try to market and sell ESG funds, touted higher returns and lower downside risks, but McIntosh said , often pointed out that the time horizon is important. Think of it this way. From 2015 to 2019, if he owned an oil and gas company, earnings were abysmal, but profits (and share prices) for those same companies skyrocketed amid commodity price spikes.

That’s not to say McIntosh thinks environmental, social, and governance issues are worthless, but his bigger concern is that ESG investing “distracts everyone from the work they really need to do.” ” he adds. “It is much easier and far easier to tax and regulate what society perceives as bad, and subsidize what it thinks is good, than to make futile attempts to direct the flow of money in the right direction. Effective.”

Cathy Jones

When the bond market began to crash, I spoke to one of the great commentators, Kathy Jones, Chief Fixed Income Strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

Even when I spoke with her in May, Jones said 2022 could be a terrible year for bond investors, as pandemic-induced inflation spikes prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. stressed high. Jones explained that when interest rates rise, existing bonds lose some of their value as their yields become less attractive than new ones. Therefore, to get investors to buy your existing bonds, you have to sell them for less than what you paid for them.

2022 is likely to be the worst year ever for bonds, but Jones also saw a silver lining: 2022 will be a turning point for those who have spent the past few years lamenting low-income and creating investment opportunities. It’s also the year.

CFP’s Jill Schlesinger is a business analyst for CBS News. She is a former options her trader and her CIO at investment advisory firm, and she is available for comments and questions at askjill@jillonmoney.com. Check out her website at www.jillonmoney.com.