Since launching WEALTHTRACK in 2005 we have asked economic legend Ed Hyman to share his new year forecast with us, which he has done pretty much exclusively since the beginning. We also invite a leading portfolio manager to join him. For the fourth year in a row, First Eagle’s Matthew McLennan is doing the honors.

This week we are presenting the second of our two-part series focused on the global economic and investment outlook. In case you missed it, we tackled the 2020 prospects for the U.S. economy and markets last week which you can see on WEALTHTRACK.com or our YouTube channel. 

In part one of our 2020 Outlook edition, Hyman predicted, as he did accurately for 2019, that the longest economic recovery on record in the U.S. would continue. He sees no signs of recession and believes that growth will actually pick up! He also forecasts that Wall Street will continue to climb a wall of worry, which he will describe in detail.

Matt McLennan is not as optimistic. One of his main concerns is the record levels of government and corporate debt in the U.S. and the problems it poses to future growth and liquidity, especially in the event of a slowdown. After the record-setting bull market run he also believes the U.S. market is expensive. He is investing very selectively in super high quality, market-dominant companies. He has a stash of cash to take advantage of sizable market declines and a significant position in gold to offset market risk.

We will start our global outlook discussion this week with one of the biggest headline events of 2019 - Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” victory in the United Kingdom which Hyman thinks has worldwide significance.