Week 323 - “Toto, I’ve A Feeling We’re Not In Kansas Any More.”

Situation: A storm has hit international relations. It’s not as though we haven’t been warned. In his 2014 book, “World Order,” Henry Kissinger mentions dark trends could undermine the principles of international governance, which were established by (and adhered to since) the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War in 1648. Those principles are 1) the inviolability of national sovereignty, and 2) the self-determination of peoples free from religious intolerance. But Russia has recently annexed Crimea, and Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union reflects growing religious intolerance. Here in America, we have echoed Brexit by electing Donald J. Trump to be our President. 

Investors abhor uncertainty and wonder whether they’ll continue to prosper in the absence of International Order. The issue is one of governance. Picture a tent with many people of various nationalities inside, debating ideas about how best to get along together. This metaphor worked for hundreds of years, even though a camel would occasionally stick its nose under a tent. Now countries and economic unions are having to grapple with anarchists seeking Jihad.

What does it all mean? Investors need a mental picture, one where cause and effect assume a pattern that allows us to anticipate how events on the world stage are likely to play out. Artists often arrive at formulations before events unfold. The disruption of Victorian Order that culminated in World War One is one example. The writings of Franz Kafka and paintings of Picasso spring to mind as heralds of Modernism. Similarly, Existentialists like Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre anticipated the Second World War and gave us The Theatre of the Absurd. The effect reached music with the 12-tone scale, choreography with ballets no longer anchored in stories, paintings lacking both content and message, and the “deconstruction” of classical poetry. 

The art world has evolved beyond Modernism to become Post-Modern, but more recently that has been replaced by Contemporary Art, which anticipates the crumbling of World Order we’re now seeing. Formerly, art was about feelings, music, and imagery; reasoned discourse was left out. In Contemporary Art, the intellect is finally engaged but still without reasoned discourse. The tent ropes have come loose. We are left to manage without Cliff’s Notes, religious precepts, party politics, or judicial constraint; mood-altering drugs are used to let light in as often as to keep it out. A piece of Contemporary Art (if we are open to it at all) might lead any one of us to see, hear, read, imagine, or think along a unique trajectory, then use that as a basis for free association. 

There are no guideposts, and the unhinging has been accelerated by the ready availability of computing power and networking via one’s cell phone. The artist typically has no interest in channeling the viewer or listener’s thoughts, feelings, or mental images. Why presume, given that each of us is unique? A poet might apply the words levitation, unmooring, kaleidoscopic, or ricochet to characterize the mental effects that the artist ignites in some people. If people join together, it might become participatory theater. Think of stadium performances by iconic figures like The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, or even Donald J. Trump. The traditional format used by the music industry is also “going down the tubes.” Few artists make an “album” any longer with a recording studio contract. It’s all small entrepreneurs selling a single song via the internet, using social media as advertising.

Prepare your portfolio. Think about limiting key retirement investments to US Treasury bonds and well-capitalized A-rated stocks that have a Durable Competitive Advantage (see Table). VYM is the Benchmark Index for Russell 1000 companies that pay at least a market dividend. “Durable Competitive Advantage” (see Column O in the Table) is a term that Warren Buffett coined to denote a 7% (or higher) rate of growth in a company’s Tangible Book Value (TBV) over the past 10 yrs, provided that TBV is down no more than 3 years (see Week 158 and Week 241).

Administration: The sky is not falling. Civilization won’t end, and neither will Westphalian Principles of Governance. Be patient but don’t take risks. Some good is bound to come from abandoning “received wisdom” or “group think.” Why? Because “received wisdom” gives rise to dogma, and dogma prevents innovation. Don’t worry about nuclear war. Sure, it could happen. Maybe there’s even a “material” risk (odds higher than one in twenty). That would amount to an existential crisis for many survivors. We’d all become more focussed on survival, so behavior would become more collegial. 

Bottom Line: Uncertainty is on the move. So, this is not a good time to speculate in financial assets. Hard assets like farmland are another matter (see next week’s blog).

Risk Rating: 6 (where 10-Yr T-Notes = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, gold = 10)

Full Disclosure: I dollar-average into MSFT and NEE, and own shares of NKE, TJX, ACN, JPM, and TRV.

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