Over the last year, it has been a challenging environment for bond investors as interest rates continue to grind higher. Inflation readings registering multi-year highs are certainly one factor causing higher borrowing costs. However, perhaps the biggest influence on higher rates is the shifting supply and demand dynamic from fiscal and monetary policy changes. On the fiscal side, the tax overhaul, along with increased military and domestic spending, is expected to significantly widen our budget deficit, which means a surge in treasury borrowing.

The ongoing EVA series with excerpts from my upcoming book (tentatively titled “Bubble 3.0, How Central Banks Created the Next Financial Crisis”) is getting a lot of attention from clients and readers. Depending on which camp people sit in – see-no-trouble bull or too-lightly-invested bear – the responses either strike a dispiriting or encouraging tone.

At the end of 2017, we initiated a new EVA series titled “Bubble Watch” where we went as far as to postulate that we’re in the midst of the Biggest Bubble Ever (BBE).

Generally speaking, the purpose of EVA is to communicate Evergreen’s overall outlook on the markets and economy. We tend to stick to this script by writing on topics such as central bank policy, inflation, the stock market, the bond market, and energy. One theme we try to avoid – or at least stay neutral on – is politics.

It’s time for a couple of firsts. The first “first” is that I’ve never before written an introduction to an introduction. The second is that I’ve never attempted to self-publish a book in real-time.