'My Man Mitch' still epitome of servant leadership (Indianapolis Business Journal/May 16, 2025)

Greetings Investing Fans,

                My firm was fortunate to have former Indiana Governor and Purdue University President Mitch Daniels as featured speaker at our 50 ^th Anniversary/Client Appreciation event on May 1.  Mitch riffed on topics including tariffs/trade wars, our nation’s debt crisis, his view of DOGE, fixing the broken Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the high cost of partisanship, higher education reform, how and why Purdue kept tuition flat for more than a decade and leadership lessons learned from decades serving others.

                As an aside, most folks are unaware of Mitch’s Syrian heritage and his family’s immigrant story , which I found very interesting. 

               My column has a “budget” of 850 words (unlike the government, I am unable to “borrow”), so unfortunately I was only able to write about tariffs/trade wars and the debt crisis.  Fortunately, you can see the entire “fireside chat” (bookmarked) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5itnn4sM6Q .  I’m biased, but I think the “chat” was fascinating and watching it will be well worth your time.

              Speaking of tariffs/trade wars, the landscape is constantly changing.  Over the weekend the U.S. and China agreed to a 90-day truce, during which they will try to come to a bi-lateral trade agreement.  The S&P 500 plunged a harrowing 12.1% in only four trading sessions following “Liberation Day (April 2).”  The good news is the S&P 500 has now recovered all of that lost ground (and more today—the S&P has soared 3% at the market opening today), as investors hope the worst of the storm has passed.   

               Imports from China promptly dropped 21% in April and ocean freight bookings have plunged a whopping 60%.  It takes goods 20-40 days for Chinese goods to reach U.S. ports and another 1-10 days to get to cities.  Unfortunately, you can’t just turn the spigot back on.  Indeed, the bad news is some global trade/supply chain experts believe we could just be passing through the eye of a destructive hurricane, an existential crisis for millions of smaller businesses without the financial resources/credit lines of behemoths like Amazon, Costco and Walmart . 

                 For those wanting to take a deeper dive, check out   “The CEO Who Says an Asteroid Is Coming to Destroy America’s Businesses (The Wall Street Journal/May 3, 2025) and CNN interview featuring Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport and self-described supply chain logistics “geek,” who helps customers transport goods from the factory to your front door.  Additionally, in a presentation to clients, Torsten Slok, Chief Economist of Apollo Global Management, warned the major effects on the U.S. economy on shutting down trade with China will start to become apparent this summer, when the U.S. might slip into a recession.  U.S. companies boosted inventories ahead of the tariffs, so combined with a pause in hostilities there is some breathing room to hopefully reach a deal and avert the crisis.

                Thanks for reading and keep you seat belts fastened!

The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author as of the date the article was published. These opinions have not been updated or supplemented and may not reflect the author’s views today. The information provided in these articles are not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results and do not provide information reasonably sufficient upon which to base an investment decision and should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular stock or other investment.