Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed Governor Kevin Warsh opened the G20 finance meeting in Asheville by talking about growth. Growth-focused remarks. That's what we're calling them. Not promises. Not policy. Remarks.
Asheville hosts the world's finance ministers and the best they can offer is remarks about focusing on growth. Everyone focuses on growth. The guy selling you a timeshare focuses on growth. Your cousin's cryptocurrency podcast focuses on growth. Focusing on growth is what you say when you have nothing to say but someone put a microphone in front of you.
CNBC ran a live blog for this. Day one coverage. Minute-by-minute updates of two guys saying they care about economic expansion. Breaking news: finance officials at finance meeting discuss finance. The Pulitzer committee is gonna need a bigger trophy case.
Somewhere right now a retail trader is refreshing that live blog. He's convinced Bessent's third paragraph contains a hidden signal about September rate cuts. He's studying Warsh's tie color for clues. He's cross-referencing the word "growth" against his Fibonacci retracement levels. He's margin-called by Tuesday.
The G20 meets. They kick off with remarks. The remarks focus on growth. The growth remains theoretical. The meeting continues. The markets do whatever they were going to do anyway. And your portfolio still underperforms an index fund your dead grandfather could've bought in his sleep.
But sure, parse those opening remarks for alpha.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
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