Turkey Hit with More Than a Tweet…

We know the meme has your attention because you’re looking for an update on how Dave’s doing out in the wilderness, but you’ll have to read to the end of our blog post for that! First we want to take a look at Turkey.

The Turkish Lira

As you’ve likely seen in the news, Turkey’s currency, the lira, has taken a serious tumble this past week. The fall was ignited by Trump’s approval of doubling steel and aluminum tariffs on Turkey. This sanction was imposed as a tactic to get a U.S. pastor, on trial and held against his will in Turkey, home safe to North Carolina.

While these sanctions may have pushed Turkey’s financial crisis over the edge, we cannot ignore the other factors that contributed to Turkey’s recent volatility. For example, Erdogan’s influence over the country’s central bank and more specifically his decision to keep interest rates low while inflation has moved higher.

The speed at which Turkey’s currency and stock market have lost value is certainly eye catching, but Turkey has been at risk of over-heating for a long time with double digit inflation and a large trade deficit.

What does our Portfolio Management Team have to say? Our Associate Portfolio Manager, Eitan Boral, CFA reports that “We only manage one strategy with global equity exposure, and Turkey only accounts for a very small fraction of the portfolio’s regional makeup (only 0.07%). We are making no changes at this time, but will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Where in The Wilderness is Dave Armstrong?

Dave is on Day 4 of his hike of the Pacific Coast Trail. If you missed last week’s blog post, that’s where you can read all about his trip.

According to the map, his GPS tracker, and Google Images, his view was something like this today:

This is a photo of Forester Pass, 13,200 feet above sea level. Although it’s not Dave’s photo, we’re sure he enjoyed a similar view and the sense of accomplishment that comes with crossing the highest point along the Pacific Crest Trail.

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