What is really going on?

The world post Covid-19 has been nothing short of perplexing

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The lines of a book written more than 150 years back rang eerily true in 2020.

o   An invisible virus shut down the global economic system and caused immense hardship to the poor. While the privileged got a pause from the rat race, reconnected with families and cleansed the environment.

o   Travel to connect with people appears to be a concept from another era. But the internet is bringing together a collective hive mind globally.

o   Are we about to ignite inflation thanks to the central bank printing press or are we in deflation due to the economic setback from the virus?

And in the investment world

o   The markets make euphoric highs in Jan followed by a hellish Feb – Mar only to be followed by a gravity defying move since Apr.

o   The economists gave dire predictions about the Indian economy. And yet, India’s largest company raised money like it is going out of style.

o   IS money going out of style or is Gold coming back in style? Even Warren Buffet seems to be reacting in unprecedented ways.

The pandemic era had us all perplexed. OR potentially has it given us extreme clarity?

So how we do make sense of all these apparent contradictions?