Economic Growth\nRoundup, 2020 Edition \u2013 <\/strong>There\u2019s no need to restate all of the economic\nchallenges 2020 presented. But the pain was not delivered equally across the\nworld \u2013 some countries weathered the storm better than others, and in the case\nof China, actually grew for the year. One developed economy in particular that\nfared well on a relative basis was South Korea, which contracted only -1% in 2020.\nThe Bank of Korea attributed the growth to rapid and strong pandemic-response\nmeasures, as well as South Korea\u2019s large manufacturing base and strong\ne-commerce base. One developed economy that fared particularly poorly was the\nU.K., which is estimated to have contracted over -11% over the last year.1<\/sup>\nThe U.K. was already weak going into the pandemic \u2013 Brexit uncertainty was\ndragging sentiment and investment across the country, and the pandemic did not\nplay into the U.K.\u2019s economic strong suits, services, and spending. Here is a\nround-up of estimated<\/em> GDP growth for\nother key developed countries, according to the OECD:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies!<\/a><\/strong> Is a Manufacturing\nRenaissance Coming to the U.S.? <\/strong>As you can see from the chart below,\nmanufacturing jobs in the U.S. have been in steady decline since the early\n1980\u2019s. There are many factors for the decline, but perhaps the most\nsignificant has been the economy\u2019s evolution from an industrial economy to a\nservice-based economy. And, of course, technological innovation has played a\nbig role too. Many attempts have been made to save manufacturing jobs, but the policy\nis arguably not powerful enough to counteract technological and fundamental\nshifts in the economy. There may be an upshot in the offing, however: the auto\nindustry\u2019s rapid-fire shift to investment in electric vehicles (EVs) is driving\nstrong demand for a new type of manufacturing \u2013 lithium-ion batteries. China is\ncurrently the top market for the production of lithium-ion EV batteries, but\nauto-makers in the U.S. are pivoting investment domestically, with sights on\ndeveloping supply chains for batteries and related materials. Over the next\ndecade and beyond, as the market for EVs grows quickly, the U.S.\u2019s\nbattery-making capacity is expected to increase sharply.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis5<\/sup><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Importance of\nForeign Direct Investment \u2013 <\/strong>A key part of sustainable, long-term economic\ngrowth is investment \u2013 private fixed investment (at the corporate level),\ngovernment investment, and lastly, foreign direct investment. The latter\ncategory involves countries and corporations investing in other countries,\nwhether it\u2019s to develop supply chains, establish end markets, or to drive\nsales. As a general rule, more investment is good for economic growth, so every\ncountry should have the incentive to invest more, always, in our view. In 2020,\nChina overtook the United States as the world\u2019s top country for foreign direct\ninvestment, a title the U.S. should make every effort to reclaim. It should not\nbe difficult, in our view \u2013 foreign direct investment by overseas businesses\ninto the U.S. fell 49% in 2020, an anomaly tied to the pandemic. Over the same\nperiod, China saw direct investment increase by 4%. Once the risk of the\npandemic fades, the U.S. should be able to reclaim the top spot and should make\nevery effort to stay there, in our view.6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The current pandemic will continue to impact markets and economies around the world, but don\u2019t let it stop you from making the right investments that can help you in the long run! Finding the right investment strategy can make a huge difference when managing the highs and lows of the market. To help you learn more about strategies that cater to different investment objectives, we have created our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies.7<\/sup> Winners and losers in the COVID economy, U.S. manufacturing potential, the need for foreign direct investment <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10462,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions\/10462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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The Coronavirus pandemic has impacted the economy in many ways, which can cause investors to question what\u2019s coming next. While you may not be able to predict what comes next, you can prepare you investments with the right investment strategy! Using the right investment strategy can make a huge difference in preparing your long-term investments for success and can help you navigate these challenging and unprecedented times.
To help you learn more about strategies that cater to different investment objectives, we have created our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies. Our Dean\u2019s List describes five of our investment strategies that are ranked in the top of their respective classes by Morningstar<\/strong> (as of 12\/31\/20).2<\/sup>
If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn about five of our top strategies, click on the link below.
<\/a>Learn More About Our Top-Ranked Strategies!<\/a>3<\/a><\/sup><\/strong>
<\/a> ________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/pic-1024x395.png\")
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Our Dean\u2019s List describes five of our investment strategies that are ranked in the top of their respective classes, according to Morningstar (as of 12\/31\/20).8<\/sup> If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more about these strategies, click on the link below to see how they could potentially benefit you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"