Put The Money In the Bag — In an attempt to even things out after two years of pure misery, the pandemic is finally trying to pay us back. Literally. The labor shortages, early induced retirements, and all-around fear sparked by the emergence of that damn virus have delivered an unexpected byproduct: fat salary increases.

Growth in hourly earnings of lower-wage earners is close to old news at this point. Workers in public-facing roles like cashiers, retail floor positions, and others similar were the first to vacate when the pandemic began, leading to stark labor shortages and all those “Now Hiring” signs you see at every single store in your city. After the mass exodus from “essential worker” roles, employers moved quickly to jack up wages in hopes of incentivizing a return to work. 

But now, that wage growth is becoming more widespread. Just take a look at the WSJ chart below - while lower-income earners saw their pay bump throughout last year, COVID has finally decided to share some of those gains with higher-income earners. 

Basically, labor shortages are starting to take their toll on skilled and specialized industries like finance, law, engineering, and other “knowledge” worker positions. As a result, corporations are shelling out more cash than ever to get and retain talent.

And who can blame them? Not only were we shut inside for months on end, but junior lawyers, investment bankers, and other similar positions saw massive spikes in workloads, leading to an increase in cases of burnout. Now, those companies are stuffing younger workers with so much cash in hopes this makes them forget what a healthy mental state feels like.

Salaries for finance, information, and professional employees rose 4.4% last month from the same time last year. While that’s outpacing the 4% jump all workers in total received, nerds will recall that that is still far below the annual inflation rate. 7.5% annual inflation + 4.4% pay increases  = -3.1% real earnings growth. Thanks, JPow.

So congrats on the giant bonus, but maybe think twice before blowing it all on a coke-fueled week of debauchery on some random tropical island.

U-Cryin’ — Although I’m sure 70% of you couldn’t point out Ukraine on a map to save your own life, but with the way that the nation has rattled financial markets recently, no doubt you’ve all heard a lot about it. 

Because of that, markets have had wild mood swings lately. I, for one, am tired of the emotional trauma of seeing my portfolio up 5% one day and down 20% the next. Isn’t it about time we take a look at alternative investments?

If you’ve been waiting for a TL;DR on the Ukraine situation, look no further. Essentially, it’s f*cked. Back in the 1790s, the then-Russian Empire claimed most of modern-day Ukraine as their own. Borders have fluctuated a lot in the region since then, but Ukraine was largely a part of Russia throughout the period until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. 

Around that time, several agreements were made between NATO and Russia related to just how close to Russian borders NATO could get. As Ukraine is right on the border of Russia, efforts in the 21st century to incorporate them and other Eastern European countries into NATO have made Russia a tad nervous. Then, in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, a (former) part of Ukraine, to show that it would not stand for what it deemed to be aggressive acts by the U.S. and NATO. 

Now, the situation has so far been culminated by Russia’s identifying of eastern Ukraine as an independent country, which has allowed troops to enter the territories without it being considered an invasion because, according to them, that isn’t Ukraine. That is where we stand now. If you ask Joey B, that’s Ukraine, but according to Vladdy P, that’s Russia. 

So far, the primary impacts on financial markets have been a spike in oil prices approaching $100/bbl and a dose of extra volatility in stocks and bonds. We’ll see if tensions escalate further over the coming days and weeks (they probably will), but let’s just hope this isn’t analogous to the German invasion of Poland that sparked WW2. Keep your fingers crossed.

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