Barron’s: Embrace Your Inner Mr. Spock

Trump Tariffs Are Creating Chaos. Barry Ritholtz Says It’s Time to Embrace Your Inner Mr. Spock.
The chairman of Ritholtz Wealth Management says his worst-case scenario for the trade war
is bleak but investors still need to avoid acting based on emotion.
By Andrew Welsch
Barron’s, April 25, 2025

I just did an interview with Andrew Welsch of Barron’s, discussing how investors should approach managing their portfolios. The topic: What changes should make in light of new policies and tariffs. And of course, the new book)

Here’s Barron’s:

“President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs has whipsawed markets and left investors struggling to keep their footing. That makes Barry Ritholtz’s new book, How Not to Invest, a timely read because it urges investors to maintain a long-term perspective. “There’s always a reason to think the world is going to hell,” says the co-founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of New York-based Ritholtz Wealth Management. “Investors have to ask themselves the question: Is it really worse today than it was during the financial crisis, the pandemic, or 9/11?”

That is not to say Ritholtz, whose firm now manages $5.7 billion in assets, is sanguine about the potential consequences of tariffs. Far from it. In his worst case scenario, they could set back the U.S. economy significantly. Yet in an interview conducted April 22, Ritholtz says investors need to remain calm and emulate Mr. Spock, the unemotional, logical Star Trek character: “Don’t let emotions and the fire hose of information dictate your investing.”

Most of the time, neither tail happens. You tend to end up in the fat part of the bell curve. So, the rest of the world is on notice: You can’t trust the U.S. to do the right thing. And maybe we don’t implement the worst aspects of this. Maybe there is a mild recession, and that scares everyone, and they walk most of this back.”

Fun stuff!

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