When it comes to the history of market crises, fund manager Tom Plumb has endured his fair share — the 1970s oil embargo, the market crash of 1987, the dot-com boom and bust, and the 2007-09 recession.
And Plumb worries investors are blind to related problems down the road, such as rent deferrals that have been expanded by the government. “If you and I have trouble making our $500 a-month rent payment [now], what are we going to do in 100 days when we have $6,000 rent in arrears,” he said.“So we’re very concerned about some financial institutions.
Plumb said they have tried to dig even deeper when looking at where that revolution is headed. That expanded reach has led him to another top holding, MercadoLibre MELI, +7.33%, an operator of Latin American online marketplaces. He describes MercadoLibre as a combination of Amazon and online payments system PayPal PYPL, +3.41%, “because it has both the payment structure already set up and it has the delivery systems.
“I think right now if [as a company] you don’t have the ability to get the efficiencies provided by digital wallets by business expense processing, you’re going to find yourself at a significant disadvantage,” said Plumb.