Economic Overviews

With volatility returning to domestic equities, it might be time for investors to consider increasing their exposure to foreign markets, specifically emerging Europe...With that in mind, I’d like to share with you the top six fastest growing countries in emerging Europe, based on their just-released manufacturing PMIs for the month of March.

The dominating role that the U.S. has had with respect to patent applications has been challenged in recent years. Is China becoming the new global leader in innovation?

Today’s infographic comes to us from VoucherCloud, and it...looks at the top export of every country in the world. It’s a simple but telling way to see what countries are “good” at producing.

SouthBay Research has a "Vice Index" that that tracks spending on gambling, alcohol, drugs, and prostitution and, as of February, the vice index had tumbled, suggesting that after a brief burst in late 2017 and 2018, the consumer-driven economy is again in trouble.

We live with a DEBT economic model which is dysfunctional. It has produced mountains of unpayable DEBT and continuing national deficits with no options for any real repayment. It is a one-way street with a cul-de-sac at the end - and we have reached the end of this one-way street as of 2018.

The qualitative relationship between the growth in the Total Money Supply, credit crises, and recessions has been remarkably clear since 1978 and, as such, the current suppression of the Total Money Supply growth rate, if it is sustained for the rest of the year, portends another credit crisis and housing bust, followed by an economic recession for the U.S. economy.

Investors sold off global equities this month on fears about rising inflation brought on by rising wages but fundamentals remain strong, and we do not believe this correction is a sign of ongoing challenges.

...Volatility has now returned to the stock market after a hibernation of several years...[and such] an explosion of volatility is indicative of a change of trend. The recent signals transmitted by this market have been classic and have been telling us that we have entered the final topping process of this extended and stretched economic cycle.

Each time interest rates have surged up to their long-term trendline, a 'crisis' has occurred. Is this time really different because rates are "going up for the right reason" or is this narrative just one more bullshit line from a desperate industry of asset-gatherers and commission-takers?

The World Inequality Report 2018 is a rich resource, with lots of information on inequality of incomes by country and by region, inequality of wealth, shifts in public wealth, and other topics. Here are a few of the figures that jumped out at me.