Economic Overviews

This infographic shows the difference in Monthly Personal Disposable Income around the world using data from 2014. In this context personal disposable income refers to the income per person after all taxes have been paid.

If you believe that ignorance is bliss, you might not want to read this article. [Why? Because] I am going to dispel the notion that there has been any sort of “economic recovery”, and I am going to show that we are much worse off than we were just prior to the last economic crisis. [Ready to become informed? Then, read on!]

Just because something has happened in the past does not mean that it will happen in the future but the fact that so many red flags are appearing all at once has got to give any rational person reason for concern. What red flags, you ask? Read on!

Anti-tax demagoguery in the U.S. has resulted in Americans paying almost four times as much as the citizens of other wealthy countries for things such as retirement security and health care on the private market – 10.6% of our economic output versus an average of just 2.7% among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states. As the title of this article suggests low taxes in the U.S. come at a very high cost.

Dozens (dare I say hundreds?) of "analysts" (should I say alarmists?) are convinced that the U.S. economy (and that of the world for that matter) is going to hell in a hand basket - and soon. How sound are their analyses of the current economic situation? Will they be proven to be very insightful or nothing less than fear mongers looking for attention? Their views are all here. You be the judge.

Economically we are experiencing the birth pangs of the coming Great Depression and, as we get closer to the crisis that is looming on the horizon, they will become even more powerful. The warning signs are all there – we just have to be open to what they are telling us. This article identifies the many parallels between past economic downturns and what is happening right now.

Fasten your seat belts! Below is my forecast of what will unfold in the U.S. in 2015. Forecasts related to geopolitical particulars (covering Russia, China, Japan, USA, Europe & the Islamic State) and financial matters (covering banking & oil) are covered in subsequent posts.

Will 2015 be a year of financial crashes, economic chaos and the start of the next worldwide depression? Personally, I am entirely convinced that the financial markets are more primed for a financial collapse now than they have been at any other time since the last crisis happened nearly seven years ago and I am certainly not alone.

The Mayans R us. One year, they were cavorting bloodthirstily atop their garish painted pyramids and a generation later the jungle was stealing back over the temple steps and the population was a tenth of its former size. The same thing is going to happen to us, except there will be a hell of a lot more worthless, toxic debris left on the landscape. We enter 2015 with greater tensions than ever before and therefore the likelihood is that the inevitable breakdown will release more destructive energy and be that much harder to recover from.

10 of the top analysts from the mainstays of Wall Street made predictions to Barron’s in an annual December survey. Their expectations for 2015? The party will keep on going. Here are the details.