Economic Overviews

The plunge in emerging markets that started this year has given us the Fragile Five (Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey and India), courtesy of Morgan Stanley, because their big current-account deficits mean they are acutely vulnerable to a sudden exit of foreign capital. The trouble is, it isn't true. The next crisis will start, as did the last one, in one of the developed economies [and this time round] it is likely to come from one of these 5 countries:...

News out of Venezuela continues to be quite grim, pointing to further economic deterioration... Here is the the latest:

Most people deal in the present, rarely questioning the future beyond what they consider to be the very next event. The great majority of people...cannot imagine...a disastrous collapse as being in any way possible because surely, somehow, the governments of the world will fix things. The number of people whose eyes have been opened seems to be growing, however, and many of them are asking what the collapse will look like as it unfolds. What will the symptoms be? Here is how we see it.

Below is an infographic presenting a crash course in the need for, problems with, and benefits of, building the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta through the American midwest to the refineries in Texas.

Some of the most respected prognosticators in the financial world are warning that what is coming in 2014 and beyond is going to shake America to the core. Many of the quotes that you are about to read are from individuals that actually predicted the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and the financial crisis of 2008 ahead of time so they have a track record of being right. Does that guarantee that they will be right about what is coming in 2014? Of course not. In fact, as you will see below, not all of them agree about exactly what is coming next but, without a doubt, all of their forecasts are quite ominous.

Households in the U.S., Europe and Japan may soon face fiscal shocks worse than any market crash. Powerful economic players are deciding that with an ever-deteriorating global fiscal outlook, conventional levels and methods of taxation will no longer suffice. Indebted governments may soon consider making weapons of mass wealth destruction , such as the IMF's one-off capital levy, Cyprus's bank deposit confiscation, or outright sovereign defaults, likelier by the day.

The unelected central planners at the Federal Reserve have decided that the time has come to slightly taper the amount of quantitative easing that it has been doing....The monthly purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds will be reduced from $45 billion to $40 billion, and monthly purchases of mortgage-backed securities will be reduced from $35 billion to $30 billion. Below are 8 ways "the taper" is going to adversely affect you and your family.

An inevitable economic collapse has been warned about since this website began over four years ago.based on the following 3 key economic points that have been consistent since its beginning. Here they are:

The Baltic Dry Index is often looked at as a leading indicator of the global economy as higher shipping rates indicate stronger demand for shipping and healthier global trade. Year to date, the index is up 234% and is now at its highest level in more than three years (November 2010). This would indicate that the global economy is picking up steam.

There is a debate on Wall Street between those who believe we have entered into the next “secular bull market” and those who believe that the current market advance is predicated on artificial stimulus and, as such, the “secular bear market” remains intact. Take a look below at a series of charts designed to allow you to draw your own conclusions and convey your view in the comments section at the very bottom of the page. Words: 719; Charts: 12