I know this was a very emotional election so, as always, I preface this post by saying that my comments are purely from an objective point of view regarding the impact on the economy and investment markets. I realize there are many other very important social ramifications beyond just finance but I’ll leave those topics…
Impact of the Election
I wrote a post with my views on how the election results will impact the economy and markets moving forward but I’m going to wait until Monday to post it. I realize this was a very divided and emotional election so I’d like to give it some time. My goal is always to assess things…
The Banking Crisis in Europe Continues (it never ended…)
You may have noticed in the news lately that there are a lot of concerns about Deutsche Bank (DB), Germany’s largest bank, so I thought it would be helpful to explain what all the fuss is about. Last week, Angela Merkel said that there will not be a bail out and this morning there are…
Chart of the Week: Central Banks Attempting to Monetize the Whole World
The world’s top 6 central banks have now monetized, which means purchased with “printed” money, total assets worth almost $20 trillion (40% of global GDP). Since they’re running out of government bonds to buy (you know, since they’ve pushed yields negative), they’ve moved on to corporate bonds and stocks. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is now…
Charts of the Week: The Whole Story
These charts tell the whole story regarding the current state of the global economy and investment markets: Global central bank asset purchases compared to global equity % change (let’s be honest, there’s only one thing that matters…) Deutsche Bank’s recent report on the current stock market rally (’12 to ’16) compared to past market climbs…
Chart of the Week: Trying to Understand the Change in Politics
In the wake of Brexit, I thought the charts below would be helpful in understanding the political changes we’re seeing throughout the world. They might seem unrelated, but it’s the same story in most of the developed world and it’s all tied together. I’ve had quite a few discussions with people following the Brexit vote and everyone seems…
Brexit
If you haven’t yet seen the news this morning, the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) yesterday (results came out late last night). We’re seeing this type of movement across the globe right now. The vote to leave is a global middle class that is frustrated by ever growing wealth inequality, stagnant wages…
Creative Destruction
Creative Destruction is effect of technological innovation, when something new kills the older incumbent. We’ve gone from horse and buggy to railroads to cars, etc. A new innovation dramatically changes, if not outright kills, the old way of doing things. It’s constantly occurring but usually happens so slowly that we don’t notice it unless we…