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World Economy: Heading South West (That’s Not Good)
By Shlomo Maital
I know I am repeating myself. I wrote about this just recently. But, the latest Ifo (Munich think tank) survey reveals this:
“In the first quarter of 2019, the economic climate indicator for the advanced economies has tumbled to its lowest value since the fourth quarter of 2012”
The graph above shows on the x axis, “assessment of the current economic situation” and on the y axis, “economic expectations” (how you think the economy will trend in the coming 6 months).
The worst outcome is: the ‘dot’ moves south west (i.e. the economy is declining, and it will continue to decline in the near future).
Ifo Munich gathers data on the world economy, by region, by a survey of experts.
Look closely at the graph –the “world economy” moves strongly south west. So do the Euro area and advanced economies. Same for Mideast and North Africa. Nowhere does any economy move other than west (down).
Why? How about – US -China trade war, global uncertainty, Brexit, EU disunity, and…. The list is long.
We can blame part of this on Trump. He has thrown a monkey wrench into the world trading system, introduced massive uncertainty….and the world economy has cooled. When the two largest economies in the world, US and China, AND Europe, all cool at once…. We are in trouble.
Fasten your seat belts. It will get worse before it gets better.
World Economy: Best in Years
By Shlomo Maital
The recent one-day dramatic drop in the US stock markets, about 6%, has brought panic to investors – especially to every-day ones who manage their 401K accounts. It embarrassed President Trump, who speaks daily of the booming stock market and the “$8 trillion in new wealth” that it has created. He has ignored the drop, and his spokespersons revert to speaking about the strong economy.
So here is the basic truth. The global economy, for the first time in over a decade, since the onset of the global financial crisis of 2007-8, is expanding everywhere – United States, Europe, Asia. This synchronous expansion is of course amplifying economic growth and employment and job creation in each of the three key regions.
The graph above, from Ifo Munich, shows “actual” on the x-axis and “expectations” on the y-axis, for the EU region, which is about the same size as the US economy. It indicates that the EU economy is squarely in the upswing upper right quadrant, after a very long time being remote from it. The economy is growing, and people expect it to continue.
I hope small investors do not panic and bail out of their stocks, giving unwarranted profits to the sharks, and that they take into account this global synchronous acceleration, which I think will continue for a while. I hope also nobody will attribute this to what politicians, including Trump, are doing or have done. This is simply a cyclical pattern, as people and businesses expand their spending after years of belt tightening. It will end some day — but hopefully not too soon.
World Economy: Loop the Loop!
By Shlomo Maital
From time to time, I answer a questionnaire distributed by a German research institute, called Ifo World Economic Survey. Based on that survey, Ifo publishes a “business cycle clock” for the global economy. The latest one is shown above.
To explain: the X axis is the current situation: good or bad; the Y axis is the change, improving or deteriorating. The ‘clock’ starts in 2007, just before the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis that began in the US and spread around the world.
What we see is this: First, a huge ‘loop the loop’ cycle, stretching from 2007/8 to 2011, with a very deep recession. Then, two smaller loops, 2012-13 and 2014-15 cycling around ‘no change’ and ‘average situation’. The cause? Weak Chinese growth, and very weak EU growth.
Once the global economy had a powerful locomotive tugging it upward. First, the locomotive was the US economy, whose appetite for goods created enormous demand and pulled the Asian economies into high growth. Then, the locomotive was China’s economy, whose rapid growth spread to surrounding countries, as China imported components.
Today? The global freight train has no locomotive. Not the US, not EU, not China. Until a locomotive emerges, and one may not, the world economy will continue to do these small ‘loop the loops’, like a stunt plane, around the average.
Have you strategized this rather gloomy forecast?
When Is Good News Bad News? When It’s the Stock Market
By Shlomo Maital
Love that stock market! It goes up on bad news, down on good news. Can we understand why?
I belong to a panel of the German Ifo Institute, that quarterly surveys experts around the world to assess the global economic situation. The latest report? “world economic climate deteriorates, economic expectations less positive, inflation expectations remain low, US dollar expected to rise (it has), interest rates look set to remain stable (maybe not).”.
The U.S. stock market has risen sharply in the past year. But it recently declined. Why? Good news on the American economy – U.S. job creation and GDP growth are stronger than expected.
Run that by me again? How can good news be bad news for the stock market?
It’s simple. Wall St. is incurably addicted to cheap money and low interest rates, and plentiful credit. When the economy gets stronger, it increases the likelihood that Janet Yallen and the Fed will raise interest rates, ending the era of cheap money, and denying Wall St. from its daily/weekly fix of low-interest cash, used to speculate and earn billions. So the stock market drops, because good news for the economy is bad news for Wall St.
Does this show a sharp conflict of interest between the general population and the moneybags who run Wall St.?
TIMnovate 