Category Archive: 5) Global Macro
The Democrats in the age of Trump | The Economist
Since Donald Trump entered politics the Democrats have struggled to compete. The mid-term elections will see them employing a change in tactics that they hope will mobilise new voters and win over disillusioned moderates. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy It’s being called the most important midterm election in American history. …
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Turn Off, Tune Out, Drop Out
An unknown but likely staggeringly large percentage of small business owners in the U.S. are an inch away from calling it quits and closing shop. Timothy Leary famously coined the definitive 60s counterculture phrase, "Turn on, tune in, drop out" in 1966. (According to Wikipedia, In a 1988 interview with Neil Strauss, Leary said the slogan was "given to him" by Marshall McLuhan during a lunch in New York City.)
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What’s Behind the Erosion of Civil Society?
Rebuilding social capital and social connectedness is not something that can be done by governments or corporations. As the mid-term elections are widely viewed as a referendum of sorts, let's set aside politics and ask, what's behind the erosion of our civil society? That civil society in the U.S. and elsewhere is fraying is self-evident.
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China Now Japan; China and Japan
Trade war stuff didn’t really hit the tape until several months into 2018. There were some noises about it back in January, but there was also a prominent liquidation in global markets in the same month. If the world’s economy hit a wall in that particular month, which is the more likely candidate for blame? We see it register in so many places. Canada, Europe, Brazil, etc.
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Bloomberg Interview with Jeffrey Snider
Why Eurodollars Might Be Key to the Market Sell-Off (Podcast). There’s a huge market out there that doesn’t get much attention: Eurodollars. These have nothing to do with the euro-dollar exchange rate. Instead, eurodollars are U.S. dollar-denominated deposits at foreign banks and overseas branches of American banks.
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Fashion’s naked truths | The Economist
Half of all clothes are thrown away within one year—many have never been worn. The industry’s obsession with fast fashion comes with a steep environmental price tag. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy Fashion is one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet. Around the world eighty billion new pieces of …
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Another ‘Highest In Ten Years’
Upon the precipice of the Great “Recession”, US workers were cushioned to some extent by what economists call sticky wages. Before the Great Depression, as well as during it, companies would attempt to deal with looming economic contraction by cutting pay rates before workers.
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Why Is Social Media So Toxic?
The desire to improve our social standing is natural. What's unnatural is the toxicity of doing so through social media. It seems self-evident that the divisiveness that characterizes this juncture of American history is manifesting profound social and economic disorders that have little to do with politics. In this context, social media isn't the source of the fire, it's more like the gasoline that's being tossed on top of the dry timber.
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Globalization Has Hollowed Out Rural America
What do we make of an economy in which a handful of bubblicious urban areas are magnets for jobs and capital while rural communities have been hollowed out? The short answer is that this progression of urbanization has been one of the core dynamics of civilization for thousands of years: opportunities are greater in cities, and so people move from rural areas with few opportunities to cities with greater opportunities.
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What’s the Real Meaning of the Stock Market Swoon?
Economy has reached peak earnings so there's no fundamentals-driven upside left. Bond yields are now high enough to dampen enthusiasm for inherently risky stocks. Central banks curtailing / ending their quantitative easing programs have reduced liquidity in the financial system. US markets are catching up to the rest of the world's market slump.
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Charles Hugh Smith On Why Many Millennials Are Promoting Socialism
Click here for the full transcript: http://financialrepressionauthority.com/2018/10/26/the-roundtable-insight-charles-hugh-smith-on-why-many-millennials-are-promoting-socialism/ Disclaimer: The views or opinions expressed in this blog post may or may not be representative of the views or opinions of the Financial Repression Authority.
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Tara Westover: Mormons, Harry Potter and the future of education | The Economist Podcast
Tara Westover grew up in a strict Mormon family—she was 17 when she first stepped into a classroom. Now she is a best-selling author. She spoke to Anne McElvoy about her life and the future of education for “The Economist asks” podcast. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy Daily Watch: mind-stretching …
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No Such Thing As An 80 percent Boom
Many attribute the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” to President John Kennedy. He may have been the man who brought it into the mainstream but as his former speechwriter Ted Sorenson long ago admitted it didn’t originate from his or the President’s imagination. Instead, according to Sorenson, it was a phrase borrowed from the New England Chamber of Commerce or some such.
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Saudi Arabia’s crown prince: who is Muhammad bin Salman? | The Economist
Muhammad bin Salman has come under international scrutiny following the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist. Here’s what you need to know about Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy He is one of the most powerful people in the middle east. Just 33 years …
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China: facial recognition and state control | The Economist
China is the world leader in facial recognition technology. Discover how the country is using it to develop a vast hyper-surveillance system able to monitor and target its ethnic minorities, including the Muslim Uighur population. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy Improving lives, increasing connectivity across the world, that’s the great …
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Monthly Macro Monitor – October 2018
Stocks have stumbled into October with the S&P 500 down about 6% as I write this. The source of equity investors’ angst is always hard to pinpoint and this is no exception but this correction doesn’t seem to be due to concerns about economic growth. At least not directly.
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#MeToo: is it destined to fail? | The Economist
When Tarana Burke founded MeToo she had no idea it would become a global movement. A year after it swept around the globe, she considers why it’s at a critical moment. Click here to subscribe to The Economist on YouTube: https://econ.st/2xvTKdy Daily Watch: mind-stretching short films throughout the working week. For more from Economist Films …
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The Coming Inflation Threat
Falling asset inflation plus rising cost inflation equals stagflation. Inflation is a funny thing: we feel it virtually every day, but we’re told it doesn’t exist—the official inflation rate is around 2.5% over the past few years, a little higher when energy prices are going up and a little lower when energy prices are going down.
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Mutiny, Class, Authority and Respect
Humiliation and fear of a catastrophic decline in status foment mutiny and rebellion. I recently finished The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, a painstakingly researched history of the mutiny, but with a focus on how the story was shaped by influential families after the fact to save the life of one mutineer, Peter Haywood, and salvage the reputation of the leader, Fletcher Christian, via a carefully orchestrated character...
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