Follow us or the Bunny gets it. No
Bunny gets it

Subscribe for newsletter


Follow us in Twitter



Gold standard and monetary metals:


Subscribe for browser push notifications

Category Archive: 5) Global Macro

Filter archive by: Show All Show only Articles Show only Videos

Burnout Nation

2019-05-14

by

2019-05-14

U.S. Stress, 2012 - 2017
A number of recent surveys reflect a widespread sense of financial stress and symptoms of poor health in America's workers, particularly the younger generations. There's no real mystery as to the cause of this economic anxiety:

Read More »

Trade Wars Have Arrived, But It’s Trade Winter That Hurts

2019-05-13

by

2019-05-13

U.S. Imports from China, Jan 1989 - 2019
There is truth to the trade war. That’s a big problem because it’s not the only problem. It isn’t even the main one. Given that, it’s easy to look at tariffs and see all our current ills in them. The Census Bureau reports today that the trade wars have definitely arrived. In March 2019, US imports from China plummeted by nearly 19% year-over-year.

Read More »

Unrealistically Great Expectations

2019-05-12

by

2019-05-12

Declining Wages, 2008 - 2014
Let's see if we can tie together four social dynamics: the elite college admissions scandal, the decline in social mobility, the rising sense of entitlement and the unrealistically 'great expectations' of many Americans. As many have noted, the nation's financial and status rewards are increasingly flowing to the top 5%, what many call a winner-take-all or winner-take-most economy.

Read More »

The Great Unraveling Begins: Distraction, Lies, Infighting, Betrayal

2019-05-11

by

2019-05-11

Income Inequality and Political Polarization, 1947 - 2009
There are two basic pathways to systemic collapse: external shocks or internal decay. The two are not mutually exclusive, of course; it can be argued that the most common path is internal decay weakens the empire/state and an external shock pushes the rotted structure off the cliff.

Read More »

China’s Export Story Is Everyone’s Economic Base Case

2019-05-10

by

2019-05-10

China Exports, 1998-2018
The first time the global economy was all set to boom, officials were at least more cautious. Chastened by years of setbacks and false dawns, in early 2014 they were encouraged nonetheless. The US was on the precipice of a boom (the first time), it was said, and though Europe was struggling it was positive with a more aggressive ECB emerging.

Read More »

What’s Germany’s GDP Without Factories

2019-05-09

by

2019-05-09

Europe Real GDP, 2007-2013
It was a startling statement for the time. Mario Draghi had only been on the job as President of the European Central Bank for a few months by then, taking over for the hapless Jean Claude-Trichet who was unceremoniously retired at the end of October 2011 amidst “unexpected” chaos and turmoil. It was Trichet who contributed much to the tumult, having idiotically raised rates (twice) during 2011 even as warning signs of crisis and economic weakness...

Read More »

A spanner in the works

2019-05-08

by

2019-05-08

MSCI China vs. Developed Market Equities - Relative Price Change, 2017-2019
While Trump’s weekend tweets have created fresh uncertainties around US trade talks with China, some perspective is needed.At the weekend, US President Trump threatened to increase the tariff rate on Chinese imports as he believes that US-China trade negotiations are going “too slowly”. Importantly, Trump’s threats do not mean bilateral talks are breaking down. Indeed, the Chinese government confirmed today that its trade delegation would still go...

Read More »

What Would It Take to Spark a Rural/Small-Town Revival?

2019-05-07

by

2019-05-07

Net farm Income, USDA 1970- 2010
There are many historical models in which the spending/investing of wealthy families drives the expansion of local economies. The increase in farm debt while farm income declines is putting unbearable financial pressure on American farmers, who must be differentiated from giant agri-business corporations. This is placing immense pressure on farmers, pressure which manifests in rising suicide rates.

Read More »

Good Riddance to a “Nothing-Burger” Trade Deal

2019-05-06

by

2019-05-06

U.S.Dollar's Share of Global Peyments
China has expanded its domestic debt to fund its growth, much of which qualifies as malinvestment, creating financial vulnerabilities its government is anxious to mask. As I noted in Trade Deal Follies: The U.S. Has Embraced the World's Worst Negotiating Tactics (April 8, 2019), the trade deal was a Nothing-Burger for the U.S. Without any consequences for violating trade deals, China violates all trade deals, starting with the WTO.

Read More »

Income Inequality and the Decline of the Middle Class in Two Charts

2019-05-04

by

2019-05-04

CBO Income Before, 1980 - 2019
These two charts of average incomes of U.S. households by quintile (bottom 20%, middle 60% (20%+20%+20%) and top 20%) have both good news and bad news. (Charts are from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office -- CBO).

Read More »

The Accelerating Decay of the Middle Class

2019-05-03

by

2019-05-03

The Fruit of Financialization
Ironically, their ample compensation allows them to avoid the poor-quality services they've designed for everyone below them. If we define middle class by the security of household income and what that income can buy rather than by an income level, what do we conclude? 

Read More »

What Tokyo Eurodollar Redistribution Really Means For ‘Green Shoots’

2019-05-02

by

2019-05-02

TIC - US Banking Data
Last April, monetary officials in Japan were publicly contemplating ending asset purchases under QQE. This April, they are more quietly wondering what other financial assets they might have to buy just to keep it all going a little longer. I’d suggest something like the clouds passing over the islands or the ocean water surrounding them. Nobody would notice either way and it would be equally as effective.

Read More »

The Erosion of Everyday Life

2019-05-01

by

2019-05-01

Wages aren't keeping up
Working hard and doing what you're told is no longer yielding the promised American Dream of security, agency and liberty. Volume One of Fernand Braudel's oft-recommended (by me) trilogy Civilization & Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century is titled The Structures of Everyday Life. The book describes how life slowly became better and freer as the roots of modern capitalism and liberty spread in western Europe, slowly destabilizing and obsoleting the...

Read More »

There Are Two Little Problems with “Taxing the Rich” to Pay for “Free Everything”

2019-04-30

by

2019-04-30

Federal government total expenditures, 1960-2010
No super-wealthy individual or household is going to pay billions in additional taxes when $10 to $20 million will purchase political adjustments. The 2020 election cycle has begun, and a popular campaign promise is "free everything" paid for by new taxes on the super-wealthy. Who doesn't like free stuff? Who will vote for whomever offers them free stuff? No wonder it's a popular campaign promise.

Read More »

Globally Synchronized…

2019-04-29

by

2019-04-29

WTO Global Trade, 2007-2019
The economic sickness is predictably spreading. While unexpected in most of the world which still, somehow, depends on central banking forecasts, it really has been almost inevitable. From the very start, just the utterance of the word “decoupling” was the kiss of death.

Read More »

Durably Sideways

2019-04-28

by

2019-04-28

Durable Goods New Orders, SA 2013-2019
Next month, in the durable goods series, the Census Bureau will release the results of its annual benchmark changes. In May 2019, the agency will revise the seasonal adjustments going back to January 2002. Unadjusted data will not be, well, further adjusted.

Read More »

Push Them Hard Enough and the Productive Class Will Opt Out of Servitude

2019-04-27

by

2019-04-27

State and Local Spending vs Private GDP, 1950-2010
People love their big paychecks, but they also value their sanity. One of the most astonishing manifestations of disconnected-from-reality hubris is public authorities' sublime confidence that employers and entrepreneurs will continue starting and operating enterprises no matter how difficult and costly it becomes to keep the doors open, much less net a profit.

Read More »

The Feedback Loop of Doom: When Mobile Creatives and Capital Abandon Unaffordable, Dysfunctional Cities

2019-04-26

by

2019-04-26

State and Local Spending vs. Private GDP Multiples of 1950 Values
When the 4% who generate the jobs and tax revenues have had enough and leave, the effects quickly impact the 64%. At the end of any trend, everyone's a true believer: this trend is so enduring, so broad-based, so based on unchanging fundamentals that it will never ever reverse.

Read More »

If “Getting Ahead” Depends on Asset Bubbles, It’s Not “Getting Ahead,” It’s Gambling

2019-04-25

by

2019-04-25

Workers share of national income 1994-2020
Given that the economy is now totally and completely dependent on inflating asset bubbles, it makes no sense to invest for the long-term. Beneath the endlessly hyped expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) of the past two decades, the economy has changed dramatically. The American Dream boils down to social and economic mobility, a.k.a. getting ahead through hard work, merit and wise investments in oneself and one's family.

Read More »

The Eurodollar, Unfortunately, Is What Is Rebalancing China’s Services Economy

2019-04-24

by

2019-04-24

China Nominal GDP, 1995-2019
If the “equation” CNY DOWN = BAD is valid, and it is, then what drives CNY downward in the first place? In conventional Economics, authorities command the currency to affect the level of exports. In reality, that’s not at all how it works. The eurodollar system of shadow money is almost purely calculated risk versus return.

Read More »