I’ve been following the financial markets since 2009 (yes, my life is very exciting!) and I keep hearing about a financial recovery since circa 2010. I didn’t buy it then and don’t buy it now. Even though I’m not an expert, there are signs that anyone can see.
If we have an economic recovery, how is it that shops are closing left and right? And it’s not just because people are shopping online. They are, but one form of shopping doesn’t replace the other. People are buying less. Just today Toys r ’us filled for bankruptcy. According to this article from the Business Insider there is an epidemic of shops closing in the US - These haunting photos of the retail apocalypse reveal a new normal in America.
Last week the US achieved 20 trillion dollars in debt. If that’s the official version in reality it must be much higher. That’s around 61 800$ per person (Government Debt in the United States - Debt Clock)
The rest of the world has nothing to laugh about. Debt is everywhere. Here’s an article concerning the UK from today’s edition of the Guardian - UK debt is explosive – and it only needs a spark to light the fuse | Larry Elliott.
I hear that there are less people unemployed and depending how the numbers are cooked, it might be true, but the good paying full time jobs are disappearing and being replaced but low rate part-time jobs. Some people now need 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet. Let’s not even talk about student loans, auto loans and home mortgages.
Salaries are very low compared to the cost of living. Most people have very little left once they paid their basic bills, if anything at all.
Money velocity is extremely low, the dynamic yield curve is moving towards flat and the FED now has a balance sheet of 4.5 trillion that they want to unwind, nobody knows how.
Not long ago, marc Faber was saying that we have a bubble in everything (Marc 'Dr. Doom' Faber says ‘we have a bubble in everything’), Jared Dillian, Jim Rickards and a number of others have similar thoughts.
Yes, the stock markets are high. I expect them to go much higher for a while but they don’t reflect the reality of people’s lives and they are being manipulated and propped up.
But since I’m no expert, maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I’m wrong and things really are improving. Maybe the markets are not going bearish after all, who knows? I would love to be wrong about this one.
Did you feel an economic recovery where you live? Are people making more money, getting better jobs, living without much trouble the last few years in your part of the world?
If we have an economic recovery, how is it that shops are closing left and right? And it’s not just because people are shopping online. They are, but one form of shopping doesn’t replace the other. People are buying less. Just today Toys r ’us filled for bankruptcy. According to this article from the Business Insider there is an epidemic of shops closing in the US - These haunting photos of the retail apocalypse reveal a new normal in America.
Last week the US achieved 20 trillion dollars in debt. If that’s the official version in reality it must be much higher. That’s around 61 800$ per person (Government Debt in the United States - Debt Clock)
The rest of the world has nothing to laugh about. Debt is everywhere. Here’s an article concerning the UK from today’s edition of the Guardian - UK debt is explosive – and it only needs a spark to light the fuse | Larry Elliott.
I hear that there are less people unemployed and depending how the numbers are cooked, it might be true, but the good paying full time jobs are disappearing and being replaced but low rate part-time jobs. Some people now need 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet. Let’s not even talk about student loans, auto loans and home mortgages.
Salaries are very low compared to the cost of living. Most people have very little left once they paid their basic bills, if anything at all.
Money velocity is extremely low, the dynamic yield curve is moving towards flat and the FED now has a balance sheet of 4.5 trillion that they want to unwind, nobody knows how.
Not long ago, marc Faber was saying that we have a bubble in everything (Marc 'Dr. Doom' Faber says ‘we have a bubble in everything’), Jared Dillian, Jim Rickards and a number of others have similar thoughts.
Yes, the stock markets are high. I expect them to go much higher for a while but they don’t reflect the reality of people’s lives and they are being manipulated and propped up.
But since I’m no expert, maybe I’m missing something. Maybe I’m wrong and things really are improving. Maybe the markets are not going bearish after all, who knows? I would love to be wrong about this one.
Did you feel an economic recovery where you live? Are people making more money, getting better jobs, living without much trouble the last few years in your part of the world?