Economic Outlook

How The Trade War Ceasefire Will Impact The Energy Industry

Posted by Simon Watkins

on Tuesday, 14 January 2020 11:24

Although the focus of those in the oil markets has been focused on the tensions between Iran and the U.S. in recent days, with many now thinking that the worst of this impasse has now passed (it has not), primary focus is now set to return to the previous major market driver: the U.S.-China trade war. As U.S. President Donald Trump noted recently in a conversation with China’s Vice Premier, Liu He: “Every time there’s a little bad [trade war] news, the market would go down incredibly. Every time there was a little bit of good news, the market would go up incredibly. And yet, other news that was also very big, the market just didn’t really care. They just seemed to care about the deal with [the] USA and China, and that’s okay with me.” This Wednesday, the U.S. and China are set to sign a ‘Phase 1’ deal that theoretically brings to an end 18 months of trade warfare but the reality may be somewhat different. CLICK for complete article

Instant Wisdom, Quote of the Week & Goofy Award

Posted by MoneyTalks Editor

on Sunday, 12 January 2020 12:52


Instant Wisdom

Ricky Gervais caused an uproar at the Golden Globe Awards. His monologue went viral – come and hear why.

Quote of the Week

America’s top political analyst, Peggy Noonan takes dead aim at the “woke” progressive set in her forecast for the next 10 years.

Goofy Award

Are Canadian Universities headed down the same intolerant, narrow path that’s destroying US colleges? This week’s goofy suggests the answer is yes.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss…It’s Very Dangerous

Posted by Micheal Campbell

on Friday, 10 January 2020 8:57

Yet another poll detailing the rising popularity of socialism and communism among people 18-39. The question is how did they become adults without even a basic understanding of history …or current events in countries like Venezuela.

 

Visualizing How the Demographics of China and India are Diverging

Posted by Jeff Desjardins

on Thursday, 9 January 2020 10:23

Within popular discourse, especially in the West, the profiles of China and India have become inextricably linked.

Aside from their massive populations and geographical proximity in Asia, the two nations also have deep cultural histories and traditions, growing amounts of influence on the world stage, and burgeoning middle classes.

China and India combine to be home to one-third of the world’s megacities, and they even had identical real GDP growth rates of 6.1% in 2019, based on early estimates by the IMF.

But aside from the obvious differences in their political regimes, the two populous nations have also diverged in another way: demographics.

As seen in today’s animation, which comes from AnimateData and leverages data from the United Nations, the two countries are expected to have very different demographic compositions over time as their populations age…CLICK for complete article

Can Six Myths Keep The Market Going?

Posted by Patrick Hill

on Wednesday, 8 January 2020 9:28

Piper Jaffray forecasts by year end 2020, the S&P 500 (SPX) will hit 3600, a 12.8 % increase. Of eighteen analysts interviewed by Marketwatch only three forecasters expect a decline for the SPX. Will the SPX reach 3600?  The SPX has soared over 400 % from a low of 666 in 2009 to over 3200 at the close of 2019. Mapping the SPX ten year history onto a psychology market cycle map of growth and decline phases poses interesting questions. As the market has zoomed over 400% upwards over ten years, it is clearly in the Mania Phase. Yet, the US economy is growing at the slowest rate of any economic recovery since WWII at 2.2 % GDP per year, why the disconnect? CLICK for complete article