Justin Irving | The word “boom” evokes some temporary period of above-average economic growth. The Roaring 20s, the plentiful 50s and 60s and the Dot Com era. Because booms are characterized by unexpected levels of economic growth, asset prices, which had not priced in the growth, rise sharply. Is this what is going on US economy today? Not quite.
The message unanimously churned out by politicians, central bankers, and ‘mainstream’ economists is that central banks are there for the ‘greater good’. However, accoding to a market report from Degussa, “unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.”
I. de la Torre and L. Torralba (Arcano Partners) | The economist Dornbusch says that “crises take long to arrive than you can possibly imagine, but when they do come, they happen faster than you can possibly imagine”. The events that have affected the emerging countries this summer have proven Dornbusch was right.
Víctor Yepes Piqueras (Polytechnic University de Valencia) via The Conversation | Maintaining infrastructure in an adequate state of conservation and maintenance is a first order necessity in any society. However, those responsable for this task are not devoting to it the necessary attention and resources.
(University of Varwick) via The Conversation | US president Donald Trump’s erratic and disruptive foreign policy is putting more pressure on the EU to uphold the international liberal order. The EU is beginning to realise this and move up a gear in many of its external policies. But the bloc’s most prominent strategies don’t, at the moment, defend a particularly liberal notion of global order.
Jerry Davis via The Conversation | On Aug. 2, Apple became the first U.S. public corporation to achieve a US$1 trillion valuation, making it the largest company in the world – by one measure at least. But what exactly defines a “megacompany”?
Shaun Riordan | The currency markets seem to have given the Turkish Lira a temporary respite. But the underlying problems remain the same: an unsustainable current account deficit; excessive dependence on foreign currency denominated (especially dollar denominated) debt; and high inflation.
David Page (AXA IM) | We believe the US has been using tariffs primarily as a negotiation tool; China appears a special focus. But domestic political motives also appear to be a driver.
The dangerous rise of carbon emissions coupled with greater energy efficiency driven by the evolution of battery technology is building momentum towards acceptance of electric cars globally. For analysts at Wisdom Tree, “the proliferation of Electric Vehicles will be tied to the initiatives from governments across the world as they rely on supplementary grid infrastructure.”
Even though extreme poverty has fallen in recent years, economic inequality has grown more pervasive. In a brief note from Allianz Global Investors, the firm underlines this figure: the top 1% of the US population owned more than 38% of the country’s total wealth in 2016,while the top 10% of populations are benefiting disproportionately.