Salient to Investors: China last reported its gold reserves in 2009 at 1,054.1 tonnes, just 1% of the value of its foreign currency reserves, and less gold reserves than Germany, the IMF, Italy and France, and a fraction of those of the US. Bloomberg Intelligence believes China’s reserves exceed 3,510 tonnes,
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Energy-related emissions were flat in 2014 for the first time in 40 years. Technology and policy innovations in energy are not happening on the scale that they need to. In 2011, federal spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP in 2011 was half
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: The cold war between Russia and the West over Ukraine is worsening. Saudi Arabia will not build a nuclear weapon whatever happens with Iran’s nuclear program because it cannot – oil is 44 % and manufacturing less than 10% of GDP. Saudi Arabia could not
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Stockman writes: The ratio of finance to GDP has risen to 540% vs. the historic norm of 200%. Central bank driven bubble finance since the late 1980s has resulted in the GDP deflator-adjusted value of corporate equities and credit market debt outstanding rising 8 times, while real median household
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: David Stockman writes: This central bank fueled boom will ultimately bring a prolonged deflationary contraction and day of reckoning for financial assets. During the 27 years of Greenspan’s Fed Chair term from 1987-2014: The Fed balance sheet grew 23 times. Buffet’s net worth grew 35 times, or 19 times adjusted
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The OECD said: The global economy’s predicted growth is lowered to 3.1% in 2015 and 3.8% in 2016 due to an unexpectedly weak Q1 and investment yet to take off. The global economy rates a B-minus. Large businesses have been unwilling to invest as vigorously as in previous cyclical
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Britain, which created the world we live in, has become parochial and has essentially resigned as a global power: a tragedy for us all. The Royal United Services Institute predicts that the British army could shrink to 50,000, smaller than at any point since the 1770s
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: America needs reform and restructuring. The tax code is a corrupt mess. The US ranks third in global competitiveness, 12th in overall infrastructure, 24th in the quality of its electricity supply, and 101st in mobile telephone subscriptions.The average age of the US’s 84,000 dams is 52
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Lee Kuan Yew said America will remain the world’s dominant power in the 21st century only if it is the dominant Pacific power. Global stability will be shaped by how the US handles China. Graham Allison at Harvard said that since 1500, war resulted
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said the NSF reports the US share of global R&D at 30%, down from 37% in 2001. China % of GDP spent on R&D is on track to surpass the US in just a few years. Charles Bolden at NASA said a multi-planet species can survive in perpetuity;
READ MORE... →