Salient to Investors: Money managers said fears that the US economy will slow as Obama and Congress fail to avert the fiscal cliff are overblown. Volatility across markets has declined, signaling investors are less worried about the economic outlook. Bettina Mueller at Deutsche Bank is astonished the market is turning so quickly, and expects
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Jim O’Neill writes: Nothing has materially changed by the US election and the Chinese leadership handover. The positive surprise in Korean exports in October indicates a pick up in world trade. Japan reported its first seasonally-adjusted current account deficit following other generally grim economic news. It is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Investors can’t get enough government securities even though rising debt loads are blamed for curbing global growth. For the first time since 2008, all 26 markets tracked by Bloomberg and the EFFAS are poised to generate positive returns on an annual basis. Governments are getting a handle
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Athanasios Vamvakidis at Bank of America said that despite many risks to the global economy, the G-20 has weakened substantially, which makes all countries worse off. Daniel Price at Rock Creek Global Advisors said the G-20 absences say more about the exigencies of domestic economic issues than it does about the future of
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The Legatum Prosperity Index attempts to broaden economic health beyond indicators such as GDP. The latest index shows: The US slid from the top 10 for the first time – to 12th position Norway, Denmark and Sweden were declared the most prosperous The standing of the US economy has
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: IMF growth projections have been revised downward almost everywhere, especially in Europe and the big emerging markets like China. The IMF projects the US to the strongest of the rich economies over the next four years – 3 percent versus 1.2 percent in Germany and France and 2.3 percent in Canada. The
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: New York City’s economic inequality rivals that of a third-world country – in 2011, the median annual income for the bottom 20% was less than $9,000, the top one percent was $2.2 million. Income inequality is the highest since the Great Depression – the top 1% took 93 percent of the income earned
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Charles Comiskey at Bank of Nova Scotia said the market is finding its bottom and becoming a range trade again – there’s no change in the big picture. Brian Barry at Investec said the economic backdrop is weak and sees no sustainable improvement in economic indicators. Gary Shilling at A. Gary Shilling & Co said
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Neil Mellor at Bank of New York Mellon said we are heading into a far more difficult period for the world economy and an exacerbation of currency wars. Kit Juckes at Societe Generale said rich nations are becoming increasingly irritated by exchange rates they see as overvalued, and the currency wars are
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Credit Suisse said: Australians have a median wealth per adult of $193,653, the world’s highest. median worth The Asia-Pacific region topped Europe as the largest wealth-holding region Australia’s proportion of individuals with wealth above $100,000 is the most of any country and eight times the world average
READ MORE... →