Salient to Investors:

University of St. Gallen economists found that nations that pushed the EU to probe China for product dumping later secured greater trade with her. Lead author Simon J. Evenett said in the last decade, France and Germany made 51 protests, and Italy 41.

Trade missions and visits by government ministers to China boosted exports.

Michael Feroli at JPMorgan Chase said the growth of shale oil production in the US and the rise in energy independence will push up the dollar by about 0.5 percent on a trade-weighted basis.

Morgan Stanley says aging populations in major economies threaten the health of financial markets as a large group of retirees sell assets  for consumption purposes to a smaller group of savers – by 2030 the number of people 65 years old or more will have increased 45 percent in the US, Europe and Japan. To take advantage of these demographics, Morgan Stanley recommended stocks with high and secure dividends.

A report by Jason DeBacker at Middle Tennessee State University, Vasia Panousi and Ivan Vidangos at the Fed, Bradley Heim at Indiana University, and Shanthi Ramnath at the US Treasury said rising inequality among American males is due to a permanent shift in incomes driven by skill-biased technical change and revamped compensation policies. The study said taxes helped mitigate the increase in inequality, but not by enough to alter the increasing trend.

Joseph Gagnon at the Peterson Institute for Intl Economics says countries that intervene in foreign-exchange markets swell their current-account balance by as much as one dollar for every dollar spent, pushing up trade imbalances, and helping trigger the 2008 financial crisis. Gagnon said the large surplus in China and deficit in the US would not have occurred, and certainly would not have persisted, without massive official net purchases of foreign assets.

The University of Virginia, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, and the RELATE Institute report the average age of marriage is at historic highs – 26.5 for women and 28.7 for men – and marriage is now viewed as a capstone of life rather than a cornerstone.

Women who finish college and don’t get married until after 30 earn an average $18,152 more per year than those who are in their 20s or teens when they wed.

Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-22/china-bashing-lets-eu-embrace-jekyll-and-hyde-cutting-research.html

Click here to receive free and immediate email alerts of the latest forecasts.