Salient to Investors:
Fareed Zakaria said 49 percent of Americans polled said economic conditions were good or excellent in the city they lived in, 37 percent said the same about their state, 25 percent about the US, 18 percent about Europe, 13 percent about the world economy. Housing is finally is recovering and will have big ramifications for the economy. History show housing leads economic recoveries. Demographics America net gains 2.5 million people every year – a future driver of growth in housing and construction. Germany’s population will decline 170,000 this year, Japan’s population of 127 million will drop by a third by 2050 . One in 4 Japanese are over 65, versus only 13 percent in the U.S. A fifth of the U.S. population is under age 14. While the U.S. fertility rate is similar to Europe. US takes in 1 million legal immigrants every year, more than the rest of the world combined.
Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University said the Obamacare decision is good for America and creates a basis for controlling healthcare costs – current U.S. system is the worst system for the highest prices. The Fed’s ammunition is used up and we are going nowhere. The economic headwinds include internal, external – Europe is the worst – and the slowdown in emerging economies. Synchronization of slowdowns is dangerous. The biggest problem is that the powerful political interest in both parties – both tax cut parties – which is for tax cutting, despite the fact the amount we are collecting is near historic lows.
Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital said Obamacare is a disaster for healthcare and the economy and will increase healthcare costs. We have no real recovery, and are in a deeper hole. The mess in America is worse than the mess in Europe because we have more debt than Europe, and we are less capable of tolerating the higher interest rates that are coming. To create jobs we need less government spending. America will pay the price for all the quantitative easing and bailouts. Unlike the U.S., Europe has the resources to make the mistake of kicking the can down the road. When Europe finally confronts its problems, the spotlight will turn to America’s problems. The U.S. economy needs more production more than more demand.
Peter Orszag said healthcare costs over the past 3 to 4 years has decelerated dramatically and not just because of the weak economy – the move towards a digitized healthcare system, the move away from fee for service payments, and the dividing lines between payers and providers are eroding.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel of The Nation is concenred that the establishment consensus is around some form of austerity and not around growth – not treating joblessness means it is at risk of becoming the new norm. The U.S. is living in a time of concentrated wealth, income, and political power not seen since the robber barons.
View the full episode at http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/category/gps-episodes/