Salient to Investors: David Stockman writes: The Fed has generated a $50 trillion financial bubble and made money and capital markets to little more than gambling casinos. Speculative rent-seeking in the financial market has replaced entrepreneurial innovation and supply side investment and productivity, resulting in a severe drop in real growth and a
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: The financial carrying capacity of the developed market economies has deteriorated since the 1980s; due to aging demographics, declining competitiveness v. emerging market economies, declining productivity growth, and the big increase in the leverage ratio against public and private incomes. The US’s ability to
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: Martin Sandbu writes: The view that banks first accept deposits from savers before lending them to investors is wrong. The reverse is true – banks create deposits and credit them to their borrowers. Because of this, Cullen Roche argues that the quantity of central bank reserves does not
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: In 2014, 190 million Indians used the Internet versus 60 million in 2009 and 7 million in 2001 – by 2018, there will be 580 million users. Boston Consulting Group estimates the number of Internet jobs could quadruple in the next 3 years, with
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Iran would be a superpower in global energy markets if reserves in the ground were the measuring stick – only Russia has more oil and gas reserves. The CIA reports proven natural gas reserves in 2014 (in cubic metres) in Russia were 47,800,000,000,000, in Iran 33,800,000,000,000, in Qatar 25,070,000,000,000, in the US 8,734,000,000,000, in Saudi Arabia 8,235,000,000,000. Jamie Ingram
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Christine Lagarde at the IMF said: The Fed should delay any rise in interest rates until 2016 and wait for more tangible signs of wage or price inflation. Pockets of vulnerability in the US economy could cause serious trouble for the wider economy. The IMF predicts US growth of 2.5%
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
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