“Central banks have created a debt-fuelled ‘Ring of Fire’, and we will no doubt have felt many tremors (large and small) as a result, by the time my next 6-monthly update appears in September“. That was my forecast for world stock markets back in March, and I imagine few would argue with it today, as we review developments […]
Chemicals and the Economy
China’s PP production rises 25% as it moves into higher-value export markets
Everyone is now beginning to notice the change in economic policy in China. And concern is rising about the outlook for all those new petchem investments about to come online, whose rationale has been the need to supply ever-increasing growth in Chinese demand. The chart above highlights the reality behind this wishful thinking: Everyone “knew” […]
Markets need more cash from the Janet Yellen tooth fairy
Central banks have acted as the proverbial tooth fairy towards financial markets in recent years. But they have not just left a small amount of money under the pillow when a child lost its first tooth. Instead they have printed trillions of dollars via Quantitative Easing (QE), to persuade investors to buy shares and commodities, […]
Auto sales downturn begins, as Top 7 markets plateau
Slowly but surely, it is becoming clear that the world’s auto market has reached its ‘peak car‘ moment. One key piece of evidence is the above chart, which slows how volume growth has now plateaued in the Top 7 markets, as the Great Unwinding of policymaker stimulus continues: It shows the 12 month moving average […]
China fooled the world, and now comes the Great Unwinding
The global commodity super-bubble is coming to an end, as I describe in my latest post for the Financial Times, published on the BeyondBrics blog It is exactly a year since we forecast that a Great Unwinding of stimulus policies was underway, due to a major slowdown in China. As we warned on beyondbrics: Oil and commodity prices are […]
Europe’s migrant influx threatens Schengen
Europe’s migrant crisis is creating a risk that the free movement of individuals and trade within Europe might be restricted. We take this for granted today, as the Schengen Agreement of 1995 has largely abolished border checks within 26 European countries – covering a population of over 400 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square […]
Jump to page: