Friday , 29 March 2024

Debt & Deficits

American Consumers Are Stressed-Out & Tapped-Out: Here’s How to Take Advantage

Retail sales numbers for July came in at a disappointing 0.0% and, after backing out auto sales, retail sales actually declined by 0.3%. That's in spite of much lower gas prices and (supposedly) an improving job market so my guess is that American consumers are simply running into a brick wall of too much debt. This article suggests 9 companies that could prosper from such financially stressed-out consumers.

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A Look At the 14% of U.S. Households With More Debts Than Assets (i.e. Negative Wealth)

According to the New York Federal Reserve, 14% of the U.S. population lives in households that have “negative” wealth. In other words, these are households that have more debts piled up than assets, which puts their net worth in minus territory. In today’s chart, we compare the data on negative wealth households with the data on their positive counterparts. There are some obvious and stark contrasts.

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Central Bank Bubble Will Burst and Result In A Recession & Bear Market

The unwinding of the "Central Bank Bubble" will be worse than either the Dot.Com Bubble or the Housing Bubble. It seems like most investors continue to show apathy even with the warnings by us and quite a few others of the "unintended consequences" of the central banks doing things that have never been done before. Those investors are in good company because it appears to us that the leaders of the major central banks of the world do not have any idea of the "unintended consequences" either.

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What Goes Up Exponentially Eventually Drops Like A Stone – Got Gold?

When growth becomes exponential the likelihood is that it won’t last and that there will a substantial move in the opposite direction. This article looks at the unsustainable trends in most asset classes, population numbers, inflation and credit growth and discusses the dire consequences that are most likely to unfold in the years to come as a result.

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China’s Debt Bomb & What Might Spark the Fuse

The ramp up in Chinese debt accumulation has been a leading concern of investors for years. The average total debt of emerging market economies is 175% of GDP, and skyrocketing corporate non-financial debt has launched China far beyond that number. The real question is: by how far? The answer is disconcerting, because nobody really knows. In today’s chart, we look at various estimates to the size of China’s debt bomb, its payload, and what might spark the fuse. Words: 354

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Stan Druckenmiller: America Is Heading For A Disaster

Stan Druckenmiller had an incredible investing performance (a compounded annualized rate of return of 30% - without a single down year - over a 25 year period) which was rooted in his skills in making macroeconomic forecasts. Applying those skills to an analysis of our current & future economic situation he has concluded that America is heading for a disaster. Here's why.

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