Addressing the World Economic Forum at Davos last Monday, President Donald Trump told the gathering that the U.S. is “in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen.” He branded the economy “the great American comeback” and “a stunning turnaround” powered by “a whole new approach centered entirely on...
Author: Trends Journal (Julian Dzienio)
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INDIA: MASS PROTESTS CONTINUE
On Sunday, millions of Indian citizens continued the two months-long protests against the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, which grants citizenship to religious minorities – except Muslims – from neighboring countries. Some seven million people in the state of Kerala formed a human chain that...
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FRANCE
Last week, as President Emmanuel Macron presented his controversial pension plan to his council of ministers, thousands of union members from the rail and transport sectors ended their six-week strike, citing the financial stress of staying off the job. Many of the public transportation workers who had been protesting, but returned to work out of...
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LEBANON: NEW GOVERNMENT, SAME OLD STORY?
The ongoing protests against lack of jobs, a decaying economy, and government corruption that began on 17 October last year, and forced its Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign, continues. Despite the announcement by Hassan Diab, the new Prime Minister, of his appointing 20 new ministers whom he vowed to work with to solve protesters’...
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EUROPE: POLICIES UNDER PRESSURE
The weakness of Europe’s economy in January has surprised analysts, but it comes as no surprise to Trends Journal subscribers. IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the region was stuck at 50.9 as the year began, unchanged from December. Observers had expected it to begin January at 51.2. The German economy’s strength early this...
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VENEZUELA: GUAIDÓ FADING
Juan Guaidó, who with U.S. backing and that of some 50 nations, claims to be the legitimate president of Venezuela, received a cool reception at the recent meeting of government and financial leaders in Davos. Despite his recent meeting and endorsement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, as reported in the Trends Journal,...
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NEW YORK CITY: BUY/HOLD/SELL?
The weakness in Manhattan real estate prices and store vacancies that we have been reporting on in the Trends Journal over the past year have spread across the East River to Brooklyn. The dollar volume of real estate sales in Brooklyn last year dropped 30 percent from 2019, to $5.1 billion. The plunge was driven largely...
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IMF FORECAST CASTS SHADOW OVER DAVOS
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) told the World Economic Forum at Davos that it has revised downward its 2020 and 2021 growth forecast for the world’s economy, cutting this year’s outlook from 3.4 to 3.3 percent and next year’s from 3.6 to 3.4 percent. The glum forecast was mirrored by corporate executives attending the conference....
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CHINA: BANKSTER BLUES
More banks need bailouts. China’s lax banking regulations have led to decades of bad loans, corruption, and mismanagement. Now, according to UBS Research, more than 24 of the nation’s banks need $339 billion in rescue funding to have 12.5 percent of their at-risk portfolio balanced by cash – the global standard for safe practice. Although...
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CRYPTO BUG BITING BANKS = GOING CASHLESS
One in every ten of the world’s central banks is planning to issue a national cryptocurrency before 2023, according to a 2019 survey by the Bank for International Settlements. The number almost doubled for banks planning to launch digital currencies by 2026. In theory, national cryptocurrencies could be used to buy anything from fast-food burgers...