This week’s Inside the Economy with SH&J highlights an update on the global economy. Germany appears to be a bright spot within the European Union with a budget surplus in 2015 despite global trade trending down, particularly in China. After recording a trade deficit with China for 2015, Germany is now seeking to make the United States their primary trading partner. Japan is also seeing a downturn in output and could be in recession by this summer. Listen in to hear more on the ECB’s continued quantitative easing, the flood of refugees into Germany, and comments on Emerging Market debt.
We’re back from our brief hiatus and have some interesting topics in this week’s discussion. Listen in to hear some insights into Japan’s economy, the good news for Americans and their savings as well as an update on the Eurozone and Greece. We look forward to hearing your comments and questions in the comments section below!
Continuing in our economic discussion series, Larry Howes discusses the U.S. and Global economy. This week he shows us our first hint of the 4th Quarter U.S. GDP, shares some interesting insight into the Colorado energy industry and talks about troubles in Japan, plus much more. Just 10 minutes this week and highly educational! We would love to hear your comments and questions in the comment section below.
At Sharkey, Howes & Javer, we have formal Investment Committee meetings. Every two weeks, we discuss recent market trends, the economy and strategize for the future.
Within each of these meetings, Larry Howes provides a very interesting and detailed report on the economy; questions are raised and insightful conversations pursue.
We have decided to open these internal economic discussions up to our clients by creating a new “series” where we record the economic portion of the investment meetings, and invite you to listen along with us.
The current audio was recorded in our meeting last Monday, December 8th. Please note that this was prior to last week’s market selloff, due to the ongoing decline in oil prices, and this will be addressed in next week’s economic discussion.
Please check the volume on your computer and have your headphones ready. We look forward to hearing what you think in the comments section below!
As 2014 winds down, the United States continues its painfully slow but steady recovery out of the Great Recession.
The Deficit
The huge Federal budget deficit that was created to help the U.S. economy crawl out of the Great Recession is shrinking faster than many people predicted, in part because of reduced Federal spending, but mostly due to significantly higher tax bills. The U.S. consumer is paying more in taxes but has also been a more prudent spender compared to the freewheeling habits of acquisition and consumption we saw only a decade ago. So the ongoing recovery will likely remain slow but steady.
Foreign Investment
With some of the world in war-torn turmoil much of the rest is experiencing economic stagnation, so it is not surprising that the U.S. is attracting lots of foreign investment money, much of which is buying companies listed on the S&P 500 index. In spite of a strong dollar (which makes the U.S. more expensive), foreigners are also buying U.S. Treasury Bonds, Real Estate, Shopping Centers or simply parking their cash here because it is the only place in the world still considered a safe haven. The U.S. economy is adjusting to the current low-interest rate and slow-growth global investing environment and we at SH&J recognize how the marketplace is changing. We continue to seek global opportunities, knowing that we can and should buy investments abroad while they are so cheap, but recognizing that we need time and patience for some of the economies to recover and ultimately reward us. As usual, we continue to balance our foreign opportunities with significant investments in all of the U.S. markets. We will continue this global approach into 2015.