Waving the White Flag

John Mauldin is one of my favorite newsletter writers.

This week’s newsletter speaks exactly to what my video above addresses–the elephant in the investment room is Europe.

I highly encourage you to set aside 10 minutes to read this weekend’s newsletter. It goes into greater depth than I can in the 3 to 4 minutes for my video.

Europe is the concern as we enter the dull summer months.

 Waving the White Flag

China Had a Trade Deficit in February

China had its largest trade deficit in 22 years this past February of $31.5 billion.

Why? Weaker demand from Europe and the United States is one reason. Factories being temporarily shut down due to Chinese New Year could be another reason.

Is this seasonal anomaly or one more bad sign coming out of China?

Stay tuned

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China’s Inverted Curve

An inverted yield curve in the US has predicted 6 out of 7 worsening economic conditions in our country since 1970.

In China, we don’t have the same type of statistics because of their young open economy, but recently their yield curve has “inverted”.

I’m watching this and realizing it’s just another of many economic indicators out of China pointing towards a slower economy.

I really don’t want much (if any) exposure to the Chinese Stock Market.

This also has consequences to the whole global trade market as China is the 2nd largest economy right now. We truly are a global economy, and what affects China affects the US.

Stay tuned to my newsletters this year as the China story unfolds.

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Unemployment Rate / Participation Rate

Unemployment decreased to 8.3%. Good.

Participation Rate of the work force at 30 year lows. Bad.

In my opinion, we’re at a time in history where there is a dramatic shift in the employment make-up, skills needed, globalization, etc.

This relatively short term (1 to 10 years) transition will not be without pain for many, but the market does eventually adjust.

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