Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (February 2, 2019)
S&P 500 on Feb 3, 2019 It looks like we may be in a bear market. The Dow Jones 30 Industrial Index is down by 7 percent from its record high. The corresponding decline in the S&P 500 Index is 8 percent and for the NASDAQ Composite Index it is already a 11 percent loss (in late December this was a 24 percent loss). The NASDAQ is by far the most “representative” of the 3 major indices because it contains 95 percent of all publicly traded companies in the USA. An even more ominous sign is the rise of the acceptance of the concept of “socialism” in the USA. Dangerous proposals for massive increases in taxation (which is already sky high) and the implementation of a so-called “wealth tax” on one’s net worth foretell the event of an eventual “debt jubilee” or the write down of financial assets and liquid wealth (i.e. US Dollar denominated bank accounts, retirement savings, pension plans, life insurance contracts and the like) – an eventual global currency reset or “global economic reset” which will bring the US Dollar back down to earth. The leader of the future is clearly China and the continent of Asia – not America or Europe. New auto sales in the USA reached 17,334,481 new units in 2018. The Volkswagen Group had a record year worldwide, in China and in the USA (the 2 largest national global auto markets, respectively). The VW Group is the largest and best capitalized vehicle group on earth. Their record performance in the US market is due to their large number of brands which now include Volkswagen (the mass market brand from Germany), Audi (a luxury brand from Germany), Porsche (a luxury and a sports car brand from Germany), Navistar (a commercial truck brand based in…