Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (August 1, 2019) The Dow Jones 30 Industrials stock market index reached a new nominal high value on July 3, 2019 – slightly surpassing the previous record from October of 2018.  Bitcoin rose by 75 percent in the month of June, has lost some value since then, but is up by a net 143 percent since July 2017. The topic of this month’s update is the rise of the so-called “far right” wing political parties across the world.  This phenomenon became especially noticeable after the recent June 2019 parliamentary elections in the European Union.  Such political groups have had tremendous difficulty in being elected to political bodies since the end of Second World War (1945), but they do exist throughout the world, and of late have had their greatest electoral successes since 1945.  The reason for their lack of success since 1945 is of course directly related to the cumulative horrors due to the scourge of “nationalism.”  Nationalism came to the forefront of geopolitics with the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815) and culminated in the horrors of two global world wars which laid waste to much of both Europe and Asia (1914-1945).  Today’s European Union is the fruit of negotiations between the “Benelux” governments of the Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg at that time domiciled in exile in London in the autumn of 1944.  The thinking was that nationalism (and the corporate entity of the “nation state”) had to be subverted in trans-national political organizations where people would live and work together in peace, prosperity and security.  Benelux was signed in 1944, came into effect as a customs union / free trade zone in 1948, and grew into the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, the European…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (July 1, 2019) The topic of this month’s financial blog is one dear to many people – the health (or lack thereof) of their own financial retirement.  The pension administrator of my own personal plan recently wrote about the situation not merely with respect to own plan, but for retirement in general in the USA and worldwide.  So this is a topic to which most of us can relate. The biggest challenge for retirement plans today is changing demographics.  Human populations in all countries on all continents are ageing.  In other words, the current human population demographic is older than it has ever been in recorded history.  One the one hand, we are living longer, but on the other hand, birth rates and female fertility rates have fallen to historical lows.  This phenomenon translates or can translate into an inverse (or upside down) population pyramid.  In other words, too many retired people (or economically inactive people) and not enough younger people (or people who should be economically active and contributing into to the common economic resource).  Needless to say, some countries look better and others look worse when it comes to this phenomenon. In financial terms, this phenomenon translates into a so-called “pension gap,” 75 percent of which is currently attributable to deficits in government-funded public sector pensions (such as social security) and in pension plans for public sector employees (such as national government employees, provincial or state government employees, local or municipal government employees, members of the military, law enforcement personnel, firefighting personnel and for employees of the public education system).  The 8 countries with the biggest “pension gaps” had a combined unfunded liability of USD $70 TRILLION in 2015, which is projected to balloon to an astounding USD $435 TRILLION by the…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (June 1, 2019) Before proceeding to this month’s number one topic (China), I would like to say that the American policy of a global trade war must not be allowed to continue.  The combined worldwide cost of this insanity now stands at USD $33 TRILLION.  It is opposed internationally as well as by the leadership of the American business community.  The broader US equity market is flirting with a corrective bear market – it is down by a cumulative 12 percent in 8 months.  The European parliamentary election of last weekend confirms a disturbing long term trend since Europe commenced popular elections in 1979 – the main political groupings of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats (socialists), Free Democrats (liberals) and even the “new” left (communists) have seen their fortunes plummet.  The 2 groups which have gained since 1979 are the Greens (the environmentalists) but especially the far right wing (up from just 3 percent of the popular vote to an astounding 24 percent of the popular vote).  The far right wing plays upon issues such as immigration, fear, trade wars, old nationalism and divisiveness, but they offer no constructive alternatives for the future.  The mainstream parties of the postwar period (especially the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals) need to address these fears of the electorate, and in order to do so they need to backtrack on the centralization of power in Brussels and Strasbourg.  They need to direct today’s European Union (EU) to become more like the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – much like the EU used to be decades ago. CHINA An ongoing and very current topic in my monthly blog has been the subject of the evolving and changing balance of power in the world – in other words, the decline…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (May 1, 2019) In the April 2019 monthly blog we looked at how the modern day automotive industry (the core of global manufacturing) is consolidating by country, by region, by brand and above all by automotive group or alliance.  To recap, the largest global players in terms of unit market share by group or alliance are 1) Volkswagen of Germany (29 percent), 2) Geely of China (19 percent), Honda of Japan (14 percent), Peugeot of France (updated and raised to 12 percent compared to the last analysis due to Peugeot’s motorcycle manufacturing relationships with both Yamaha and Mahindra), Toyota of Japan (10 percent), Hyundai of Korea (7 percent) and General Motors of the USA (7 percent). The largest global vehicle market today is China, and the Volkswagen brand name has been number one in China for 30 years and counting – since 1989.  50 percent of all Volkswagen brand vehicles are sold in China (the Volkswagen brand name being the largest marque within the even larger Volkswagen Group).  The Volkswagen Group recently launched a brand new entry level marque specifically for the Chinese market under the name “Jetta.”  The Volkswagen “Jetta” is of course the sedan version of the Volkswagen “Golf” hatchback – the Volkswagen “Golf” being the modern day successor of the original and venerable Volkswagen “Beetle” economy car.  The new “Jetta” brand name is targeted and younger, first time car buyers in the large Chinese market and will include 3 models – one sedan (the “Jetta” itself) plus two SUVs (sport utility vehicles).  The “Jetta” brand will be manufactured by the Volkswagen-FAW (First Automotive Works) joint venture in China.  There will be 200 brand new retail dealerships across China by December 31, 2019 and these retail outlets will be concentrated in digital…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (April 2, 2019) In the March 2019 blog we discussed more important topics about the global vehicle manufacturing industry, about valid worldwide environmental quality concerns which need to be addressed and about the pitfalls of succumbing to the highly destructive ideology of socialism. Global new vehicle sales peaked at 95.2 million units in 2017 and declined to 94.2 million in 2018.  Much the same happened in the USA, which is the second largest national market after mainland China.  The makeup of this market has changed dramatically over time.  The dominance of the American companies reached a peak in 1947, when they held 92 percent of global unit sales (50 percent belonged to General Motors alone).  How things have changed in the 72 years since then!  Today, companies headquartered in Asia have 56 percent of the global market.  European companies have 37 percent and US companies have a mere 7 percent.  Automotive companies are divided into “groups” (which describes equity ownership) and sometimes into “alliances” which describes cooperation in the areas of manufacturing, sharing of common platforms & parts, and in marketing agreements for various parts of the world market.  The largest player today both in terms of unit sales / market share and in terms of capital is the Volkswagen Group (and an alliance above and beyond just the group).  The Volkswagen Group (headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany) owns the active brand names of Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Porsche, Scania, MAN, NEOMAN Ducati, CUPRA and Italdesign Giugiaro as well as the Karmann coachbuilding company.  VW is also the major joint venture partner of SAIC Motor of China (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation).  The VW Group manufactures 10.8 million vehicles per year.  SAIC is number one in China, with annual sales of…

Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (March 1, 2019) In February’s blog we discussed the fact that electric vehicle sales are set to increase at a very rapid pace due to worldwide governmental legislation and the related commitment from the motor vehicle (automotive) industry to reach this goal.  Even if people from multiple sides of the political spectrum do not agree on the issue of “climate change” or “global warming,” everyone can agree that environmental pollution is serious enough to warrant a switch from the burning of fossil fuels (crude oil, natural gas and coal) to something much cleaner, safer, healthier, more environmentally responsible and ultimately more affordable – “green” energy sources and ultimately nuclear fusion energy (note – this is NOT nuclear fission energy).  The US State of California has long led not just the USA but the entire world in legislation related to the environment and related to motor vehicle safety.  In other words, what California has enacted into environmental and automotive industry law has eventually found its way to the rest of the USA and ultimately to the rest of the world.  In spite of this progressive environmental and automotive safety trend, California will not (by its own admission) meet its environmental goals of reducing tailpipe emissions.  Why is this so? Much of it has to do with the fact that California is home to very large metropolitan regions (Los Angeles – San Diego in the south and the San Francisco – San Jose / Silicon Valley in the north) where millions of people make long daily commutes to and from their homes and places of employment.  In other words, far too many vehicles on road getting far too much daily use.  Another issue (more in the rest of the USA compared to California) is the type…

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…