Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (June 1, 2018)
The US stock market peaked on January 26, 2018 with the Dow Jones 30 Industrials Index reaching 26,617 on that date. The market dropped 3,272 points by April 2, 2018 which was a loss of 12.3 percent of its wealth. It’s value on Friday June 1 was no less than 24,542 – just 7.8 percent off its record high. In the April 2018 monthly blog I discussed the very serious issue of collapsing (imploding) demographics on a global scale. Fewer marriages, fewer children and smaller families will translate into less robust economies, less demand, falling values, falling tax revenue, and impoverished pension systems. Just as an unprecedented number of plant and animal species are literally dying out, the outlook for future growth of the human population of the planet earth is not bright. In the USA, fully 44 percent of individuals between the age of 40 and 60 are literally single – in other words, no spouse and no significant other. In Germany, 46 percent of males polled answered that the “ideal family size” is one person – no spouse, no significant other and no children. Many countries in Eastern Europe are already losing people. Not enough births, lackluster local economies, not enough immigrants, and many of the educated & ambitious local younger people migrating west in the search of a better career and a better future. The countries experiencing this to varying degrees include the Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus (formerly known as “White Russia,” the Ukraine and Russia itself. The demographic economies of Southern Europe are not in much better shape. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal all fall into the same category. The most robust European demographic economies of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Scandinavia (Denmark, the Faeroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland) and…