Alternative Visions - 2019 Year End Review: US & Global Economy

 Dr. Rasmus reviews the 10 most important economic events of 2019 in both the US and global economies. Topics include the Fed’s prior policy reversal and 2019 interest rate cuts, the Repo market crisis, Trump’s trade wars (phony and real including USMCA and China deals), the US 5 mo. manufacturing recession now worsening, the 9 mo. long contraction in US real investment, the stock market and bond boom of 2019 (and what’s driving it), Trump’s official budget deficit of >$1 trillion, Trump’s further tax cutting. US productivity slowdown, and US debt—public and private—now exceeding $60 trillion, with the consequences with the next recession. Globally, the top 10 events include: global trade stagnation, global manufacturing recession, central banks’ shift again to QE, global stock market boom, $15 trillion in negative interest rates, >$10 trillion in global non-performing bank loans, emergence of alternatives to the US dominated SWIFT international payments system, Latin American economies’ currency crises, growing financial instability in India, and China’s economy with slowing GDP, manufacturing, and rising debt and emerging defaults. (Next week: the Top 10 political developments of 2019 in the US and globally).