Is this how students feel about assignments?
Monthly Archives: February 2016
12 Factors Causing the Current Market Turmoil
In an excellent and very accessible article in the World Economic Forum, John Authers presents 12 factors currently contributing to the global volatility in markets, and general uncertainty in the economic climate.
One of the most important contributions of this article is to correctly explore the issue with Crude Oil prices and the impact US production has on global markets. Not too long ago, “peak oil” was a very serious idea impacting economic markets in a very different way. Will we see these ideas again, I’m not sure. The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.
One of the most important questions which comes out of this brief analysis is, “Are we headed for another recession?” Well, that question is hard to answer, but there are market indicators signaling a recession is on the horizon. But on the other hand, there are many macroeconomic indicators pointing to expansion. So, I guess, it depends on who you ask.
If you have 10 minutes, give this article a read. At the very least you will be marginally informed of the global economic climate.
Goldman Sachs says it may be forced to fundamentally question how capitalism is working
In a very interesting article written by Bloomberg Goldman Sachs reflects on their profit margin analysis.
Looking at why profit margins are expending, Goldman analysts refer to four key points:
- Strong commodity prices
- Emerging market cost arbitrage
- Demand growth from emerging markets
- New technology driving corporate efficiency
This is where we want to use some of our economic theory. We would expect that profit margins at some point would roll over and mean revert. Why? Because of competition. We would expect firms to enter markets and bolster competition; thus eroding profits. If we don’t see that happening and margins remain high, does that mean capitalism is broken?