Financial Sense

By Danielle Park By Danielle Park – While stock bulls talk up a “strengthening” economy, consumer spending growth (which drives 70% of GDP in America) has fallen to a 4 ¼-year low even before rising trade tariffs are noted in backward looking data. …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Tim Duy PhD By Tim Duy – The U.S. economy performed about as well as might be expected in the first half of 2018, growing at an average pace of 3.15% in a “new normal” world where the longer-term speed limit might be just 1.8%. …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Michael Pettis By Michael Pettis – Economist Joseph Stiglitz recently published an interesting piece in Project Syndicate called “The US is at Risk of Losing a Trade War with China.” I am always surprised by claims that deficit countries like the United… …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Kurt Kallaus By Kurt Kallaus – Toll Brothers stock, one of the largest home builders, is down a whopping 35% from its peak this year as housing prices keep reaching new astronomical heights. The median home price in Tribeca, Manhattan is over… …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Global Risk Insights By Global Risk Insights – As US exports of liquefied natural gas have increased, policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic have viewed them as a way to decrease Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas. However, while US exporters have some… …read more From:: Financial Sense

By FS Staff By FS Staff – Jim Puplava recently interviewed estate planning expert Elizabeth Morgan who explains how taxes can be affected by the political climate and changing political administrations. She discusses the effect of sunsetting exemptions… …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Geopolitical Futures By GPF – Oil production in Russia is back with a vengeance. Whether Moscow ever really adhered to its agreements to cut production is a matter of debate, but the government’s most recent production data should put that debate to rest. …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Oil Price Oil Price – Iran’s crude oil production fell by more than 400,000 per day from May to September 2018, reaching an average of just 3.4 million barrels per day last month, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Short Term Energy Outlook published… …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Stratfor – Canada has a trade war on its hands — and it is one entirely of its own making. For the past four months, two of its western provinces, Alberta and British Columbia, have been exchanging blows over an expansion to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain… …read more From:: Financial Sense

By Jill Mislinski – Let’s do some analysis of the Consumer Price Index, the best-known measure of inflation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) divides all expenditures into eight categories and assigns a relative size to each. …read more From:: Financial Sense