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En los años 80 se observa un cambio en el comportamiento de las masas: el objetivo del ahorro deja de ser el acumular moneda física o bien cosas físicas. La gente empieza a invertir en espacio para que se desarrollen actividades. Ya ni siquiera se invierte en espacio para almacenar cosas físicas -silos, almacenes, fábricas...- sino que el modelo es alquilar bajos, oficinas y viviendas para que en ellos se acumulen los productores de energía. Haciendo un símil sería como invertir en baterías sabiendo que la energía eléctrica es el futuro.
El nuevo paradigma podría ser intercambiar trabajo físico-mental por trabajo físico-mental (un abrazo, unas palabras o una cena compartida). El final de los desplazamientos innecesarios: vida de proximidad ya que todos en todas partes sabemos hacer las cosas. Viajes largos sólo para quedarse varios meses en el destino. Revalorización del tiempo libre, del silencio y de la distancia. Cambio de paradigma en el hecho de la paternidad y la maternidad: cobrar por querer y dedicar tiempo a tus hijos.
UK-EU trade falls sharply as Brexit disruption starts to biteLatest British export-import data from French customs office mirror declines recorded in Germany and ItalyBrexit disruption took its toll on Anglo-French trade volumes at the start of this year, mirroring declines in commercial activity between the UK and other large EU countries.French exports to the UK were down 13 per cent in January compared with the average of the previous six months, while French imports from the UK fell 20 per cent, according to the French customs office. “Trade with Britain is disrupted due to Brexit,” it said.The volume of French exports and imports from other countries rose in January compared with the previous month. Anglo-French trade had recovered from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic last year, rising for the second consecutive year, boosted by companies stockpiling before the UK left the EU single market at the end of December.But the new French figures indicate that the frictional barriers and uncertainty created by Brexit have dealt a heavy blow to commercial activity between the UK and the EU, its biggest trading partner.Even though the UK and EU agreed a last-ditch trade deal to avoid tariffs on most goods which came into force on January 1, trade was still disrupted by higher shipping costs, transportation delays, health certificate requirements and more complex customs requirements at the border. Some tariffs are still levied on goods that are imported into the UK and then re-exported to EU markets with little or no further processing.German exports to Britain in January were down about 30 per cent year on year, continuing a trend of declining trade between the two countries since the Brexit referendum in 2016, according to figures released by the federal statistical agency this week.Separately, Italy last month reported a 38 per cent year-on-year drop in exports to the UK and a 70 per cent drop in British imports in January — both much steeper declines than those with other countries.“The latest available data shows that overall freight volumes between the UK and the EU are back to their normal levels,” the UK government said in an emailed statement. “This has been possible thanks to the hard work put in by traders and hauliers to prepare for the end of the transition period.”Economists said it was still unclear how much of the decline in UK-EU trade was the result of Brexit and how much was caused by the fallout from the pandemic, which dealt a heavy blow to global trade in the first half of last year.“I have a hard time deciding what is the impact of Brexit and what is simply down to the impact of coronavirus,” said Gilles Moec, chief economist at French insurer Axa.Before the UK left the EU single market at the end of last year, many UK and EU companies had built up their inventories in preparation for higher costs and disruption from Brexit, which may have contributed to the fall in January as they drew down their stocks, Moec added.“There were so many stories about companies that had trouble exporting or importing after Brexit and a lot of hauliers were reluctant to deal with the customs issues, so there must have been an impact,” he said, adding that it was “still too early” to say how much of the drop in trade with the UK would be permanent.The UK has been steadily declining as a trading partner for the rest of the EU. Its share of overall exports from the 27-country bloc has fallen from 17 per cent to 14 per cent since the 2016 Brexit referendum, according to Eurostat.Overall figures for EU trade in January are due to be published later this month. But last year exports from the bloc to the UK fell 13.2 per cent, while EU imports from the UK were down 13.9 per cent.While the pandemic caused overall EU trade to fall, the UK had a steeper decline than the EU’s three other main trading partners — the US, China and Switzerland. Gabriel Felbermayr, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, said research it did for the German government found the country’s exports to the UK were likely to remain 12-15 per cent below pre-Brexit levels.“Some of the recent collapse is due to teething problems,” said Felbermayr. “The major new trade barrier in goods trade are rules of origin that are costly to document and to abide by; however, traders will learn how to deal with them.”He said there was evidence that “many of the bigger [German] firms have planned for Brexit and have reorganised their operations” to adapt to the likely disruption, while smaller companies have done less.
Las ejecuciones hipotecarias sobre viviendas habituales se disparan un 37% en 2020Rompen además con cinco años de retrocesos después de que en 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 y 2015 bajaran un 19%, un 39,8%, un 48,3%, un 30,3% y un 12,6%, respectivamente
The Narrative Of Inflation Amid DepopulationNext to language, money is the most important medium through which modern society communicates. The Federal Reserve is responsible for signaling how fast this money should be created or destroyed via its federal funds interest rate. When demand is high and capacity/supply low, the Fed should ideally make rates low to support growth of loans to boost capacity/supply. When demand is low and capacity/supply high...the opposite. Instead, the Fed is doing the inverse...trying to focus on getting consumers to use more credit/debt (think record low mortgage rates) to create more demand and necessitate higher capacity (think homebuilders).In a ridiculously difficult chart to decipher below (so I'm told), I highlight the year over year change in working age population (yellow shaded area), year over year change in employees among them (grey shaded area), housing permits (blue line), and the 30 year mortgage rate (white line...driven by the Federal Reserve's federal funds rate and MBS purchasing). The current situation of soaring permits against declining working age population and tanking employees among them...overridden by the speculative fervor created by record low mortgage rates is a case in point.But in an economy, the production and consumption of goods and services are used to fulfill the wants and needs of those living within it. Very basically, the major driver of economic growth is the growth of that population of consumers, their income, savings, and access to credit. If that population is growing at 1.5% annually then you can add an additional 1.5%+ growth for maintaining &/or building out greater production, supply chain, housing, infrastructure, etc to support that larger consumer base. This essentially gets us to a 3% growth in GDP. So what is happening when there is little, no, or negative population (consumer) growth but GDP growth is still being targeted at 1.5% or 3% or (as in China's case) 6%? What the Fed is trying to do is get a zero population growth (trending to declining population) economy to "grow" via cheaper debt, more debt, and serial bubble blowing. If I was a PhD at the Fed, I'm pretty sure I'd make it sound more complicated and mysterious...but I'm not and it isn't.Anyway, couple of interesting factoids I thought I'd put out today that may be tangentially of interest. If Brookings Institute (and many others) are correct in their research that 2021 births are likely to decline somewhere between 300k-500k due to the pandemic...2021 births will essentially be back at the same total number of births as 1921...exactly 100 years ago, in the wake of the influenza pandemic (chart below).Putting this round trip in births into perspective, over those same 100 years, the total US population has more than tripled (below).Narrowing in from 1950 to present...it should be clear the growing total population is not seeing likewise growth of births (below). Why?The answer is humankind is different than almost every other species on planet earth, and the female of our species has a relatively truncated period of fertility comprising only about 30% of their lifecycle. Most other species females period of fertility are nearer 75%+ of their lifespan This means that the significantly larger human population means little for childbearing, and only by narrowing in on the 15 to 40 year-olds can we see what is really going on. The yellow line below is the US childbearing population which has been flat since the mid 1980's...while the 40+yr/old population has been living decades longer than their predecessors. Couple the flat childbearing population with a falling fertility rate, and the US is looking at a secular collapse in births and subsequent decline in young amid a soaring elderly population.Below, since ZIRP was initiated, encouraging soaring marketable federal debt, the opposite reaction has been observed among young adults with tanking marriages and collapsing births (thanks to soaring asset driven costs of living vs. relatively flat real wages/declining benefits/etc.).Putting that soaring debt into view on a per birth ratio, (below). We are looking at ever fewer children (future adults) responsible for repaying/servicing/inflating ever more debt on a radically rising basis.So, when I show the year over year change (qtrly basis) of the total population versus GDP since 1960, it should be clear why we need the economy to grow ever less in order to serve us...because there is ever less growth to be served by the economy (below)! 2020 growth was 1/7th that seen in 1960 (yes, on a % basis).And when I include the year over year change in the working age population (15-64yr/olds...red line below), well, we now have outright declining annual demand from the segment of the population that drives the economy...so flat'ish GDP should about be adequate to take care of flattish demand? But the Fed would call that recession and provide more interest rate cuts, more QE, more acronyms yet to be invented to goose activity to suit the needs of the financial system.So, the Federal Reserve is targeting 2%+ GDP growth (really, significantly higher) against minimal population growth (minimal rising demand) because the economy is no longer about serving our needs...it is now we and the distorted/manipulated economy that is serving the needs of the federalized financial Ponzi scheme. As the chart below highlights, as the Federal Reserve has pushed rates ever lower, this ever cheaper/greater debt has not served the people or GDP...instead it has rewarded the minority asset holders for being asset holders...simultaneously punished the majority non-asset holders for not holding assets.It's usually at this point people start to ask what's it all about...what is the end game? Since the Fed is privately owned by the largest banks in the world (and they are owned by the 1% of the 1%)...why do these people need more money? I think the simple answer is they don't need more money. This isn't about turning their hundreds of millions into billions or billions into tens of billions. I detail the US domestic demographic, economic, financial picture HERE...but no, there seems a different point to all this than making the fabulously wealthy wealthier...suggested HERE.Summary - The US (and world, at large) is looking at an unexpected and increasingly large decline in births, young, and working age adults. The declining child bearing populations coupled with increasingly negative fertility rates are resulting in an inverted pyramid of continued growth among elderly propagating the collapsing population of young. The result is we appear to be at a tipping point that will result in a realignment of nearly the entire demographic, social, political, economic, and financial systems we've come to know and expect. This realignment is likely to be like a magnetic field realignment built around de-growth, managed decline.Extra Credit for those curious on market valuations...never have investors paid more for less potential growth among consumers (and never, ever have investors paid anything for a declining base of consumers...so FUBAR...but that is where the Fed has led us, so what else you gonna do?). Below, Wilshire 5000 (green line, representing all publicly traded US equities), market value of federal debt (red line, as per Dallas Fed), and year over year change in working age population (yellow line).
Tesla loses a third of its value for the third time in a yearMarch 8 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc’s stock extended losses on Monday and is now down by a third from its January record high, making it the third time in about a year that the electric car maker’s shares have corrected that dramatically.With investors worried about rising interest rates and dumping high-valuation stocks in recent weeks, Tesla’s market capitalization has fallen by almost $300 billion since its Jan. 26 record high to $550 billion, moving behind Facebook Inc , which it overtook in December after joining the S&P 500 .Tesla shares fell over 4% on Monday and were down almost 35% from their peak on Jan. 26. The ARK Innovation ETF, which has 10% of its assets invested ark-funds.com/arkk#holdings in Tesla, fell 6%.(...)
Austria vetoes Mercosur deal saying it goes against EU Green DealAustria’s coalition government has confirmed it will block the landmark EU-Mercosur trade agreement – which should create the biggest free-trade area in the world – saying it goes against the EU’s environmental ambitions set out in the European Green Deal.Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler, a lawmaker from the Green party, co-governing with the conservative Austrian People’s Party (EPP), sent a letter to Antonia Costa, the prime minister of Portugal, which currently holds the EU rotating presidency.“The extensive forest fires in the Amazon region […] in combination with the increase of intensive agro-industrial mode of agricultural production in Mercosur countries will exacerbate global warming,” Kogler wrote in his letter, quoted by EURACTIV’s partner Efe.“If we go on boosting trade and economic growth without taking the impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems and natural resources into account, we will inevitably be heading towards a climate catastrophe,” he added.For this reason, Kogler said, the two coalition partners have rejected the deal and called on Lisbon to avoid any political “manoeuvre” to bring the trade deal through the back door.“Our rejection also refers to possible attempts to conclude a decision by means of a joint declaration or a protocol annexed to the Agreement, or by splitting the Agreement,” Kogler warned.“We must seize this opportunity to use the Green Deal to advance international climate protection and give new impetus to the Paris Agreement. Signing the Mercosur trade agreement would thwart such progress,” he added.EU Greens hail Vienna’s decisionThe EU-Mercosur agreement, reached in June 2019 between the EU and the countries of this Latin American bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) after two decades of negotiations, is currently in the translation and legal review phase, at the end of which, the countries of both blocs will have to ratify it.The Green party in the European Parliament immediately welcomed Vienna’s decision to block the trade deal, calling on other countries to follow this example.“This trade deal is contrary to the European commitments set out in the Green Deal and the climate commitments of the Paris Agreement. The Mercosur text is flawed to the core, no additional protocol or joint declaration will suffice to change its impact on the climate,” Green MEP Yannick Jadot MEP commented.“It is time for European trade policy to fully integrate ecological, social and democratic issues. The insignificant economic stakes alone are not sufficient to justify the signing of a new international agreement,” he added.Several member states, MEPs and civil society organisations have already expressed strong reservations about the ratification of the agreement, due to concerns regarding its compatibility with the Paris Agreement and the impact it will have on global warming, pointing, among several problems, to deforestation of the Amazon.Speeding up the procedures of the Mercosur deal has been a top priority for the Portuguese EU Presidency, and Lisbon has also highlighted the “geopolitical importance” of the deal.“This agreement with Mercosur has a geopolitical and geostrategic importance that goes far beyond the field of trade,” Portugal’s secretary of state for internationalisation, Eurico Brilhante Dias recently said.The agreement could be important for countries like Chile, Colombia or Peru, which are outside Mercosur and have “strong links to the Pacific”. This, he argued, could pave the way for “alliances of an Eastern nature”.On 3 March, Portugal’s foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva said Lisbon would seek “clarification” on environmental standards.Paris has also expressed serious concerns about the Mercosur deal. France’s foreign trade minister, Franck Riester, said in early February that Paris expected “guarantees” from the South American bloc on “environment and health standards.“It does not mean our withdrawal, but we will only be satisfied with a political declaration on environmental commitments from the four countries involved and that will take a long time,” he said.
Asustadísimos debe estar revisando todos sus esquemas. Es muy grave su último mensaje, quizá está volviendo a tomar el pulso a la realidad real, y abandonando prejuicios.Inflación, oro, criptomonedas, GameStop, SP500...Todas las predicciones hechas, ante un capitalismo fallido, ¿deberán revisarse?