Global Economic Crisis

Sheldon Filger-blogger for GlobalEconomicCrisis.com

When Covid-19 first impacted major economies last Spring, stock markets throughout the world plunged  by double-digits in a period of only 3-weeks. Yet, not only have these losses all been recouped; less than a year later equities have reached record levels, led by the Dow Jones index. In addition, other speculative investments such as the cyber currency Bitcoin have soared to dizzying highs. Yet, amid this financial exuberance veteran investors are displaying growing concern for the future. The  Financial Times has characterized their concern as seeing  “a bubble to rival anything  seen in the past century.”

Simply put , there is a disconnect between the equity markets and  the real economy, which is in dire straits in virtually every country. The sole reason for the escalation in equity prices is the unprecedented money printing by central banks, combined with equally unparalleled deficit spending by sovereigns. It is only this monetary and financial sugar high which is driving soaring equity prices.

When the first hint occurs that the pump-priming may be receding, however, the investors will run for the exists. What is likely to occur is a global stock market crash of calamitous proportions which, like the 1929   crash on Wall Street, will usher in a period of deep economic depression.

Sheldon Filger-blogger for GlobalEconomicCrisis.com

The Labor Department released its jobs reports for December 2020. It is dismal yet not surprising. In the past month the U.S. shed 140,00 jobs. This is the first monthly contraction  in  employment numbers  since April 2020, and the destruction of millions of jobs in the early stages of the Covid-19  pandemic. Though vaccines are slowly being distributed in the United States, having been developed in record time, the nation is currently experiencing the most severe spread of coronavirus, with states responding with further lockdowns and restrictions on economic activity. This portends to further job losses as the Biden administration takes over the White House in a matter of days.

It is not only the Covid-19 contagion that is damaging  the American economy. The risk assessment consultancy Eurasia Group lists political division in the United States as the number one global risk, ahead of the Covid pandemic. As if on cue, 48 hours after the release of Eurasia Group’s, report  on top global risks, riots erupted within  the Capitol building in Washington DC.  The growing political stratification within American society, combined with the continuing damaging impact of Covid on economic  activity, points to a very negative economic outlook for the United States and inevitably for the entire global economy.