As recently discussed in US dollar down, but is it out? and US dollar stalks risk markets everywhere a falling dollar has been the wind at the back of the risk rally since March. Its next move will impact everything. Economist Daniel Lacalle discusses in this clip.
The U.S. Dollar. Collapse or Oversold? Global Recovery Stalls. Here is a direct video link.
In going to the trouble of wearing masks we might as well wear one that is effective in containing our droplet emissions.
Researchers at Duke University tested a total of 14 common face coverings and analyzed the number of particles that escaped. Their conclusion: the best option for the average person is to wear polypropylene masks or a homemade cotton mask with multiple layers while bandanas are little help and neck gaiters made of polyester spandex material actually produced more particles than speaking with no face covering at all.
Dr. Martin Fischer, Ph.D., from Duke University, developed a simple, low-cost technique to visualize the effectiveness of different face coverings on droplet emissions during normal wear. Testing several face coverings, the researchers found that the particles can be blocked by some, but not all recommended face coverings. Here is a direct video link.
As the worst pandemic in a century forces the world to look for new ideas to expand the multiplier effect and more efficiently share resources through a depressed global economy, policies that have helped extreme wealth pool in a few at the expense of the rest are up for much-deserved review. Today’s historically low corporate tax rates and rampant stock buybacks are fat targets.
American companies today spend billions on stock buybacks. So what does that mean for the US economy? And how did it help make American CEOs so unbelievably rich? Here is a direct video link.
The chart below offers a sense of just how extreme global stock prices (in blue since 2001) have become as world GDP (in orange) has flatlined since 2018. The value of global stock markets has surpassed the value of global GDP (far right red boxes). In 2008 (left red box) a similar overshoot preceded the much-deserved halving of stock prices.
