Why wouldn’t it be?
Social protection expenditure in the European Union (EU) stood at 28.2% of GDP in 2016. In 2016, the two main sources of funding of social protection at EU level were social contributions, making up 55% of total receipts, and general government contributions from taxes at 40%.
The fiscal situation in the United States is worsening as government debt piles up. The U.S. government (Federal, state and local combined) now spends $1.24 for every $1 in income.
Continue reading “The U.S. Government is now spending $1.24 for every $1 in income”
European Union Debt to GDP
European Union total debt (Debt of general governments and the private sector) as percentage of GDP is now over 300%. Ireland’s total debt to GDP is an eye watering 450%. A decade ago the EU total debt to GDP was 180%, the debt bubble is well and truly here.
The UK’s higher education funding system is unique in many ways and a change today is quite significant in terms of fiscal accounting. Firstly, here’s a timeline of the student loan system in the UK.
We will write about the current U.S. fiscal situation in depth later during the month but in the meanwhile here is the story in some graphs.
The total Federal debt (doesn’t include individual state debt) now stands at $21.52 trillion,
Continue reading “The current U.S. fiscal situation in graphs”
The U.S. 10-year Treasury constant maturity yield minus the 2-year Treasury constant maturity yield spread has been a good indicator of past recessions. Yield curve inversion which happens when the spread turns negative and has preceded the last seven straight recessions. The 10-year Treasury constant maturity yield minus the 2-year Treasury constant maturity yield is the lowest since the last recession at only 10 bps.
Continue reading “The yield curve inversion plus why banks and banking stocks are impacted by it”
The European Central Bank (ECB) only started its Quantitative Easing (or QE) program in March 2015 in order to fight ultralow inflation in the Eurozone (also called the Euro Area). It somewhat worked by weakening the Euro (€), increasing exports, giving the stock market a boost and drastically lowering financing costs for European governments and corporations. This caused the ECB balance sheet to soar over €4.5 trillion or 45% of Eurozone GDP.
Households in Canada are accumulating debt at the slowest pace in 35 years as interest rates continue to rise. Household credit growth has slowed to 3.5%, the slowest since 1983.
Early during the summer, we wrote how the global economy was scorching hot then just like the weather but winter was coming. Weather wise (unless you are in Australia or New Zealand) winter is here and it appears the global economic winter is not too far away.
U.S. student debt outstanding now stands at a record $1.56 trillion, almost doubling in the past 8 years.
