In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Brian Pretti discuss:
- Demand Is Drying Up
- There's just no market pull to create economic growth
- Phantom Profits
- Todays corporate earnings are accounting mirages
- The End Of The Debt Supercycle
- We've grown the economy through debt, and it can't handle more
- Blame The Central Banks!
- They're responsible for today's zombie economy
This week's podcast covers a lot of territory, much of building off of Brian's recent report on the state of the global economy.
His central observation is that the lack of final demand is the Achilles Heel of the global economy today. No matter how much more fiat money is printed, no matter how much more debt is issued, the real state of the consumer is deteriorating and they simply can not increase their consumption the way the system needs to match the economic growth rates of decades past.
There are many reasons for this, but two key ones are the end of the multi-decadal debt supercycle, and excessively dangerous central banking policies. We now have a problem of "Too Much Debt", and yet the system demands more of it for expansion. Those counting on leverage increasing at historic rates are going to be disappointed.
Similarly, central bank liquidity used to be a short-term measure to jolt a wobbling economy back onto the rails.
by davefairtex