Quantitative easing and negative interest rate policies followed by major central banks in the past few years have been a disaster for savers. However these policies have been a boon to equity investors as asset prices have soared. The following chart shows the relationship between the value of assets on central bank balance sheets vs. …
Continue reading ‘Value of Assets on Central Bank Balance Sheets vs. the SP 500’ »
The graphic below shows the military power of China, North Korea, South Korea and Japan. North Korea has a population of 24 million and an active military force of about 1.2 million. China which has a population of over 1.3 billion has just 2.2 million active military personnel. North Korea has a strong military since the country …
Continue reading ‘Comparing Military Power of Select East Asian Countries’ »
Professor Hans Rosling passed away in February this year. I came across the following cool 2012 video in which explains how economies are made in bedrooms and not in markets. You an also checkout his 2006 TED talk titled “The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen” Source: Hans Rosling: economies made in bedrooms not markets, …
Continue reading ‘Video: Prof. Hans Rosling on Global Population and Emerging Markets’ »
Silicon Valley tech companies dominate the list of the world’s top eight companies by market capitalization. The five tech firms in the list are: Apple(AAPL), Alphabet(GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Facebook(FB). Old-world giants like Exxon Mobile(XOM) and Johnson & Johnson(JNJ) have lower market caps than the tech titans. Click to enlarge Source: Silicon Valley behemoths …
Continue reading ‘Tech Firms Dominate The World’s Top Companies By Market Value’ »
The Top 3 current account surplus in 2006 were China, Japan and Germany in that order. In 2016, Germany became the world’s top current account surplus country: Click to enlarge Source: Your morphing global savings glut, FT Alphaville From an investment point of view, sometimes surplus countries are better for investment than deficit countries. The US …
Continue reading ‘The Top 12 Current Account Surplus Countries’ »