Originally published March 19 2015
These key events happening right now indicate another financial crisis on the way
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) More and more financial experts are beginning to predict that the next global economic crisis is brewing, and they are trying to warn as many people as possible before it actually hits.
Natural News has ramped up our coverage of this important topic because, obviously, it has the potential to affect billions of people.
To that end one man, Bill Gross -- considered by many to be the top authority on government bonds in the world -- recently made global headlines when he released his January Investment Outlook (see it here, in which he was unusually negative about financial prospects in the coming year:
When the year is done, there will be minus signs in front of returns for many asset classes. The good times are over.
Why are analysts like Gross turning so negative? Easy; as experts in the machinations of global finance and investment, they see storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Here are 10 of them, as documented by The Economic Collapse Blog:
Poor start for Wall Street: In the first trading days of the new year, the S&P 500 fell nearly 3 percent; there are just two previous times when it has declined more than 3 percent -- 2000 and 2008, both years when the world experienced major stock market declines.
Choppy market behavior: Calm markets, in general, tend to rise historically. But when they are choppy, they tend to decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was calm as it rose in 2006 and through most of 2007; that all ended, of course, with the subprime meltdown beginning in 2008.
Also, don't get too excited if stocks happen to soar for a day or three or eight. So far, big advances have also been accompanied by big declines, and that's also not a sign of market stability.
Big declines in 10-year bonds: Spooked investors tend to seek "safety" and will move their money to more stable investments. That happened in 2008, and it's happening again.
As reported by Bloomberg News, the 10-year bond rate is falling now:
Taken together, the average 10-year bond yield of the U.S., Japan and Germany has dropped below 1 percent for the first time ever, according to Steven Englander, global head of G-10 foreign-exchange strategy at Citigroup Inc.
That's not good news. The rock-bottom rates, which fall below zero when inflation is taken into account, show "that investors think we are going nowhere for a long time," Englander wrote in a report yesterday.
Crashing oil: While average American consumers are welcoming the dramatic decline in oil and gas prices, this is not really a good thing for global economies. The last time oil prices fell by this much was 2008.
Fall in the number of operational oil rigs: Oil exploration and production is not cheap, and in order for it to continue, it has to be "worth it" for oil companies to continue exploration. Cheap oil makes it too expensive to continue operating rigs; during the fourth quarter of 2014, 93 rigs had been idled and now some are projecting that as many as 200 more will shut down in the first quarter of 2015.
This, too, happened in 2008-09.
Cheap gas is a warning sign: With cheap oil comes cheap gas -- and, historically, bad market performance. Following highs of about $4.50-a-gallon gas prices in the summer of 2008, the gas price collapsed.
Decline in industrial commodities: These, too, are falling, and that is another sign of impending economic slowdown. As CNBC reported recently:
From nickel to soybean oil, plywood to sugar, global commodity prices have been on a steady decline as the world's economy has lost momentum.
Junky junk bonds: The year 2008 also saw a junk-bond crash, and that phenomenon is beginning once more. "High yield debt related to the energy industry is on the bleeding edge of this crash, but in recent weeks we have seen investors start to bail out of a broad range of junk bonds," The Economic Collapse Blog reports.
Slowing global inflation: Globally, inflation is slowing dramatically, and that is usually caused by failing economies; when consumers have little or nothing extra to spend, inflation tends to fall.
Sources:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
https://www.janus.com
http://www.bloomberg.com
http://www.cnbc.com
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