The Awesome Science of Chinonomics

If we could plot "global anxiety over the end of times" (the end of human times, that is) on a time series graph, I would say that now we would be at --or close to-- an all-time high. Typhoon Yolanda's epic size and strength is indeed a reminder of how insignificant we are, which definitely does not help to calm that feeling of impending doom. End-of-the-world anxiety takes different forms. Economically speaking, the specter  deflation  is one of them. The New Normal , or the idea that we have reached a point from whence we will never achieve the growth rates of yesteryear is another. This idea, defined as a statistical regime change, can also be described as an inflection point, or the point at which the speed of growth decelerates going forward. In other words, the point at which the second derivative of GDP turns negative. The New Normal : The second derivative (the slope's rate of change) turns negative at L 1 The reason this inflection point occur

It seems these days that the United States is not living its best days as the world's sole hegemonic superpower. From the way the Syrian crisis has been dealt  with, to the way the drone wars have changed the meaning of military conflict, to the embarrassing release of formerly secret espionage programs  that force the president to apologize to foreign leaders. The reputation of the U.S. seems to be taking beating after beating. Yet, despite all this, the role of the U.S. in the world is idealized by many in the U.S. as the paragon of collective virtue and liberty. American Exceptionalism  still thrives . The society of the rule of law --the Land of The Free. Outside the U.S., humankind yearns for a leader. A nation to look up to for guidance and hope --a preserver or global stability. The decades that followed the fall of the USSR have given way to the concoction of multiple purported superpowers that could, like Ivan Drago  to our beloved Rocky, crush the U.S. as the sole heg

The king of Qatar recently resigned from his post. According to the people with knowledge of the politics of the region, his health was in a very weak state, rendering the effectiveness of his actions meager. He declined in favor of his 33 year old son, who according to people in touch with the politics of the region has a very pro-western stance. Much like the abdication of the Qatari royal, the markets recently witnessed the initial steps leading up to the abdication of our monetary dictator. His actions were increasingly perceived as ineffective . Each decree carried less and less weight. After our MIT-trained monetary autocrat came out with the latest decree --that the Fed will very likely begin to withdraw the cash injections into the economy-- the markets reacted , although not exactly in the way our beloved leader wished . The old status quo , whereby the movements in the financial world were a direct consequence of the latest ruling of the monetary dictator, was shattered. A