Since the January 2022 blog, a rather lot economically and geo-politically has occurred, namely war in Ukraine which has given cause or excuse to global inflationary concerns with rising food and commodity prices. Fuel bills soared in 2022 with prices caps being introduced the alleviate consumer concerns. Prices for gas have since fallen although UK domestic customers may still argue otherwise.
The full emergence of AI into the mainstream economy with the arrival of Open AI’s Chat GPT have ignited debate over the benefits and threats of such a powerful technology. However, with the funding, development, and implementation of AI throughout the economy to date. One can sense that the important decisions were made by the important people long ago to utilise AI in a manner of their own deliberations with mainstream debate rather trailing irrelevantly behind.
AI combined with climate change, the ‘woke’ political agenda, US and China tensions over Taiwan, advanced semiconductor production and Chinese backing of Russia over their invasion of Ukraine- some are calling it Cold War 2-are dominating events so far in 2023.
Interest rates rose sharply with still more expected from the BoE and ECB. The US Federal Reserve weighing current economic data remains most likely to pause further inflation-based interest rate hikes to balance threats to weak manufacturing growth however consumer (and labour markets) remains resilient.
Global GDP growth has slowed since emerging from the pandemic from 2021, notably in Brexit Britain. Financial markets struggled throughout 2022, especially in equities, although there’s always outperformers and wins for those good at hedging or alternatives trading strategies.
In completing a MA in Philosophy in 2022 and a short course in politics and religious studies in 2023, the Little Deal Clincher website is being refreshed with a new look and features. It will continue to discuss financial markets from the perspective of the individual private investor navigating the challenges of the prevailing global market. It shall include some discussion and observation about what’s happening around the world which assists or threatens society, some of which are already mentioned above.
There will be recommendations of websites and commentators’ worth following or individual posts or podcasts to listen or watch which explain the issue or concept clearly. Further video comment or discussion shall be added by Little Deal Clincher to continue the debate. So watch this space.
Enjoy the new posts, their emphasis, and please follow or comment.
LDC
June 2023.