We had a fun, meandering conversation with Matt Klein from The Overshoot. Love this guy. Smart as heck.

There is a lot of talk about China’s huge consumer potential and yes 1.6 billion gets the attention of S&P 500 companies. The challenge is very little of China’s GDP is controlled by the consumer because most is controlled by the state. In addition, China’s population is old - check out this podcast we did on China’s ageing population.  So what does huge ageing population with little extra money to spend have to say about the global demand trends and Chinese role in the world?  Throw in a $500 Billion gap in U.S. current accounts and a couple of stories about Mao acting crazy and boom – we got another episode of the Soundtrack to a Financial Advisor’s Life.

· Trade Wars are Class War’s

· Interest Rates Relation to Asset Prices and What it means to Household Income

· China’s Household Savings Rate is 30%. U.S. Household Savings Rate is 7%. Why?

· China’s Household Don’t Have A Safety Net and Have to Save not Spend

· The Consumer in China Has Very Little of China’s GDP and that Isn’t Changing Anytime Soon

· Interest Rates Relation to Asset Prices and What it means to Household Income

· What $500 Billion Gap in the U.S. Current Account Deficit Has to do with Companies Spending More on CapEx

· The Digital Yuan

· COVID Killed Consumer Spending in China? Not really. The Consumer never was spending in the first place.

· China is Getting Richer, but it is Still Really Poor

· Supply Chains – Good News, Rental Car Companies Have Rebuilt Their Fleets

· Mao killed a bunch of sparrows in China and 60 million people starved

· Mao told farmers in China to plant seeds a particular way and 60 million people starved