The only clear positive trend is strong CapEx growth, implying building capacity for increased demand in the future. Wages also continued to show broad growth, although they may be growing too fast for the underlying business conditions.

Markets are forward-looking, but Buffett’s announcement in early May obviously caught the market off guard.

The world economy seems to be reaching growth limits because there are too few easily extractable energy resources (as well as other resources, such as fresh water), relative to the world’s population.

From an infrastructure perspective, New Year’s Eve is a massive challenge. In fact, it’s one of the biggest stress tests our power grid faces all year.

Bitcoin reached a lofty all-time high in 2021, thanks in part to the surprising support of traditional finance.