US Slowdown Spreading Global  

GLOBAL VIEW.  Yep, when I started reading the Bloomberg newswire this morning, I found:  (1) that European “retail sales declined -2.9% in April, more than three times as much as economists forecast,” (2) that March’s retail spending was revised downward from -1.6% to -2.3%, (3) that UK services “unexpectedly contracted for the first time in five years,” taking the reading below the 50 level which delineates expansion from contraction and which shows “…service companies shed jobs at the fastest pace since 1996,” (4) that S&P says the risk of default is rising in Europe and that (5) which we already knew, that European inflation is rising at the fastest pace in 16 years.  So it’s no wonder Europe is having a really bad stock market day today.  Schwartz View:  My sense is that the US economic slowdown is fast going global, well, slowly if you operate on right now Wall Street time, but fast if you really think about how economics works, almost always with a time lag.  Thus Europe today is just providing me with more evidence today that my sub-section headline in this space yesterday: 

“INFLATION IS RISING, WORLDWIDE, & THINGS KEEP GETTING WORSE”

is right on track.  My best advice?  Hunker down with what you plan on holding if we do experience the worst economy and worst stock market since the Papa Bear market of 1973 – 1974 over the next couple of years.  (1973-1974 was a period very similar to today if you take a look back at comparables.)