In eras past, investors who hoped to get an early read on the economic trends that influence equity markets would monitor data like US factory orders or the Baltic Dry Freight Index. But today, all eyes are on China.

Even though the Chinese economy is only the world’s fourth largest, it is the first largest influence on stock market trends. Accordingly, the Chinese stock market tends to lead all the other stock markets of the world…for better or worse.

In the wake of the 2008 credit crisis, for example, the Chinese stock market bottomed out in late October – more than four months before the US stock market hit its post-crisis lows. Over the ensuing months, Chinese stocks rallied more than double, before topping out on November 16 of last year. Chinese stocks have been drifting lower ever since, even as the US stock market has been churning toward higher highs.

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Everybody is writing about this one little "satire" cartoon which aired on New Year's in Russia, and trying to figure out if it is meaningful or not.  Given that the cartoon of a singing and dancing diarchy contained no real political commentary of substance, I would have to agree with the uncharacteristically cynical comment from Fyodor Lukyanov below from an interview in the Financial Times.  As Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a foreign policy magazine, says: "This show means nothing. It's a way to make all the journalists and analysts discuss it for hours, days and weeks, while not making any changes in substance. This is the extent of our liberalisation."Television remains the authorities' best means for controlling opinion. Unlike in China, ...

Countries that require less energy per unit of GDP may fare better during a period of high energy prices.

This table shows the Kg of oil equivalent consumed per unit of GDP on a purchasing power parity basis for 32 countries, as reported by the United Nations.

This data is not a measure of energy use efficiency, because it does not distinguish between countries with high energy intensity industries (such as steel making) versus those with low energy intensity industries (such as software).

The data also does not indicate how much margin exists to be more efficient if necessary.

Interesting observations, include that the United States and China have similar energy consumption per unit of GDP, although the US figures probably include a much higher personal energy use component as part of the overall energy use.

Also, India uses only about 82% as much energy per unit …