• 287 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 287 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 289 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 689 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 694 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 696 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 699 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 699 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 700 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 702 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 702 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 706 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 706 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 707 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 709 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 710 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 713 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 714 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 714 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 716 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Tesla Struggles To Compete In European Market

Tesla Struggles To Compete In European Market

Tesla continues to catch the…

Market Sentiment At Its Lowest In 10 Months

Market Sentiment At Its Lowest In 10 Months

Stocks sold off last week…

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Another Retail Giant Bites The Dust

Forever 21 filed for Chapter…

Elliott Wave International

Elliott Wave International

Elliott Wave International

Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the world's largest market forecasting firm. EWI's 20-plus analysts provide around-the-clock forecasts of every major market in the world via…

Contact Author

  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

In 1929, Deflation Started in Europe Before Overtaking the U.S.

What Happens in Europe Will Not Stay in Europe

More than 1,500 years after the fact, scholars still debate the causes of the Roman Empire's fall.

What historians do agree on is that the crumbling empire's final days were marked by economic contraction, a struggle to fund Rome's routine affairs and excessive debt.

Sound familiar?

Mark Twain said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

That quote seems to apply when economically comparing the Roman Empire and the United States.

Today's superpower also faces a mountain of debt and a slow economy.

Unlike then, however, the modern economy is global.

So an economic downturn in one major area of the globe is likely to affect another. In fact, even during the Great Depression (long before the phrase "global economy"), Europe was exporting to America.

But one historic export was not the kind that the U.S. welcomed.

The economy is clearly vulnerable to a debilitating wave of debt deflation. The threat is approaching quickly from an important source: Europe. The same sequence of events occurred in 1929, when deflation started overseas before lapping onto U.S. shores.

The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, January 2012

The Financial Forecast has long kept a careful eye on the threat Europe's debt crisis poses to the U.S. economy.

The economic slowdown that EWFF characterized in January as Europe's "top export" is finally reaching foreign shores. Several financial news outlets report that the U.S. and China are now "slipping in sync" with Europe.

The Financial Forecast, June 2012

And recent news registered the economic slowdown.

  • Small Businesses Grow Wary; See Fewer Hires -- Reuters, Oct. 9
  • IMF Slashes Forecasts for Global Economic Growth -- CNBC, Oct. 8
  • World Bank Cuts East Asia GDP Outlook, Flags China Risks -- Reuters, Oct. 7
  • Europe's Richer Regions Want Out -- New York Times, Oct. 7
  • Entrepreneurship is 'weaker than ever' -- CNNMoney, Oct. 5
  • The U.S. unemployment rate tumbled to 7.8% in September but a broader measure was flat at 14.7%. [emphasis added] - Wall Street Journal, Oct. 5
  • Orders to U.S. Factories Plunge -- Bloomberg, Oct. 4
  • Spain's Tax Take Tumbles as Companies Go Abroad -- Reuters, Oct. 3
  • Trade Slows Around World -- Wall Street Journal, Oct. 1

Indeed, the European Central Bank recently initiated a new bond buying plan, the Bank of Japan just expanded its asset purchase and loan program, and the Federal Reserve announced QE3.

But don't count on central bankers to rescue the global economy.

Consider what Robert Prechter said in the July 2012 Elliott Wave Theorist:

The Fed's actions are short-term inflationary but are setting up a bigger crash than would happen otherwise.

Why do The Fed and other central banks around the world keep making these types of mistakes? You can find out for free. See below for details.

 


The Fed

Take An Important Step Toward Understanding the Federal Reserve System

In the free 34-page eBook, Understanding the Fed, you'll learn how the Federal Reserve controls the money supply, you'll pin-point a few critical points in Federal Reserve history, and you'll uncover several important myths and misconceptions, like who owns the Federal Reserve Bank.

This eye-opening report, which represents more than 10 years of research, goes beyond the Fed's history and government mandate; it digs into the Fed's real motivations for being the United States' "lender of last resort."

Get your 34 page eBook now by creating your free Club EWI profile >>

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline In 1929, Deflation Started in Europe Before Overtaking the U.S.. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment