Laval, Québec – The latest edition of Olympia Trust’s “Educate & Explore” online magazine shared an opinion piece from our CEO, Tommy Baltzis, on the state of the industry. Tommy explores the various factors affecting economic stability today and what future trends can be expected. He also sheds a light on how Canada, the U.S.A. and other world economies will fare with their trading partners as the markets shift.
A history lesson
To set expectations for the future, we must first understand the past. Our history has been filled with power struggles and wars since the dawn of man, but something happened after WWII that set the stage for two major shifts: the most “peaceful time” in the history of mankind and the biggest economic boom we have ever seen. To put it simply, the US offered the world access to its market in order for the world to rebuild its economies. In exchange, countries would agree to allow the US to police the world and these same counties had to also side with the US instead of Russia.
This agreement obviously spurred the cold war, but on the flip side, it allowed the US to become the largest military power in the world and set the stage for globalization, once the war ended. This created the largest worldwide economic boom and triggered the fastest-paced technological advancement in history. Basically, the US allowed countries to export their goods and services all over the world and assured them that, if any issues occurred, the US would back them up. For the first time in history, allies and foes were on the same side. Supply chains ran through multiple countries, manufacturing was not plagued by security issues, shipments did not account for piracy, and the most essential part of the business became just-in-time inventory at the lowest price possible. As such, risk management became so much easier. The world became like a sport, the US made the rules and as long as you follow these rules, you could play the game. There would be winners and losers, but the game would continue. This was also a magical time for consumers. The end of the cold war was marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union which resulted in a major supply of commodities and raw materials being dumped on the world market. This oversupply set the stage for low commodity prices for an extended period of time. China brought a billion new workers to the world market, putting downward wage pressure on labour costs. Technological advancements brought more productivity and even helped women enter the workforce in larger numbers. Birth control allowed women to choose when to have kids for the first time in history and electricity allowed them to study at night once their kids had gone to bed and their housework was done. In other words, everything was cheap: commodities, labour and transport. The middle class merged in countries worldwide as consumers found themselves with more disposable…
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Source: Educate & Explore “Don’t blame Covid, blame the Baby Boomers”