I;ve heard repeated remarks on Free Republic that American markets don’t follow the Asian cycle, but THEY follow us. So, right now as I type, the Asian markets are all down. WHEN the USA was a leader, probably the other markets followed us. I’m not sure we’re the leader any more. Waiting to see what happens on Wall Street tomorrow...are we followers or leaders?
Despite much of talk about markets “decoupling” from US or “change of leadership,” it’s just baseless talk. US is still leading in direction of the markets, though the velocity may differ with some other markets, i.e., some markets may be “hotter” over some period of time, and develop their own bubbles, but even when it’s regional bubbles, they seldom affect the rest of the world.
The rest of the world, including, in particular, China (which is developing financial and real estate bubbles of her own) are still too dependent on US economy and financial services that are mostly following US.
Which, of course, is no reason to gloat or be particularly happy about, but next time you hear about “decoupling” or some such, just smile and walk away.