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According to a 2017 study by the Brookings Institution, 88 percent of the next 1 billion people to enter the middle class globally will be Asians. The size of the Asian middle class is expected to reach nearly 3.5 billion people, or 65 percent of the world’s total, by 2030, a dramatic increase from 1.4 billion in 2015…Brookings figures that in 2015, newly wealthy consumers in China and India already outspent their American counterparts, accounting for a combined 17 percent of consumption by the global middle class compared to 13 percent for the U.S. That gap will continue to widen. By 2030, the middle class in China and India will spend 39 percent of the global total; the U.S. will account for just 7 percent. ~ Michael Schuman, US News & World Report, January 2018

By Catherine Austin Fitts

The rise of the Asian consumer will have a powerful impact on your life, work, investments, and community for years to come.

Asian growth is driving many current trends, from the rise of megacities, to the heated competition to produce self-driving cars, to wild swings and mergers and acquisitions in pork, wine, and other agricultural markets, and to scores of Western schools adding Mandarin to their curriculum. It is also inspiring fierce competition in currency and financial markets, leadership in technology and space, and growing trade wars.

The goal of our 2nd Quarter 2018 Wrap Up is to help you understand what is happening and to inspire you to anticipate what it can and will mean to you. I will look at the impact on economics, financial markets, geopolitics, and consumer products as well as local communities– as scores of successful Asians and their children study, invest, work, and immigrate globally.

I knew how important this trend was before I started to write the 2nd Quarter 2018 Wrap Up. Having spent the last few months studying it in depth, I appreciate what a complex, fascinating topic it is – and how valuable it will be for you to navigate the changes underway.

Make sure to check out the 2nd Quarter 2018 Wrap Up web presentation. We have an excellent list of movies and documentaries. My bibliography will publish on July 27th with the audio presentation. The written presentation will follow next week.

In Let’s Go to the Movies, I will review Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware.

The most innovative computer hardware is being developed, traded, and used in the city of Shenzhen, a special economic zone in Southern China that forms part of the Pearl River Delta megalopolis immediately north of Hong Kong. Computer makers and software developers from all over the world come to Shenzhen to take an advantage of the fast turnaround of their ideas, and the unlimited pool of tech know-how and electronic components. An open-source philosophy prevalent in the Shenzhen IT world directly opposes the US companies’ policy of protection of intellectual property.

There will be no Money & Markets this coming week as this week is the last of the month. Post your questions and stories for the following week here – I will be speaking with you from Zurich, Switzerland.

Talk to you Thursday!

73 Comments

  1. Little surprises about US exports. Some time ago I was reporte seeing here in Italy laundromat equipment made in USA. Another specialised area I have noticed involves some relatively low-tech American products exported to the EU for use in jewellery and watchmaking workshops. Not exactly space age tech, but it’s there. I can’t recall seeing in Europe any American-made common consumer items, which are mostly from Asia and occasionally local.

  2. Little surprises about US exports. Some time ago I was reporte seeing here in Italy laundromat equipment made in USA. Another specialised area I have noticed involves some relatively low-tech American products exported to the EU for use in jewellery and watchmaking workshops. Not exactly space age tech, but it’s there. I can’t recall seeing in Europe any American-made common consumer items, which are mostly from Asia and occasionally local.

  3. I watched 23 minutes and realized that I would rather be in the garden…so, what is happening to our relationship to nature? Is it being regenerated and nourished? I will make compost! The loss of the rice paddies and a healthy ecosystem has not been adequately acknowledged. Oikos-nomia, “economy’ in its original Greek meaning pointed to a human life in balance within the family within the farm within the community.

    1. It is summer where you live. Time to be outside and put our hands in the dirt. It is the time of year when we grow things. And if you look at the inflation headed our way from Asia, the more we grow our own food, the much better we are. So I think your spirit reached a very logical conclusion. 🙂

  4. I watched 23 minutes and realized that I would rather be in the garden…so, what is happening to our relationship to nature? Is it being regenerated and nourished? I will make compost! The loss of the rice paddies and a healthy ecosystem has not been adequately acknowledged. Oikos-nomia, “economy’ in its original Greek meaning pointed to a human life in balance within the family within the farm within the community.

    1. It is summer where you live. Time to be outside and put our hands in the dirt. It is the time of year when we grow things. And if you look at the inflation headed our way from Asia, the more we grow our own food, the much better we are. So I think your spirit reached a very logical conclusion. 🙂

  5. Asia Rising is another puzzle piece that I didn’t even know that I needed to understand!

    The sheer numbers are astounding to comprehend. So while the USA middle class was being systematically DISMANTLED over the last 35 years, the purchasing and influence power of the Chinese middle class was dramatically (& intentionally) increasing. Talk about a Pivot!! … and all within one or two generations! No wonder Jim Rogers left NY and moved his daughters there when they were young. (“The 19th Century belonged to the UK, the 20th Century belonged to the USA and the 21st Century belongs to China”)

    With the ‘world wide push’ of Mr Global backing China with money and stolen / back-engineered technology, no wonder they moved ahead so quickly! AND it is equally amazing how President Trump’s push is moving the USA ahead as well. (Repatriation of $4 trillion, the Tax Cut & Jobs Act, 4.1% GDP growth etc).

    Trump co-authored ‘Why We Want You to Be Rich’ in 2006 where he said ‘The middle class is dying and it is the heart of American prosperity.’ He seems to have damaged Globalization in many ways and perhaps Mr Global is letting Trump win at home while they play their international military games abroad. Is the Art of the Deal at work?

    Again, thank you Catherine & Company for bringing Asia Rising to our attention. Kinda like the elephant in the living room that isn’t getting media attention. No surprise as prostitutes are much more ‘newsworthy’ than are major international trends that affect ALL of us! 🙂

      1. My question is why…? Is it simply use up America and then spit them out to prepare and advance a continent simply because they have a higher demographic than the entire western world?

        Catherine you’re a genius. I loved it and have comments from my experience working in fashion.

  6. Asia Rising is another puzzle piece that I didn’t even know that I needed to understand!

    The sheer numbers are astounding to comprehend. So while the USA middle class was being systematically DISMANTLED over the last 35 years, the purchasing and influence power of the Chinese middle class was dramatically (& intentionally) increasing. Talk about a Pivot!! … and all within one or two generations! No wonder Jim Rogers left NY and moved his daughters there when they were young. (“The 19th Century belonged to the UK, the 20th Century belonged to the USA and the 21st Century belongs to China”)

    With the ‘world wide push’ of Mr Global backing China with money and stolen / back-engineered technology, no wonder they moved ahead so quickly! AND it is equally amazing how President Trump’s push is moving the USA ahead as well. (Repatriation of $4 trillion, the Tax Cut & Jobs Act, 4.1% GDP growth etc).

    Trump co-authored ‘Why We Want You to Be Rich’ in 2006 where he said ‘The middle class is dying and it is the heart of American prosperity.’ He seems to have damaged Globalization in many ways and perhaps Mr Global is letting Trump win at home while they play their international military games abroad. Is the Art of the Deal at work?

    Again, thank you Catherine & Company for bringing Asia Rising to our attention. Kinda like the elephant in the living room that isn’t getting media attention. No surprise as prostitutes are much more ‘newsworthy’ than are major international trends that affect ALL of us! 🙂

      1. My question is why…? Is it simply use up America and then spit them out to prepare and advance a continent simply because they have a higher demographic than the entire western world?

        Catherine you’re a genius. I loved it and have comments from my experience working in fashion.

  7. Question about Chinese ‘Communism’ … I thought that the State owned everything. Yet private ownership seems to be allowed in Red China (as opposed to Taiwan). Yet the State has an iron fist in all affairs. Can you walk us thru this? Fascist, socialist, communist – all of the above? Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad author) had an interest in a gold mine and when they struck a large vein of gold, the government immediately confiscated it without remuneration.

    Plan C? Also, what is the story behind the ghost cities in China? Estimates up to 60 million EMPTY UNITS build in last 8 years. Could those be just central government inefficiency OR maybe housing for 25 million Australians? (after all, China needs farmland to feed their billions) OR maybe errant Americans who need to be ‘re-educated’?? Maybe I AM a bit ‘creative’ but building 60 MILLION units with infrastructure can’t be a mistake, can it? (BTW, there are 119 million homes and condos in the USA)

    Asian Invasion – Lots of verified reports that (Red) Chinese are buying up homes in the US and will INCREASE in future years. They are paying cash for many homes, scraping them and building HUGE homes for extended families. The government has restrictions on capital leaving their country and wondering if the spike in BitCoin late last year was the partial reason.

    Thanks …

    1. Great question about the ghost cities. I eagerly await reading the thoughts in Ask Catherine.

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