1) Ulsan, South Korea is a city known as ‘Hyundai Town’ because of all the Hyundai heavy industry. But of late, Hyundai is reducing its operations as a direct result of competition from China. With plant closings, layoffs and high unemployment, Ulsan looks to becoming another ‘rust belt’ much like the American Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s. There are fears for South Korea’s future economy grow.
2) The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) forecasts economic growth will drop from 3.9% to 3.1% for the second half ot 2018. Wage gap is expected to catchup with inflation at the end of 2018.
3) The building of large ocean going luxury yachts is up because of the world economic prosperity.
4) The RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) has been fined $4.9 billion dollars for their actions during the financial crisis of 2008.
5) 15 AUG 18 Stock market closings:
Dow 25,162.41 down 137.51
Nasdaq 7,774.12 down 96.78
S&P 500 2,818.37 down 21.59
10 Year Yield: down at 2.85%
Oil: down at $64.89