Global Macro Monitor

The corollary of the oil crash wealth transfer from producers to oil consumers is  a conversion of  savings to consumption. The chatter about today’s market weakness, for example, is that sovereign wealth funds from the oil producing countries are liquidating financial assets.

This raises an interesting question: as petrodollars come out and flows to financial markets are reduced, shrinking the pool of global liquidity, and as the real income of oil consumers increase, will the net result be marginally weaker financial markets and stronger global economic growth?

Of course, the windfall to oil consumers could be saved and recycled back into financial markets, but this is without precedent.   The conventional wisdom is that the windfall savings will be spent.  The transition to lower oil prices is also creating volatility as evidenced by today’s market decline.  Stay tuned

(click here if chart is not observable)