Summarizing 2023: A subset of events for the year.
-China's economic re-opening stagnated. Had the first negative foreign direct investment flow in over two decades. And yet simultaneously, China surpasses Japan as world's biggest auto exporter. Huge gap between domestic consumption and export prowess.
-There was a US banking crisis involving a duration mismatch rather than a credit event. Resulted in some of the largest bank failures in American history, and the collapse of the 167-year old global systematically important bank, Credit Suisse. Liquidity was provided to the market and stocks went up toward all-time highs.
-The United States ran enormous deficits, resulting in one of the biggest divides between monetary policy and fiscal policy on record. Amid the deficits, consensus outlooks for a recession go largely contradicted, as some industries boom while others stagnate.
-Russia's invasion of Ukraine drags on. Russia's Prigozhin launches a rebellion, captures Rostov-on-Don and pushes hard toward Moscow, but then calls it off and agrees to leave. Prigozhin dies in a plane crash two months later, attributed to a bomb on board.
-A coup in Niger effectively pushes out France's presence from the country, and more broadly sheds light on France's ongoing presence in many African nations including with the CFA Franc.
-Israel suffers its worst terrorist attack in decades by Hamas, and responds with orders of magnitude more force on Gaza including major civilian casualties, and this war remains ongoing. Global public attention shifts from Ukraine/Russia to Gaza/Israel, and widely polarizes people across the world.
-The first recorded instance of space combat occurred as Israel intercepted a missile from Yemen in low Earth orbit. Yes, Earth's first known instance of non-test space combat was initiated not from within the United States, Russia, or China, but from Houthi rebels in Yemen.
-The first self-identified anarcho-capitalist candidate becomes head of state for a country, and for a G20 country no less. Calls for ending Argentina's central bank, after decades of uncontrolled fiscal monetization, inflation, and economic stagnation. If Argentina dollarizes, it would be the biggest country so far to do so.
-The Suez Canal is effectively closed over dangers posed to ships from Yemen. This impacts global shipping costs and energy, but likely hurts Egypt the most.
-Multiple other conflicts persist, including Myanmar's bloody civil war. Despite enormous casualties, these types of conflicts go largely ignored by the world because they don't materially affect the macroeconomy or bring major powers into potential conflict.
-The US federal government brings attention to UFOs/UAPs with multiple hearings, commissions, etc. But nobody really gives a shit. The public is like, "With all this going on, can we save the aliens topic until next year? Thanks."
