Among many questions of various kinds, I ask some certainly not in order of priority.

One. The fight against inflation remains at the heart of economic policy and the consequent rise in interest rates to deal with it (remember that the central banks themselves were to blame for what happened). They rose again in Switzerland, England and more, and in the USA a few more price increases have probably already been announced by the end of the year (up to 6%) because the inflationary trend is too high, although it has fallen from 9% to 3 or 4%. Much more.

Inflation in the first five months of 2023 in Ecuador reaches 0.49%.

Two. At the same time, they are looking at whether the effects on growth are not too negative. This doesn’t seem to be happening in the US, but there are serious concerns in Europe. It is the eternal history of the fight against inflation: if central banks are “scared” by the economic slowdown, they lose credibility. There are also fears that very high interest rates (not only very high, but that they have risen so quickly) will affect the stability of the financial system because short-term and long-term liabilities and assets are not balanced, and also affect the solvency of over-indebted households, businesses and governments … that’s why some suggest: don’t fight too much against inflation because it’s a good way to liquidate (reduce the real value) of debts. Bad idea.

Three. That being said, the dollar (“our” currency) has been moving in an uncertain manner. And oil continued to fall because there is a fear of a severe slowdown in the world economy (I think the trend will reverse).

The geopolitical environment is becoming more aggressive. The China/Russia/Iran alliance is becoming increasingly clear.

four. The geopolitical environment is becoming more aggressive. The China/Russia/Iran alliance is becoming increasingly clear. It’s the West versus authoritarianism and a much more serious background. In Latin America, they have Cuba (thirsty for dollars) and Venezuela (thirsty for international support and shady deals) as allies, and they move easily in Argentina, some Central Americans and with the support of Lula. It’s a low intensity cold war (is it?) but with very dangerous potentials.

Wagner hunters are retreating from the Russian region of Voronezh, which borders Ukraine

Five. The world is still going down that wrong path, which is to financially and mentally support everything that is renewable energy, and “despise” oil. A serious mistake, because renewable sources do not have enough “energy power” or diversity (oil is not important only for and because of energy). Companies promote their activities in renewable energy sources, while reducing investments in oil, and they do so with the shame of being accused. It is reasonable to let the best technologies (high energy efficiency and low impact) develop based on market incentives and assuming all their costs. Calls for various negative harms in the climate and other fields are important, but they cannot be turned into bad policies as is happening.

Six. Technological progress continues. Now the topic is artificial intelligence. We will touch on that in more detail, but it is worth asking what is intelligence? What has been done so far is only the application of strong statistical analysis using a lot of information, is that intelligence? And what is artificial, if it’s all developed by humans?… Will it be so bad?… I doubt it. (OR)