January-February bounce in the stock and bond markets ending with inflation gaining more traction globally. Natural resources needs are escalating due in part to EV car and battery plant expansions but global oil and metals inventories are at multi-decade lows. Get ready for a take-off in oil and metals prices which will bring forth a new, possibly, violent uptrend in global inflation. Higher and longer interest rates are choking new investments in tandem with lower demand for future manufactured products. We are in a Stagflation spiral!

Ep. 87 - Bear Market Stock/Bond Rally Ending with Global Inflation and Recession Continuing!

This week, we’ll talk about the implications of the BRICS+ meeting, increasing long term interest rates, and the continuing vast amount of dollars coming into the U.S. stock and bond markets.  
Historically, in war times, money moves out of higher geographical risk areas into U.S. dollar investments. It’s hard to predict the ebb and flow of global investment movements but, historically, when this trend ends it ends abruptly. My question is how these flows will change after the election. In the meantime, and quite independently of dollar investment flows, the global economy is either in recession or stagflation...neither which is good for job prospects nor long term stock valuations.
The foreign ownership trends of money flows into and out of the U.S. long term interest rates can be expected to continue up despite the Fed reducing short term interest rates. Higher inflation is expected in the years ahead which, by itself, keeps long term interest rates growing especially as the multiple war zones continue to impact shipping and insurance costs.

Ep. 126 - Implications of BRICS+ Meeting and Increasing Long Term Interest Rates, and More

Teresa Yang, DDS is the author of the award-winning book, Nothing But The Tooth: An Insider’s Guide to Dental Health. She has practiced dentistry for over 30 years. Yang has taught clinical dentistry and patient management at UCLA School of Dentistry, where she is a member of the Board of Counselors. She is also a member of the Forbes Health Advisory Board and has written extensively on dental topics. Dr. Yang lives in Los Angeles, California.

Have you ever visited a new dentist and been told you need a “smile makeover,” with the implication that if your teeth were whiter and straighter, you would be more successful and happier? Or maybe you’ve never had a cavity – and now, you have a half dozen that require immediate attention. Root canal, crown, or implant: which procedure is best for your situation? NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH is a ready guide to dental health. It begins with the most important question: how to choose a competent and ethical dentist – and ends with a discussion about technological advances in the dental field. Let this book help you communicate better with your dentist.

The Write Process - Season 7

Teresa Yang on Nothing But the Tooth: An Insider’s Guide to Dental Health

A lot of volatility ahead as new leadership assumes power in the U.S.  Pre-election negative trends are pretty much not reversible regardless on new economic policies which will take time to approve and start implementation. Unlike past global economic challenges, all global powerhouses are in downturns (U.S., China, Germany, U.K., Russia, etc.) as the BRICS+ countries continue to challenge the West including Japan and S. Korea. U.S. needs to finance $Trillions of government and real estate related debt, during our period of rising long term interest rates, may precipitate another international finance and/or banking industry crisis.

Ep. 127 - Post-Economic Trends and Issues

Kelli McNeil-Yellen is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Drama. Her first feature, The Baltimore School of Charm, won first place at the UCLA Extension Feature Film Screenwriting Contest and was a top 15% finisher in the Academy’s Nicholl Awards. Most recently, she’s been screening her authentically cast feature film, DARUMA, on the festival circuit. After two sold-out screenings at Slamdance in 2024, two-time Oscar winner Peter Farrelly joined the film as executive producer to raise the visibility of the film and called it "great". She is repped by Dannie Festa of World Builder Entertainment.

CNN called DARUMA the first film to star two leads with a disability in a narrative not about overcoming a disability. The film recently completed a successful festival run with two sold-out screenings at Slamdance. DARUMA is a heartbreaking but uplifting dramedy and ultimately a story about friendship, fatherhood and found family. 

Kelli McNeil-Yellen on DARUMA

The continuing disappearance of the American "Middle Class" in light of continuing high inflation rates, expanding war risks, and increasing divisiveness across our country. We've been in this situation before (and worse) including the country dividing election of 1828 (Andrew Jackson's election), the Panic of 1837, and the Great Depression of the 1930's. Many long term trends are locked in already as in the prior periods mentioned but, hopefully, this time we can avoid a major war and a depression. We have to realize that even in an ultimate recovery the rest of this year and 2025 is "dialed in".

Ep. 128 -Post-Election Economic Situation and 2025 Headwinds

Elba Iris Pérez is from Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, and spent her early childhood in Woronoco, Massachusetts. She taught theatre and history at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo, and now lives in Houston. Her debut novel, The Things We Didn’t Know, was an instant USA TODAY bestseller and the inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us First Novel Contest. She is also the author of El teatro como bandera, a history of street theater in Puerto Rico.

The USA TODAY bestselling inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us contest, Elba Iris Pérez’s “wonderfully compelling” cross-cultural coming-of-age debut novel explores a young girl’s childhood between 1950s Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town. As Andrea navigates the rifts between her family’s values and all-American culture, she must embrace both the triumphs and heartache that mark the journey to adulthood.


Elba Iris Pérez on The Things We Didn’t Know

Federal supremacy vs. state's rights (sanctuary cities/states, DEI, tariffs, and more). 

A new round of money creation and inflation is around the corner in both the West and China.  U.S. unemployment continues its trend upward with recent government inflation measures also moving again upward. Many multi-month trends indicate that we are in a serious recession despite government arguments to the contrary.


Ep. 129 - Acknowledging the Political Issues Which Will Impact the Economic Issues

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and the author of Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press) and Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications). A former Steinbeck Fellow and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Yefe Nof, Jentel, and National Parks Arts Foundation in partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and Poetry Foundation. Her poem “Battlegrounds” was featured at Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, On Being’s Poetry Unbound, and the anthology, Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (W.W. Norton). Her poetry and essays can be found at Acentos Review, Huizache, LA Review of Books, The Offing, [Pank], Santa Fe Writers Project, and other journals. She is the director of Women Who Submit. Inspired by her Chicana identity, she works to cultivate love and comfort in chaotic times.

At the heart of Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press 2023) lies an exploration of love in its many forms. Bermejo crafts poems that celebrate the enduring bonds of family, the unwavering strength of compassion, and the necessity for defiance. "Bermejo's Incantation do more than conjure hope for a vague future; they demand accountability and enact the healing we need now," writes award-winning author Carribean Fragoza. These poems dance like flames in rituals of resistance and resilience, casting light on paths that lead to a future unburdened by the chains of misogyny, white supremacy, and state-sanction violence.

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo on Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites

Lena Nelson is a writer, teacher and citizen historian who has spent seventeen years researching and documenting the story of Samantha Smith and creating www.SamanthaSmith.info, the online archive of news articles and videos about Samantha Smith. She was a nominee for the Allegra Johnson Prize and has worked with numerous news, educational, and humanitarian organizations around the world. She lives with her family in Southern California.

America's Youngest Ambassador: The Cold War Story of Samantha Smith's Lasting Message of Peace, explores how nuclear paranoia that engulfed the US and the Soviet Union in 1982. Samantha Smith, a fifth grader from Manchester, Maine, wrote a letter to the Kremlin asking the Soviet leader if he was going to start a war. When Pravda, the biggest Soviet newspaper, published her letter—and Samantha received an unprecedented invitation to visit the Soviet Union—her family embarked on a historic journey that helped transform the hearts and minds of two nations on a collision course. 


Lena Nelson on America's Youngest Ambassador

Happy New Year! As we’re off and running into 2025 we are already faced with a lot of global issues occurring during the transition of power in the U.S. In fact, it seems as though we are finding a global reset has kicked off the new year. 

Ep. 130 - Kicking Off 2025 Facing Global Issues

The Business, Management, and Legal Programs Department at UCLA Extension offers more than 350 courses, conference, and seminars annually and is home to more than 50 professional certificates designed for working professionals and recent college grads who are seeking professional development in the dynamic world of business. Our courses are offered online or in the classroom, making it a flexible option for everyone.

Ep. 87 - Bear Market Stock/Bond Rally Ending with Global Inflation and Recession Continuing!

UCLA Extension Business Programs

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