Why This Is a Goldilocks Economy

Yeah, absolutely.

And we'll get on to markets in a moment, but I want to tee you up here for this page where you and your team do publish a lot of research globally.

Obviously, you're based in the UK.

You've got a couple of key charts here about what's going on in Europe and Japan.

Just give us a few of the big picture views about some of those other major economies around the world.

Yeah, I'd say, you know, Europe is, I mean, within Europe, there's a lot of mixed outcomes, but Europe in aggregate is really starting to improve and is starting to pick up some of this growth momentum from the U.S., And it's also starting to feel some of the effects.

You know, Germany's been putting in place a big fiscal stimulus program.

We're getting much more the sort of European defense plan, driving a bit of defense spending.

We've got the German infrastructure plan.

And all of this is adding a bit of oomph to the European cycle.

And we're seeing the industrial cycle in Europe pick up as well.

So that is kind of US growth momentum spreading to other parts of the world, particularly the Western world.

And you've got similar trends in Japan.

Now, I mean, some of it's AI, but I think Japan is also starting to get its own... escape velocity, if you like, from its two or three decades of doldrums.

And you can see that with the credit cycle in Japan where it's accelerating.

So we like the Japanese macro.

We like the Eurozone macro.

The UK is a bit spotty.

Within the Eurozone, France is a bit of a disaster.

Spain is wonderful.

Germany is getting better.

And China remains challenged by its balance sheet recession and its unwinding and its deleveraging and its reliance on its export sector that it's really had for the last five or six years or so.

That is continuing.

So, yeah, I think most of the rest of the developed world is trending in the right direction and following the lead of the US.

So, again, it's a good mixture.