Dysfunctional, but exceptional.

"Having tagged America's inordinately large share of global financial markets as the 'mother of all bubbles," "Almost no one foresees an imminent pop. Virtually every Wall Street analyst predicts US stocks will continue outperforming the rest of the world in 2025." "Hype for American superiority is now the stuff of TV, radio, podcasts, newspaper columns and magazine cover stories," but "The longer it lasts, the more confident investors get and the more indiscriminately they buy into the mania," wrote Ruchir Sharma. "In political, diplomatic and military circles, the talk is of an increasingly dysfunctional superpower, isolationist abroad and polarized at home. But in the investing world, the term 'American exceptionalism' is hotter than ever. America's share of global share markets is far greater than its 27% share of the global economy, and the arrival of Donald Trump has only reinforced this disconnect," Sharma wrote earlier. Sharma is sounding like Prof Nouriel Roubini who was named 'Dr Doom' because of his habit of predicting economic disasters. He predicts Trump's policies will lead to higher inflation with stagnant growth, or stagflation. Yahoo. About 4.97 billion people in the world use Google and "According to SimilarWeb data, Google generated 83.26 billion visits in September 2024." Only American companies - Google and Meta - are free for users. In January, "Microsoft became the second-ever company worth $3 trillion" because "In 2023, the company's CEO, Satya Nadella, made a multibillion-dollar investment in AI, commercializing and adding tools like ChatGPT to its suite of products before rivals." CNN. Of the 12 trillion-dollar companies in the world, only three, Saudi Aramco, TSMC of Taiwan and PetroChina, are not from the US. wikipedia. In June, Nvidia became the third $3 trillion company after Apple and Microsoft. Investopedia. Market analyst Dan Ives believes Nvidia could become a $5 trillion company. ET. A US company SpaceX is already transporting people and cargo to the International Space Station. It is planning missions to the Moon and Mars. "NASA will partner with seven US companies to meet future and government needs, ultimately benefiting human spaceflight and US commercial low Earth orbit economy." In the US, "Retail sales jumped 0.7% last month after an upwardly revised 0.5% gain in October, the Commerce and Census Bureau said." "Retail sales increased 3.8% year-on-year." Reuters. The US has little competition. The second largest economy China has seen a spate of deadly attacks in recent weeks because "Millions of young Chinese struggle to find jobs. Homeowners have been watching their property values sink...Many migrant workers and even some government employees aren't getting paid." WSJ. If the global economy collapses the US will also fall but, as of now, the US has the best chance of coming out unscathed. Sharma may dislike Trump but the US survived Trump I and will likely survive Trump II. A case of crying wolf?