Hilarious note today from SocGen's ultra-bearish strategist Albert Edwards.
Evidently he just got back from the US, and was pretty appalled.
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I've recently returned from a marketing trip to the U.S. I hadn't quite appreciated how dangerous it is getting out there. We are all becoming familiar with the rise in social tensions in this post-bubble world. But I had not quite appreciated that in this more insecure world we now inhabit, owning a firearm would become so normal.
A recent Gallup U.S. Crime Poll survey shows that gun ownership in the U.S. has soared. Some 47% of American adults report they have a gun in their home or on their property up sharply from 41% a year ago and the highest recorded since 1993. For U.S. this side of the pond, we find these numbers absolutely staggering and somewhat scary. Had I known this before my trip, I might have purchased the executive, lightweight bullet proof vest that one of our Italian salesmen modeled for me on an earlier trip to Milan.
Two other things really stood out in the survey. Over the last two years gun ownership among Democrats (including Independents who lean towards the Democrats) surged a staggering 10 percentage points from 30% to 40%, while Republican ownership was essentially unchanged ... Second, the number of women who reported household gun ownership also surged by 10 percentage points to 43%, whereas male ownership was essentially unchanged. I'm really not sure what this all means, except clearly female Democrats appear to be a lot more uncomfortable with the reality of the Ice Age than male Republicans do.
This story originally appeared on Business Insider
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