Austria is justifiably famous for its banking system—particularly for its bank secrecy law, which has the same legal status as the Austrian Constitution. But while Austrians take their financial privacy very seriously, there’s another aspect of Austria that doesn’t get as much attention: residence.

With partisan politics and media telling their own twisted truth about the U.S. economy, perhaps the most accurate forecast comes from Europe.

There’s heaps of bad economic news coming out of the US. Food and energy bills have skyrocketed, companies are slashing their workforces and consumer confidence has been shattered.

But Eric Roseman says the mainstream view of a return to ’70s-style stagflation is not entirely accurate. This time around, on top of surging commodity prices and sluggish growth, we have a full-blown crisis in banking sector and major asset price deflation — we have “inverse stagflation.”

What to do? Stay defensive in underweighted stocks…