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The surge of optimism among US investors pushed Wells Fargo/Gallup US Investor and Retirement Optimism Index to record high since September 2000 in the same month in 2017, and the Index remained strong in the fourth quarter. This upbeat reflects investors’ confidence in the economy outlook, stock market, unemployment and personal finances. The slump of [...]

This is table wine. This is dessert wine. Well, what is the difference? I don't mean the package or colour. The definitions and distinctions are far more complicated. The name was based on alcoholic content, not the taste of wine. Table wines were sometimes sweet to the taste, and dessert wines sometimes dry. In fact, [...]

There was the huge demand for so-called fortified wines, or “dessert wines,” with high alcohol content, such as angelica, muscatel, port, and sherry. Largely because of their high-alcohol content and relatively inexpensive price (50 to 75 cents per bottle), these “proof per penny wines” proved more popular than dry wines in the United States. Dessert [...]

The needs from corporates to finance higher Capex or other corporate transactions will support demand side growth. Further bank consolidation will also support credit growth. The gradual tightening of monetary policy is unlikely to significantly restrain credit growth. On the contrary, higher interest rate may boost bank credit to enhance bank profitability. Loans and leases [...]

American wine-making and -drinking are not modern developments. While Native Americans had been making some kinds of wines, European immigrants brought wine making and drinking culture to the New World since the fifteenth century. Due to unfavorable climate and plant diseases, however, early attempt to establish vineyards in the American colonies were not often successful. [...]

In 2013, the United States became the largest wine consumer in the world, accounting for more than 13 percent of the global wine consumption, followed by France and Italy. Historically, wine-producing European countries, led by France, had been the leading global consumers, as well as producers, of wines. In the nineteenth century, American wineries were [...]