The news images are unsettling: The protests in Athens look more like North Africa than Europe. The region has not seen this kind of violence in years, and many worried investors and pundits wonder what the Greek riots mean for global financial markets.
EWI analyst Brian Whitmer says "the financial media's focus is exactly backward."
Whitmer -- who was recently interviewed by Fortune Magazine and Yahoo! Finance on the subject -- argues that the stock market itself is the best indicator of social mood. His forecast recognizes that the stock market predicts the character of news, not the other way around.
Just as images of the Greek riots paint a vivid portrait of the situation on the ground, Whitmer shows
European Financial Forecast subscribers a "simple yet powerful portrait of the stock market's ability to forecast economic and social turmoil:"
He states:
Greek individuals are fundamentally no different today than they were in 2007, and neither is the Greek economy. What is different is Greece's stock market, which means that, in the aggregate, society's mood is the polar opposite of four years ago.
To understand the markets, it is vital to understand the big picture - social mood. Brian Whitmer provides in-depth socionomic commentary and Elliott Wave analysis for his subscribers every month, including charts like the one above (and many more that subscribers can see).
Discover what social mood patterns indicate for Greece and the rest of the continent -- and get Whitmer's freshest forecasts and analysis of 10+ major European bourses -- via a risk-free subscription to the European Financial Forecast. It's a critical perspective you need to stay one step ahead in Europe.