This report originally appeared in Latin America Goes Global.

This week's report focuses on some of my long-time favorite sources of banking and FinTech news and insight. I follow the industry through reports from media organizations and industry experts I respect and trust. I started thinking about my sources and methods after reading Ron Shevlin's post "FinTech influencer lists have jumped the shark."

The automotive industry is a useful lens to view trends in the world economy.  The auto story has it all- global competition, labor, automation, innovation, energy, commodities, and the sharing economy.  In the US, the sector has struggled. EconVue expert Michael Lewis’s comments on industry data were published Friday. Sales in the US are likely to fall to 17M vehicles this year. 

This report originally appeared in IndraStra Global, translated and adapted from an opinion, originally published in Spanish by the Strategic Studies Institute of the Mexican Navy (Instituto de Investigaciones Estratégicas de la Armada de México)/

Introduction

"The Mystical Millennials are overly romanticized," said Vic Pascucci, managing partner at VC firm Lightbank. Panelists at Morningstar's New York FinTech Forum, agreed that FinTech services are overly focused on Millennials, with a tendency to focus on FinTech products over consumer experience.

Recent research bears them out.

Nicholas Benes, one of our experts on Japan at EconVue, lost his uncle Zbigniew Brzezinski yesterday. Here is his moving tribute: