It’s time for our monthly look at market risk factors. Just as with the economy, there are several key factors that matter for the market, in determining both the risk level and the immediacy of the risk. Stocks have largely recovered from their recent pullback, but given valuations and recent market behavior, it will be useful to keep an eye on these factors.

Recently, concerns about the velocity of money have resurfaced. Several readers have asked whether declining money velocity presages a crash, a recession, or something equally bad. It’s a fair question. As with many such issues, though, we’ve been down this road before several years ago. Low money velocity didn’t mean problems then, and it shouldn’t mean problems now.

Student loan debt has increased dramatically in recent years, and as graduates reportedly struggle to find jobs, there's growing concern about the role these loans might play in the next financial crisis. The fear is that a systemic default could rock the financial system, much as subprime mortgage defaults did.

Do we really have a systemic problem on our hands? And just how great is the risk? Let’s take a look at the underlying data.

I wrote the other day about the very real chance of an economic boom over the next couple of years, not as a prediction but as a way of considering possibilities. Today, let's reverse course and consider the possibility of a recession.

The news here in the U.S. is all about the election. In Europe, it’s all about the migrant crisis and the politics surrounding it, at both the national and EU levels.

In many ways, the U.S. election and those in European countries boil down to the same thing: the conflict between the nation—defined as the people who “belong” there—and those who don’t belong.

One way to think about what’s next is to consider what no one is really talking about. We have heard so much about recessions, global economic collapse, the oil market, and so forth that you could be forgiven for believing the world is coming to an end.

That’s not the case, of course. At least here in the U.S., things have been getting consistently better, at an accelerating rate. But is anyone taking that seriously? Given current conditions, it’s not unreasonable to consider that an economic boom could be on the way.

I am traveling today, speaking to investors, and during the discussion after my presentation, a question arose: where will the next financial/economic crisis be?

We’ve talked about many different risks but not about where the next systemic crisis might come from. It’s a question worth considering.

Today, I’m launching a new monthly feature on key market risk factors. I’ve written on this topic from time to time, but given recent market conditions and behavior, I think it’s useful to review these factors on a regular basis.

The market’s movements continue to raise a lot of questions. After the decline to start the year and the ongoing recovery, does the market really have any idea where it’s going?

In the short term, the answer is no.

I’m just back from the Commonwealth Chairman’s Retreat conference, trying to digest all I learned there. I usually come away with at least one idea that has the potential to change my life for the better, and this year it was the concept of purpose.