There are a few principles I've followed since I've gone into investing in terms of how I shape my world view.
Nobody's a somebody in business, anyone who says somebody is "special" therefore is able to say anything about the outlook of an industry, (ie CEOs). Don't focus on broad leaders or some pampered Silicon Valley investor talking about their views on foreign countries, they don't know jack shit about the markets abroad just as much as some PE tech investor.
Always use an adjustable scale to see how an economy is healthy and how it is not. Don't focus too hard on ratios, I know it's tempting, but always consider the fact that any raw data you get has a HUGE margin of error and you shouldn't ever "take anyone's word for it" (back to principle #1)
The worlds workings are always impacted from the full scale workings between each country to the rest of the world cumulated. For example one reasons the English textile boom happened was due to a global scarcity for cloth to be used for clothing making; therefore this scarcity to the local population of the British empire devoted entire colonies to a factor of production to industrializing textiles production. This same concept applies for almost every major industry in every country. In the US it's aerospace, industrial machinery, cars, oil, electronics, chemical refining, and wheat/corn production.
Every business can contribute globally adoptions, but fall short with negative consequences, this is the glocal consideration. Coffee and sugar can be imported to Ghana or Mali for plantations, but any money made by exporting the coffee can possibly never leave the business/country.
The way people live locally is important to understand values, which as long as history has proven shows how they consume, which makes it easier to find starting points at understanding how to look at economic systems from more than just a buyer's perspective.
Financial markets follow asset markets the vast majority of the time.