Reuters (December 11)
“India’s blistering growth has a quality problem. GDP is speeding ahead at 8% in the world’s fifth-largest economy but the government is doing the heavy lifting on investment. Policymakers have spent years trying to coax companies into spending more, with limited success. The result: growth that looks fast but feels flimsy.”
Tags: 8%, Coax, Economy, FAST, GDP, Government, Growth, India, Investment, Policymakers, Quality, Spending, Success
Reuters (November 26)
China’s 10-year “Made in China 2025” masterplan ruffled global feathers upon introduction nearly a decade ago. The plan “laid out sweeping goals across aviation, robotics and other sectors aimed at transforming the world’s second largest economy into a ‘manufacturing superpower.’” This November, a U.S. government report “found that … the country has ‘met or exceeded many of the very ambitious global market share, local sourcing and technological development targets.’” China’s next plan is also likely to create international backlash. “All eyes are on China’s next economic blueprint. Indeed, a Made in China 2035 plan is probably already underway,” but being kept “under wraps.”
Tags: “Made in China 2025”, Ambitious, Aviation, Backlash, Economy, Global market share, Goals, Local sourcing, Manufacturing superpower, Masterplan, Robotic, Technological development, Transforming, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (November 23)
“Fear of bursting investment bubbles. Concern the economy is slowing. Pressure on investors to cash in profits. These forces are colliding in markets, leading to the sharpest intraday swings for stocks in months and leaving investors bracing for more.” Already, the S&P 500 is down 3.5% in November.” Not to be outdone, the “Nasdaq composite has slid more than 6%” during the same period.”
Tags: Bubbles, Bursting, Cash, Colliding, Concern, Economy, Fear, Intraday swings, Investment, Investors, Markets, Nasdaq, November, Pressure, Profits, S&P 500, Stocks
Reuters (November 16)
“China’s factory output and retail sales grew at their weakest pace in over a year in October, piling pressure on policymakers to revamp the $19 trillion export-driven economy as mounting supply and demand strains threaten to further curtail growth.” Officials may be running out of options to keep “the world’s second-largest economy humming…. even an economy of China’s size can only squeeze so much growth from building more industrial parks, power substations and dams.”
Tags: China, Dams, Demand, Economy, Export-driven, Factory output, Industrial parks, October, Officials, Policymakers, Retail sales, Substations, Supply, Weakest
Bloomberg (November 15)
Next week a number of companies will release earnings results, and major retailers look primed to steal the show from “AI behemoth Nvidia” as traders seek to better grasp “the health of consumers and the economy.” Results from “Walmart Inc., Target Corp., Home Depot Inc. and other companies that sell the goods Americans buy are likely to overshadow Nvidia because they offer insights into spending patterns at a time when there’s scant data for Wall Street to go on.”
Tags: AI, Companies, Consumers, Economy, Health, Home Depot, Major retailers, Nvidia, Overshadow, Results, Spending patterns, Target, Traders, Walmart
Financial Times (November 15)
“The longest ever US government shutdown has created an unprecedented blind spot over the health of the world’s biggest economy as critical data reports are set to be delayed or ditched.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and other agencies “were largely unable to collect and publish data during the 43-day shutdown, creating a gap in statistical series that will obscure the economic picture for investors and policymakers.”
Tags: Agencies, Blind spot, BLS, Collect, Data, Delayed, Economy, Gap, Government, Investors, Longest, Obscure, Publish, Reports, Shutdown, Statistical series, U.S.
Market Watch (November 13)
“Artificial intelligence has snowballed from a technological innovation to the growth driver of the entire economy and a national-security interest. Could it be on track to become too big to fail, leaving the U.S. government to hold the bag?” At the moment, there is no doubt that “Big Tech is betting everything on AI,” but there is less recognition that this gamble “could leave the U.S. government on the hook.”
Tags: AI, Big tech, Economy, Government, Growth driver, National security, Snowballed, Technological innovation, Too big to fail, U.S.
Fortune (October 21)
“GDP estimates that show steady growth in the American economy may prove to be overly optimistic, Goldman Sachs warned, as a vacuum of data during the government shutdown may result in employment figures ultimately dragging down the optimistic outlook.”
Tags: Data, Economy, Employment figures, Estimates, GDP, Goldman Sachs, Government shutdown, Optimistic, Outlook, Steady growth, U.S., Vacuum, Warned
The Atlantic (October 14)
“Last week, amid widespread geopolitical turmoil and a weakening U.S. dollar, the price of gold hit a historic high of $4,000 an ounce. This year has so far been gold’s best since 1979.” This is not a portend of a strong economy. Over the most recent half century, gold has proven to be a fairly effective “recession indicator” as “spikes in the price of gold have typically been correlated with widespread inflation and geopolitical dysfunction.”
Tags: 1979, Dysfunction, Economy, Geopolitical turmoil, Gold, High, Inflation, Price, Recession indicator, Spikes, Weakening U.S. dollar, Widespread
The Ecoomist (October 13)
Politicians, economists, investors and others have long argued whether China’s economy is “a bubble waiting to burst” or “a sustainable success.” The argument is shifting, however, as “a new debate is now emerging, which is potentially far nastier. Much of the world falls into one camp: admiring China’s accomplishments, but also reeling from a deluge of Chinese exports. In the other camp is China, utterly convinced of the rightness of its economic model.”
Tags: Accomplishments, Admiring, Argument, Bubble, Burst, China, Convinced, Debate, Deluge, Economists, Economy, Emerging, Exports, Investors, Nastier, Politicians, Reeling, Rightness, Success, Sustainable