Financial Times (December 9)
“The Big Four accounting firms have recorded their strongest financial performance since the collapse of Enron as corporate clients rushed to transform their businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.” Revenues soared to over $167 billion, collectively, in spite of “continued criticism of the structure and performance of the firms, especially in audits, including scrutiny of EY’s failure to identify fraud at Wirecard.”
Tags: Accounting firms, Audits, Big Four, Clients, Collapse, Coronavirus, Criticism, Enron, EY, Failure, Financial performance, Fraud, Pandemic, Revenues, Scrutiny, Transform
Wall Street Journal (December 6)
“Three potential crises are proceeding in tandem: a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, continuing Chinese pressure on Taiwan and the potential collapse of Iran nuclear talks.” Individually, any “of these standoffs has the potential to shake the world order and produce wider conflict. Taken together, they signal that the U.S. and its allies are at a dangerous moment.” Findings a way to successfully “show firmness on each front without provoking a crisis” will provechallenging.
Tags: Allies, China, Collapse, Conflict, Crises, Dangerous, Iran, Nuclear talks, Russian invasion, Standoffs, Taiwan, U.S., Ukraine
Irish Times (August 6)
“Ireland could have winters as cold as Toronto in Canada if a potential collapse in the Gulf Stream happens.” Recent research has found “the currents are already at their slowest point in at least 1,600 years” and “may be nearing a shutdown.”
Miami Herald (June 24)
“There’s a sense of déjà vu to the new grief in our community over the collapse of… a 12-story building packed with residents, Surfside’s Champlain Towers South Condo…. Just as the FIU bridge collapse taught us many lessons about ignoring cracks on new construction, and about raising structures while people are driving underneath it, this condo collapse must also come under the most rigorous of investigations.” Today’s horror, “should serve as an urgent alert that older Florida structures need auditing and stricter oversight by the government.”
Tags: Building, Champlain Towers, Collapse, Condo, Construction, Déjà vu, FIU bridge, Government, Grief, Investigations. Oversight, Rigorous
LA Times (April 29)
“All across India, a trail of death and misery is devastating a country whose leaders boasted of defeating the coronavirus just a few months ago. A surge of new cases fueled by the so-called double mutant variant of the coronavirus first discovered in India is now pushing the nation’s overburdened healthcare system toward collapse” and presenting “a cautionary tale for a world wanting to rush back to its rhythms.”
Tags: Boasted, Collapse, Coronavirus, Death, Defeating, Devastating, Double mutant, Healthcare, India, Leaders, Misery, Surge, Variant
Reuters (April 23)
“India has slender room to act if economic activity follows its medical infrastructure into a virus-induced state of collapse…. Optimists hope antibodies and vaccines will cause the Covid-19 contagion to burn out quickly. The government will have a hard time softening the financial pain if it doesn’t.”
Tags: Antibodies, Collapse, Contagion, COVID-19, Economic activity, India, Medical infrastructure, Vaccines, Virus-induced
Institutional Investor (August 25)
“ESG investments have proven effective at reducing risk and delivering returns comparable to those of non-ESG oriented funds. During the stock market collapse in the first quarter of 2020, Morningstar found that all but two out of 26 ESG indexes suffered fewer losses than their conventional counterparts. Studies from Morgan Stanley and MSCI have found no financial trade-off in the returns delivered by ESG funds relative to traditional funds.”
Tags: Collapse, Effective, ESG, Funds, Investments, Losses, Morningstar, MSCI, Reducing risk, Returns, Stock market, Trade-off
The Economist (August 1)
“The downfall of America’s industrial giant is a cautionary tale for all big firms.” GE’s “near-collapse in 2018 beggared belief. It still limps on, but the suspects behind a destruction of $500bn in value over little more than 20 years are so many that the mystery feels like a whodunnit.”
Tags: Cautionary tale, Collapse, Destruction, Downfall, GE, Giant, Industrial, U.S.
Financial Times (April 22)
“The collapse of the eurozone would be a catastrophe. The ECB is the one institution able and willing to act. Governments should back it.”
Tags: Act, Catastrophe, Collapse, ECB, eurozone, Governments
Bloomberg (April 13)
“OPEC+ group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, finally agreed to a record cut in their oil production in response to the coronavirus-triggered collapse in demand. But the deal will come under pressure when the world becomes a more normal place again.” When demand returns, “the great battle for market share between the Americans, the Saudis and the Russians will probably restart.”
Tags: Battle, Collapse, Coronavirus, Demand, Market share, Oil production, OPEC, Pressure, Record, Russia, Saudi Arabia
