Time (February 28)
“South Korea set a fresh record for the world’s lowest fertility rate as the impact of the nation’s aging demographics looms large for its medical system, social welfare provision and economic growth.” The dearth of babies is considerably “speeding up the aging of South Korean society, generating concerns about the growing fiscal burden of public pensions and health care.”
Tags: Aging, Burden, Concerns, Demographics, Economic growth, Fertility rate, Medical system, Pensions, Record, Social welfare, South Korea
Wall Street Journal (February 17)
“Treasury yields have sprung to multiyear highs, forcing the U.S. government to pay a lot more in interest and putting pressure on the budget.” Over the new decade, federal interest costs are now expected to rise by $1.1 trillion, reviving “Wall Street worries that the years-long acceleration in borrowing under both political parties will eventually weigh on economic growth and asset prices.”
Tags: $1.1 trillion, Asset prices, Borrowing, Budget, Costs, Economic growth, Interest, Pressure, Treasuries, U.S. Government, Wall Street, Worries, Yields
Financial Times (February 15)
“As OpenAI enters its year of rapid growth, questions about the long-term viability of its business model remain.” Despite such grandiose goals as accelerating “global productivity and economic growth,” corporations are struggling “to figure out how to integrate generative AI into their processes, or estimate what kinds of cost and productivity benefits it might bring.”
Tags: Benefits, Business model, Corporations, Cost, Economic growth, Generative AI, Global productivity, Grandiose, Growth, OpenAI, Processes, Struggling, Viability
Reuters (June 9)
“There is much excited chatter that automation will unleash a Fourth Industrial Revolution, building on earlier upheavals caused by the arrival of steam power, electricity, and semiconductors. Yet in Britain, which gave birth to the first of those transformations, economic growth has stalled.”
Tags: Automation, Chatter, Economic growth, Electricity, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Semiconductors, Stalled, Steam power, Transformations, UK, Unleash, Upheavals
Financial Times (June 6)
“The world’s trading system needs to ditch its paper trail.” The current global trading system “is suffocating under a mountain of billions of paper documents.” A recent survey “found 35 per cent of UK companies trading internationally say bureaucracy is a barrier to their business overseas. At the same time, 65 per cent said they will remove paper as soon as laws enable them to do so.” Estimates show that removing paper barriers to trade in the Commonwealth alone, “would deliver $1.2tn in economic growth by 2026. It would also reduce trade transaction costs by 80 per cent and enable more SMEs to participate. If combined with customs digitalisation, this number increases to $2tn.”
Tags: $1.2tn, Barrier, Bureaucracy, Commonwealth, Customs digitalization, Economic growth, Global, Laws, Overseas, Paper documents, Suffocating, Trading system, Transaction costs, UK companies
Oilprice.com (January 22)
“Since China doesn’t report crude oil inventories, it’s all guesswork as to just how much crude the country has stashed over the past year.” Rising inventory levels “could mean that China’s imports may not be as strong as anticipated. But it could also mean that refiners are preparing for a surge in demand” in the post-Covid restriction era. “There is one certainty in the oil markets – the economic growth in China has been and will continue to be a key factor in global oil demand, capable of moving oil prices in either direction.”
Tags: China, Covid, Crude oil, Demand, Economic growth, Guesswork, Imports, Inventories, Prices, Refiners, Strong, Surge
South China Morning Post (January 17)
“China’s population has declined for the first time in six decades, with the national birth rate for 2022 falling to a record low and the nation’s deepening demographic crisis threatening far-reaching implications for economic growth.” The nation’s “overall population plummeted by 850,000 people – to 1.4118 billion in 2022” while “the national birth rate fell to a record low of 6.77 births for every 1,000 people in 2022… marking the lowest rate since records began in 1949.”
Tags: 1949, 2022, Birth rate, China, Declined, Demographic crisis, Economic growth, Far-reaching, Implications, Population, Record low, Threatening
Wall Street Journal (March 15)
This week, the Fed meets “to address the worst inflation in 40 years amid new risks to economic growth.” The mess is “largely of the Fed’s own making. The central bank’s inflation target is 2% for personal-consumption expenditure inflation, and the rate in February was probably three times higher.” The Fed’s “historic exertions were needed” when Covid struck, but it continued them for “too long, even as the money supply exploded and clear signs of inflation began to appear.”
Tags: Central bank, Covid, Economic growth, Fed, Inflation, Inflation target, Mess, Money supply, Personal consumption, Risks
Wall Street Journal (February 1)
“Despite record-high case numbers, the U.K. and other governments across Europe responded to Omicron with lighter restrictions than any previous wave of the virus, allowing businesses to remain open.” Moreover, individuals and businesses have “adapted to restrictions, minimizing the effects.” As a result, economic growth in Europe has slowed far less than during previous surges.
Tags: Businesses, Cases, Economic growth, Europe, High, Individuals, Omicron, Open, Record, Restrictions, Slowed, U.K., Virus
Financial Times (February 13)
“Investors poured a record $58bn into stock funds this week while slashing their cash holdings, in the latest sign of the fervor sweeping global financial markets…. Historically low interest rates and expectations for a big rebound this year in global economic growth have whet investors’ appetite for riskier assets,” but this is creating unease among some that “asset prices have become overextended.”
Tags: Assets, Cash holdings, Economic growth, Expectations, Fervor, Financial markets, Interest rates, Investors, Rebound, Riskier, Stock funds
