Financial Times (April 28)
“Deprived of investment opportunities abroad, Russians have piled their savings into the likes of Lukoil, Gazprom and Sberbank, which combined account for about 40 per cent of the stock market’s total value.” Marking a rebound, “Russia’s stock market has climbed to its highest level in more than a year as domestic retail investors with nowhere else to go snap up the dividend-paying stocks that sold off heavily following the invasion of Ukraine”.
Tags: Abroad, Deprived, Dividend, Domestic, Gazprom, Invasion, Investment, Lukoil, Opportunities, Rebound, Retail investors, Russia, Savings, Sberbank, Stock market, Stocks, Ukraine
CNBC (November 13)
As large U.S. retailers report earnings, inventory levels will dominate the gaze of analysts and investors. Retailers including Walmart, Target and Gap “are trying to sell through a glut of extra merchandise piling up in store backrooms and warehouses…. Balancing inventory has taken on additional urgency, as economists warn of dwindling savings accounts, rising credit card debt and the risk of a recession.”
Tags: Analysts, Debt, Dominate, Earnings, Economists, Gap, Glut, Inventory, Investors, Merchandise, Retailers, Risk, Savings, Target, Urgency, Walmart, Warehouses
Washington Post (April 18)
“Nothing like this has happened in human history…. Men outnumber women by 70 million in China and India.” The results are “far-reaching: Beyond an epidemic of loneliness, the imbalance distorts labor markets, drives up savings rates in China and drives down consumption, artificially inflates certain property values, and parallels increases in violent crime, trafficking or prostitution.” Moreover the consequences extend all the way to Europe and the U.S.
Tags: China, Consequences, Consumption, Distortions, Europe, Imbalance, India, Labor markets, Loneliness, Men, Property values, Savings, U.S., Violent crime, Women
LA Times (July 11)
Worried about an explosion of diabetes, California is investing $5 million in prevention efforts. The cause for alarm is a recent study which found that “46% of adults in California have prediabetes” while 9% of Californians are already diabetic. “Implementing the program should save $45 million a year because of those who end up not developing diabetes — and requiring less medical treatment — as a result of the intervention.”
Tags: Alarm, California, Diabetes, Intervention, Invest, Medical treatment, Prediabetes, Prevention, Savings
Wall Street Journal (June 15)
The yield on 10-year German bunds turned negative, a new low. “This is good for governments that want to finance spending on the cheap, but it’s not so good for the private risk-taking that drives economic growth. Negative interest rates reflect a lack of confidence in options for private investment. They also discourage savings that can be invested in profitable ventures. A negative 10-year bond is less a sign of monetary wizardry than of economic policy failure.”
Tags: Bunds, Confidence, Finance, Germany, Governments, Growth, Investment, Negative interest, Options, Risk-taking, Savings, Spending, Yield
New York Times (July 10)
“California is in the third year of its worst drought in decades. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at how much water the state’s residents and businesses are using.” Nearly half a year ago, the State called for a 20% reduction in water use, but so far actual savings have been closer to 5% and, “in some parts of the state, like the San Diego area, water use has actually increased from 2013.” California needs to urgently take “much stronger conservation measures.”
Tags: California, Conservation, Drought, Reduction, Residents, San Diego, Savings, Water, Water use
The Economist (January 26)
China has reached a major turning point. The number of working-age Chinese fell by a total of 3.45 million in 2012. “The mobilisation of Chinese labour over the past 35 years has shaken the world. Never before has the global economy benefited from such an addition of extra human exertion. Now the additions are over.” With the 15 – 24 year old population expected to decrease by 21% over the next decade, “the shrinking of the working-age population will put downward pressure on the saving rate and upward pressure on wages.” Urbanization and productivity enhancements may lessen the blow, if underutilized workers from the countryside take up more efficient positions in cities.
Tags: China, Economy, Labor pool, Population, Savings, Urbanization, Wages, Working age population
Forbes (June 4)
“Japan’s political leaders are more obtuse and irresponsible than those found in Europe. They have completely forgotten the prescriptions of sound money and ever lower taxes that fueled their nation’s extraordinary postwar economic expansion. As if in the grips of a death wish, Japan has, since the late 1980s, repeatedly raised taxes, with new levies of all kinds imposed…. Unlike Greece, Japan still has immense assets. But the tremors foretelling an economic apocalypse are there: Its once vaunted individual savings rate, for example, has virtually disappeared.”
Economist (May 26)
“Despite a recent slowdown, the world’s second-biggest economy is more resilient than its critics think.” China is not dependent on foreign borrowing, enjoys a high saving rate (51% of GDP), has highly liquid banks, and very low central government debt (25% of GDP). “China plainly has enough fiscal space to recapitalise any bank threatened with insolvency. That space also gives the government room to stimulate growth again, should exports to Europe fall off a cliff.”
New York Times (June 19)
Most politicians worry about “saving” social security. The best solution might be “raising” it. Social security currently pays out 39% “of the average worker’s preretirement earnings,” but this could be raised to 50%. Why? Nearly 34% of “Americans have nothing saved for retirement — not even a hundred bucks.”
Tags: Retirement, Savings, Social security, U.S.
