New York Times (November 1)
“After shocks from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there’s little cushion if the fighting between Hamas and Israel becomes a regional conflict.” An escalation would cloud “the global economy’s outlook, threatening to dampen growth and reignite a rise in energy and food prices.” An escalation would also mark the first time the world has dealt with two simultaneous energy shocks.
Tags: Energy, Escalation, Fighting, Food, Global economy, Hamas, Invasion, Israel, Outlook, Pandemic, Regional conflict, Russia, Shocks, Ukraine
Reuters (April 12)
“The International Monetary Fund may have just hammered the final nail in the coffin of a complete economic rebound. With downside risks dominating its outlook, the IMF’s estimates dash any remaining hopes of a full recovery from recent years’ shocks.”
Tags: Dash, Downside risks, Economic rebound, Estimates, Full recovery, IMF, Outlook, Shocks
The Economist (August 20)
The Bank of Japan expects “prices will rise by 2.3% in the current fiscal year. That would be the first time prices outstrip the bank’s 2% target since it was introduced in 2013, excluding the impact of sales-tax hikes. The covid-19 pandemic and commodity shocks from the war in Ukraine seem to have done what years of loose monetary policy could not.”
Tags: 2.3%, 2013, BOJ, Commodity, COVID-19, Pandemic, Prices, Rise, Sales-tax hikes, Shocks, Target, Ukraine, War
Financial Times (June 2)
“Cloudy with chance of hurricanes for Wall Street.” Jamie Dimon the head of JPMorgan Chase, started the rush to use “meteorological metaphors to make sense of the economic turbulence.” After speaking of big storm clouds and a hurricane striking the economy, other bankers followed suit. Only a few, like Goldman Sachs chief John Waldron, refused to play along. He rejected the use of “any weather analogies,” but largely agreed the outlook is complex and dynamic, “The confluence of the number of shocks to the system, to me, is unprecedented.”
Tags: Bankers, Cloudy, Complex, Dimon, Dynamic, Economic turbulence, Economy, Goldman Sachs, Hurricane, Hurricanes, JPMorgan Chase, Metaphors, Meteorological, Shocks, Storm clouds, Unprecedented, Waldron, Wall Street
New York Times (February 20)
“The nation’s energy delivery system, not just in Texas but everywhere, needs a radical overhaul if it is to withstand future shocks and play the role that President Biden has assigned it in the battle against climate change.”
Washington Post (January 29)
“In Donald Trump’s America, there may be no more weekends — just an incessant cycle of shocks, of actions and reactions. For the second weekend in a row, Friday to Sunday was wall to wall with resistance and outrage.”
Washington Post (June 21)
“These days, America’s recovery looks vulnerable to a lot of scary economic shocks. Most of these come from abroad…. But right now, the single biggest threat to the U.S. economy is the risk of a President Donald J. Trump.”
Wall Street Journal (February 5)
“The January jobs report wasn’t as bad as the markets seemed to take it… But then it wasn’t stellar either.” New jobs didn’t rise as much as expected, but there were wage gains and the labor participation rate rose as well. “We’ll hope for the best,” though the “overriding problem continues to be a lack of business confidence and investment.” This “leads to slower growth, which gives the U.S. economy a lower margin for absorbing growth shocks from around the world.”
Tags: Confidence, Growth, Investment, Jobs report, Labor participation, Markets, Shocks, U.S., Wage gains
Institutional Investor (March Issue)
“The European Central Bank’s recent moves have helped lighten the mood for investors in the euro zone.” It is true the dark cloud is rising, yet “Europe’s economic situation is still precarious, and any number of potential shocks could widen spreads and dampen returns. Moreover, policymakers have yet to address the region’s long-term growth prospects.”
Tags: Dark cloud, ECB, Euro zone, Growth, Policymakers, Returns, Shocks, Spreads
