The Guardian (November 15)
The Guardian and Carbon Brief found that “just a fifth of funds to fight global heating” actually “went to the world’s 44 poorest countries, known as the least developed countries (LDCs).” In contrast, “China and wealthy petrostates… are among countries receiving large sums of climate finance.” For example, the “UAE, a fossil fuel exporter with a GDP per capita on a par with France and Canada, received more than $1bn in loans from Japan that were logged as climate finance” while “Saudi Arabia, which is one of the top 10 carbon emitters…received about $328m in Japanese loans.”
Tags: $1bn, 44 LDCs, Canada, Carbon Brief, China, Climate finance Fossil fuel, Exporter, France, GDP, Global heating, Guardian, Japan, Loans, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Wealthy petrostates
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.
Axios (November 13)
In what security experts believe is “likely just the beginning,” Chinese hackers are suspected of using “Anthropic’s AI coding tool to target about 30 global organizations,” with some success. The perpetrators utilized “Claude’s agentic capabilities,” which allow the model “to take autonomous action across multiple steps with minimal human direction.” It appears “the dam is breaking on state hackers using AI to speed up and scale digital attacks.”
Tags: Agentic, AI, Anthropic, Chinese hackers, Claude, Coding, Digital attacks, Experts, Global, Human direction, Modelm Autonomous, Security, Suspected
Barron’s (November 10)
“The longest government shutdown on record may be nearing its conclusion, and U.S. stocks are likely to claw back a big chunk of last week’s decline.” But end of the shutdown is “a band-aid, not a cure” for markets. “The long, and likely volatile path to reopening the federal government…will only mask the major issues investors are grappling with heading into the final weeks of the trading year, and the stock market could break in either direction once some of those questions are addressed.”
Tags: Band-aid, Cure, Decline, Government, Investors, Longest, Record, Shutdown, Stock market, Stocks, Trading, U.S., Volatile
Time (November 10 Issue)
“Ballooning health care costs are driving up the price of insurance for the 154 million Americans who rely on employer-sponsored coverage,” where an average increase of 6.5% is expected in 2026, “the highest increase since 2010.” Things are even worse for those who do not have employer-sponsored coverage. Those covered by Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans are likely to see their premiums “rise by an average of 75% in 2026.”
Tags: 2010, 2026, ACA, Ballooning, Costs, Coverage, Employer-sponsored, Health care, Insurance, Plans, Premiums, Price, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (November 9)
“President Trump has a big tariff problem: His border taxes are raising prices on tariffed goods, they’re unpopular with voters, and the Supreme Court might rule that his “emergency” tariffs are illegal.” To win back support, he has just promised “a dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.” This latest “hail Mary” is founded on, among other logical fallacies, a “contradiction that Mr. Trump can both pay a tariff rebate and pay down the national debt.” The WSJ editorial board has “advised Mr. Trump from the beginning that tariffs would do economic harm, and so they are.”
Tags: 2000, Border taxes, Contradiction, Dividend, Economic harm, Emergency, Illegal, Logical fallacies, National debt, Prices, Rebate, Supreme Court, Tariff, Trump, Unpopular, Voters
CNBC (November 7)
“Worries over the government shutdown surged in the early part of November, pushing consumer sentiment to its lowest in more than three years and just off its worst level ever.” The most recent University of Michigan “Index of Consumer Sentiment posted a reading of 50.3 for the month, indicating a decline of 6.2% on the month and about 30% from a year ago…. November’s reading was the second lowest going back to at least 1978.”
Tags: 1978, 50.3, Consumer sentiment, Decline, Government shutdown, Lowest, November, Surged, University of Michigan, Worries, Worst level
New York Times (November 6)
“President Trump’s barrage on global trade appears to have taken a hit” during questioning in front of the Supreme Court. “Concerns are growing that the Supreme Court could scramble the Trump administration’s tariffs strategy. That may be welcome news for free-trade advocates, but it could also unleash more uncertainty for businesses and Wall Street.” Market reaction was rapid as “the yield on 10-year Treasury notes spiked to 4.15 percent,” a sell-off that suggests “bond holders are fretting that an adverse ruling could deprive the government of revenues needed to offset the federal deficit.”
Tags: Barrage, Bond holders, Businesses, Free trade, Fretting, Global trade, Market reaction, Revenues, Scramble, Sell-off, Supreme Court, Tariffs strategy, Treasuries, Trump, Uncertainty, Wall Street, Yield
SF Gate (November 6)
“America’s tech industry continues to lead in a grim metric.” Challenger, Gray & Christmas released a report that “tracked layoff announcements from companies” and “in 2025, the tech industry had the highest recorded number of layoffs for the month of October: 33,281 compared with 5,639 in September.” But the report found layoffs are hardly restricted to the tech industry. “Total year-to-date job cuts in the U.S. are at their highest level since the pandemic struck in 2020” while “layoffs for the month of October” were the highest recorded since 2003.
Tags: 2003, 2020, 2025, Grim metric, Highest, Job cuts, Layoffs, October, Pandemic, Tech industry, U.S.
Reuters (November 4)
“Fears of a market bubble come as the benchmark S&P 500 continues its meteoric climb, repeatedly hitting record highs and evoking memories of the dot-com boom.” And on Tuesday, the chief executives of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs warned that “global equity markets could be heading towards a correction, underscoring a growing concern that investor optimism has driven valuations to sky-high levels.”
Tags: Boom, Concern, Correction, Dot-com, Equity markets, Executives, Fears, Goldman Sachs, Investor optimism, Market bubble, Meteoric, Morgan Stanley, Record highs, S&P 500, Valuations
