New York Times (February 28)
In the U.S., the “sad demise” of the summer job is continuing and must be checked. We need to “help connect young people with summer jobs that give them not just money, but also valuable work experience…. When summer jobs were plentiful, young people gained skills and experiences that made them attractive to future employers.”
Tags: Demise, Employers, Experience, Money, Skills, Summer job, U.S., Work
Institutional Investor (February Issue)
“In this era of globalization 50,000 ships carry 90 percent of the $18.5 trillion in annual world trade” and this is causing investors to take note. One firm named CargoMetrics now seeks to “map historically and in real time what’s really going on in economic supply and demand across the planet” with the goal of being “able to automatically profit from spotting any publicly traded security that is mispriced.” To do this, they are utilizing historical cargo data and the global automatic identification system that vessels of 300 gross tons or more are required to use for collision prevention.
Tags: Cargo, CargoMetrics, Collision prevention, Data, Globalization, Identification, Investors, Mispriced, Profit, Ships, Supply and demand, World trade
The Economist (February 27)
A win by Donald Trump “is an appalling prospect. The things Mr Trump has said in this campaign make him unworthy of leading one of the world’s great political parties, let alone America. One way to judge politicians is by whether they appeal to our better natures: Mr Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped.”
Tags: Appalling, Better natures, Hatred, Politicians, Terrifying, Trump, U.S., Unpredictable, Unworthy, Violence
U.S. News & World Report (February 24)
Beijing is now “home to more billionaires than any other city in the world” after successfully edging out “New York City as the world’s capital for billionaires.” Of nearly 2,200 billionaires worldwide, 100 reside in Beijing, while 95 call New York City home. Moscow ranks a distant third with 66 billionaires. Nationwide, with 568 billionaires, China has also beaten the U.S., which ranks second, with 535. Japan round out the top ten countries with 42 billionaires, just behind the 49 living in Brazil.
Bloomberg (February 23)
“For Chinese leaders, the need to prop up faltering GDP growth outweighs fears about a rapid buildup in debt.” New loans from banks were 70% higher in January than a year prior. “Debt now tops 230 percent of GDP and could reach as high as 300 percent of GDP if current trends continue…. Even the Bank for International Settlements, a body not known for hyperbole, has warned that Chinese debt is reaching levels that typically trigger financial crises.”
Wall Street Journal (February 23)
Europe is again sputtering, which is the “cost of ignoring Mario Draghi’s pleas for reforms.” Quantitative easing “without accompanying policy reforms such as looser labor-market rules and liberalized product markets is losing traction fast. Only those reforms could boost European resilience in the face of global developments such as China’s slowdown that weigh on growth.”
Tags: China, Draghi, Europe, Growth, Labor-market rules, Quantitative easing, Reforms, Resilience, Slowdown, Sputtering
LA Times (February 22)
“The most curious purchase of the Dodgers’ off-season” was Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda. He is attracting plenty of management attention as the Dodgers determine how to bring out the best in their investment. “Maeda, 27, looms as a potential balm for the back end of the Dodgers rotation. But his arrival comes fraught with challenges, in addition to the usual ones that confront Japanese pitchers. Concerns about his physical condition add to the uncertainty.”
Tags: Dodgers, Japan, Maeda, Off-season, Pitcher, Rotation, U.S., Uncertainty
The Economist (February 20)
“The path to a 5G wireless paradise will not be smooth” and the ultimate network specs remain to be determined. Still, “the momentum is real. South Korea and Japan are front-runners in wired broadband, and Olympic games are an opportunity to show the world that they intend also to stay ahead in wireless, even if that may mean having to upgrade their 5G networks to comply with a global standard once it is agreed.”
Tags: 5G, Broadband, Global standard, Japan, Network, Olympics, South Korea, Specs, Upgrade, Wireless
Institutional Investor (February 18)
“Are currency traders destined for extinction? Their ranks are thinning quickly, as computers take over their tasks and banks pull back from activity in financial markets. The trend is likely to continue and market volatility is likely to increase as a result, analysts say.”
Financial Times (February 18)
The conditional deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia delivered “maximum rhetorical impact for the minimum genuine commitment.” Ultimately, it “will not take a single barrel of oil off the market to ease the glut that has driven crude prices down about 70 per cent since the summer of 2014.” The deal reveals “nervousness among the world’s two largest oil producers. But the fact that Saudi Arabia is not already cutting its output, in spite of mounting signs of financial strain, shows that while its strategy might be painful, it is still rational.”
Tags: Deal, Financial strain, Glut, Market, Oil, Output, Producers, Rational, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Strategy
