Sydney Morning Herald (May 30)
“The tragedy playing out in Uvalde, Texas, the last few days – 21 dead, including 19 children, in yet another massacre at an American primary school – is sourced in a mix of corruption, neglect, and fecklessness that, to use a biblical term, passeth all understanding.” The tragedy did succeed in busting the myth that we need good guys with guns to stop the bad guys with guns. The good guys failed this time. “Trained police officers fell back and cowered, while a killer with a weapon of mass destruction went about his malevolent business.”
Tags: Mass destruction
The Economist (May 28)
Signs suggest “America’s markets are entering a new, more worrying phase.” Falling share prices could initially be attributed to the Federal Reserve’s policy moves, but “in recent weeks share prices have kept falling, even as bond yields have dropped back,” a combination suggesting recession. “Indeed, the mix of Fed tightening, slowing gdp and rising production costs has the ominous feel of the later stages of a business cycle. The expansion is barely two years old. Yet investors are already worried that corporate profits are under threat.”
Tags: Bond yields, Business cycle, Expansion, Falling, Fed, GDP, Investors, Markets, Ominous, Production costs, Profits, Recession, Share prices, Signs, Tightening, U.S., Worried, Worrying
Reuters (May 27)
Covid-related restrictions “have battered the world’s second-biggest economy even as most countries have been seeking to return to something like normal.” Although “China’s economy is now staggering back to its feet,” the recovery remains “grinding and partial… with businesses from retailers to chipmakers warning of slow sales as consumers in the country slam the brakes on spending.”
Tags: Battered, Businesses, China, Chipmakers, Consumers, Covid, Economy, Grinding, Normal, Partial, Recovery, Restrictions, Retailers, Sales, Staggering, Warning
Washington Post (May 27)
“More Americans are expected to travel for the Memorial Day weekend than last year despite record-high gasoline prices, costlier airfares, higher hotel rates and a wave of covid infections — the result of pent-up demand outstripping health concerns and escalating prices.”
Tags: Airfares, Covid infections, Escalating prices, Gasoline, Health concerns, Hotel rates, Memorial Day, Pent-up demand, Record high, Travel, U.S.
CNN (May 26)
“It’s easy to watch crypto’s day to day volatility, as well as fringe projects like Terra and Luna enter a “death spiral,” and dismiss the blockchain technology and philosophy underpinning them. But the crypto faithful say that despite its problems, crypto isn’t going away.”
Tags: Blockchain technology, Crypto, Death spiral, Dismiss, Faithful, Fringe, Luna, Philosophy, Problems, Terra, Volatility
Institutional Investor (May 25)
“Managers that want to run fixed-income funds with a focus on environmental, social, and governance factors face larger research challenges than those in stocks. But the massive opportunity in bonds may make the uphill battle worth it.” Compared to equities, the “patchwork of standards” increases the “risks of ESG fixed income funds.”
Tags: Bonds, Challenges, Equities, ESG, Fixed income, Funds, Managers, Opportunity, Patchwork, Research, Risks, Standards, Stocks, Uphill
Wall Street Journal (May 24)
A “candid presentation” last week on “Why investors need not worry about climate risk” created an uproar, for which Stuart Kirk has been suspended as HSBC’s global head of responsible investing. At the WSJ, “we understand why banking regulators and businesses that hope to make money off the coming tidal wave of climate regulation might be offended by his truth-telling. But he merely said what many in his industry believe but are too timid to say: Climate change poses a negligible risk to the global economy and bank balance sheets.”
Tags: Banking regulators, Banks, Businesses, Candid, Climate change, Climate regulation, Climate risk, Global economy, HSBC, Investors, Kirk, Money, Negligible risk, Offended, Presentation, Responsible investing, Suspended, Tidal wave, Timid, Truth-telling, Uproar
Bloomberg (May 24)
“For decades, the surest way for ordinary Chinese families to grow their wealth and guarantee future financial stability was to put most of their money into real estate, and the rest into the stock market. Now, even those with money to spare are clutching onto their cash, not willing to take a chance in the Covid-battered Chinese economy.”
Tags: Battered, Cash, Chance, China, Clutching, Covid, Families, Financial stability, Future, Guarantee, Money, Ordinary, Real estate, Spare, Stock market, Wealth
The Economist (May 21)
“By invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin will destroy the lives of people far from the battlefield—and on a scale even he may regret. The war is battering a global food system.” Russia and Ukraine produce roughly 12% of all traded calories. If “the war drags on and supplies from Russia and Ukraine are limited, hundreds of millions more people could fall into poverty. Political unrest will spread, children will be stunted and people will starve.”
Tags: Battlefield, Calories, Children, Destroy, Food, Invading, Political unrest, Poverty, Putin, Russia, Starve, Stunted, Ukraine, War
New York Times (May 21)
“The euro hasn’t fallen below the one-to-one exchange rate with the U.S. dollar for two decades. But as economic risks grow, more analysts predict deeper lows for the shared currency.” The U.S. currency is considered one of the safest havens “for money as the risk of stagflation — an unhealthy mix of stagnant economic growth and rapid inflation — stalks the globe.”
Tags: Analysts, Currency, Dollar, Economic risks, euro, Exchange rate, Growth, Havens, Money, Stagflation, Stagnant, U.S., Unhealthy
