Scientific American (May 20)
“When California suffers a heat wave, it leans heavily on hydropower from the Pacific Northwest to keep the lights on. But that hydropower may not always be available when it’s most needed” due to climate change. “Higher temperatures means snowmelt occurs earlier in the year and leaves less water available for power generation during the depths of summer. The result is a heightened risk of blackouts during extreme heat waves as a result of less hydro availability.”
Tags: Availability, Blackouts, California, Climate change, Heat wave, Hydropower, Pacific Northwest, Power generation, Risk, Snowmelt, Summer, Temperatures, Water
Forbes (May 19)
“As bitcoin and crypto traders come to terms with the huge price crash that’s wiped $1 trillion from the combined crypto market since April, fears are mounting that more pain could be on the way if stock market contagion spreads.”
Tags: $1 trillion, Bitcoin, Contagion, Crash, Crypto market, Fears, Pain, Price, Stock market, Traders
South China Morning Post (May 18)
“A surge in the number of Chinese professionals looking for emigration opportunities in response to China’s strict zero-Covid measures could affect the country’s ambitions to become a science and technology superpower.” The “noticeable spike” in interest in leaving China began after “outbreaks of the Omicron variant emerged in Shanghai” around the end of May.
Tags: Ambitions, China, Emigration, Omicron, Opportunities, Outbreaks, Professionals, Science, Spike, Strict, Superpower, Surge, Technology, Variant, Zero COVID
Barron’s (May 17)
“The stock market has enjoyed a mini-rally in the past few days, but the latest gains look like an upsurge in the middle of a larger decline.” The “battered” market “seemed to be begging to be bought,” but it “could get knocked right back down.” Valuations “are still arguably too high.”
Tags: High
Washington Post (May 17)
With May “more than half over,” Russia’s Plan B is clearly “fizzling” with a notable retreat from Kharkiv. Russia “now appears to be aiming to take, at most, the entirety of a single Ukrainian region, Luhansk. And even that might be beyond the capability of Russia’s depleted, poorly led forces.” Instead, “a widening Ukrainian counteroffensive” might succeed in bringing “more of the Russian-held south and east of Ukraine back under the control of its legitimate government.”
Tags: Control, Counteroffensive, Depleted, Fizzling, Government, Kharkiv, Legitimate, Luhansk, May, Plan B, Retreat, Russia, Ukraine
MarketWatch (May 15)
“A big bounce for stocks on Friday still leaves the main U.S. stock market benchmark close to entering a bear market as investors fret over the Federal Reserve’s ability to get a grip on inflation without sinking the economy stokes fears of stagflation — a pernicious combination of slow economic growth and persistent inflation.”
Financial Times (May 13)
For some time, “private equity firms have set their sights on the many profitable yet unloved parts of corporate Japan that sit under the umbrellas of conglomerates such as Toshiba, Hitachi and others.” Currently, “the attention on Japan could not be any greater. Much of the ‘dry powder’ sitting in funds raised for Asian dealmaking is now less likely to be used in China than to back increasingly ambitious deals in Japan.”
Tags: Ambitious, Asian, China, Conglomerates, Dealmaking, Dry-powder, Funds, Hitachi, Japan, Private equity, Profitable, Toshiba, Unloved
Wall Street Journal (May 13)
“Well, the party was fun while it lasted. But now the liquidity tidal wave is crashing as it always does when credit conditions tighten. This week’s crypto-currency crash is the first body exposed on the beach, and let’s hope the damage doesn’t spread too far into the financial system and broader economy.”
Tags: Broader economy, Crash, Credit, Crypto-currency, Damage, Financial system, Liquidity, Party, Spread, Tidal wave, Tighten
Reuters (May 12)
“South Korea was the first country to launch a fifth-generation mobile network in 2019, heralding a warp-speed technological transformation to self-driving cars and smart cities. Three years on, the giddy promises are unfulfilled.” It has achieved one of the highest rates of adoption, around 45% with speed about five times faster. Until demand catches up, however, telecoms will remain unwilling “to invest in the fancier technology that would ramp speeds by 20 times over 4G technology…. To make the quantum leap to the highest-speed 5G will require the roll-out of essential services that need such fast connections.”
Tags: 5G, Adoption, Demand, Invest, Mobile network, Promises, Roll-out, Self-driving cars, Smart cities, South Korea, Speed, Technology Quantum leap, Telecoms, Transformation, Unfulfilled, Warp-speed
New York Times (May 11)
The weak yen, coupled with soaring food and energy costs, “are posing yet another challenge for the world’s third-largest economy as Japan trails other major nations in emerging from the economic blow of the pandemic. The rise in prices has spooked Japanese consumers used to decades of stability, and the weak yen is starting to look as if it will depress demand at home more than stimulate it abroad.”
Tags: Challenge, Consumers, Costs, Economy, Energy, Food, Japan, Pandemic, Prices, Soaring, Spooked, Stability, Weak yen
