USA Today (June 12)
“A historic heat wave in the West was forecast to roll eastward this week after Phoenix, Las Vegas and Denver joined a plethora of cities and towns posting record temperatures and more than 50 million Americans sweltered under heat advisories.” Across a large swathe of the country, temperatures are “ranging from 10 to 30 degrees above normal for this time of year.”
Tags: 50 million, Denver, Heat advisories, Heat wave, Historic, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Record, Temperatures, U.S.
The Economist (June 11)
“Britain is stuck in a 15-year rut. It likes to think of itself as a dynamic, free-market place, but its economy lags behind much of the rich world. There is plenty of speechifying about growth, and no shortage of ideas about how to turn the country round. But the mettle and strategic thinking that reform requires are absent.”
Tags: Dynamic, Economy, Free market, Growth, Ideas, Lags, Mettle, Reform, Rich world, Rut, Speechifying, Strategic thinking, UK
Institutional Investor (June 10)
“From 2006 to 2015, only four ESG shareholder proposals at companies in the Fortune 250 passed with majority votes. But in recent years, institutional interest in ESG proposals has undergone a dramatic transformation: From 2016 to 2021, 41 ESG shareholder proposals passed.” With ESG proposal now regularly passing, we’ve reached “a milestone for ESG integration.”
Tags: 2006, 2015, 2016, 2021, ESG, Fortune 250, Majority votes, Milestone, Passing, Proposals, Shareholder
Financial Times (June 9)
“China is building hundreds of thousands of permanent coronavirus testing facilities and expanding quarantine centres across many of its biggest cities as part of its zero-Covid policy, despite the economic and human toll on the world’s most populous country.” Only a week after the Shanghai lockdowns mostly ended, a new one affecting 2 million residents has been announced. Experts now “believe the government’s virus infrastructure programme is designed to sustain the mass-testing and quarantine policies through 2023.”
Tags: 2023
The Guardian (June 9)
The pandemic supply chain disruptions are “still rumbling on thanks to China’s drastic zero-Covid strategy.” This is prompting “a major rethink of how companies should organise themselves. Amid the buzzwords such as ‘reshoring’ and ‘diversification’ is the basic need to make western economies less reliant on China and other far-off manufacturing centres.”
Tags: China, Companies, Disruptions, Diversification, Drastic, Pandemic, Reshoring, Rethink, Supply chain, Zero-Covid strategy
Bloomberg (June 8)
“It’s not like inflation is out of control in Japan. Far from it. Consumer prices rose 2.1% in April from a year earlier, finally reaching the BOJ’s target.” Nevertheless, “after a generation of ultra-low prices, Kuroda may not have appreciated how hard it is for Japanese to embrace something they haven’t had to deal with.” In April, fresh fish and vegetables rose by 12%, “including a nearly 100% increase in the cost of onions. Talk about eye watering.” The BOJ has worked for nearly three decades “to crank up inflation from dangerously low levels. How galling that Japan may not even want it.”
Tags: BOJ, Consumer prices, Dangerously low, Eye watering, Fish, Galling, Inflation, Japan, Kuroda, Onions, Vegetables
Northern Trust Advisor Perspectives (June 8)
“Inflation across advanced economies has increased to rates not seen in multiple decades. Japan, where the headline consumer price index rose by only 2.5% for the twelve months ending in April, stands as an exception.” Though this “appears moderate… it is very high for a country where a generation has never seen sustained price increases. Japan’s inflation has averaged only 0.3% in the past three decades.”
Tags: Advanced economies, CPI, Exception, Generation, Increased, Inflation, Japan, Moderate, Price increases, Rates
Washington Post (June 8)
“Fumio Kishida, the current Japanese leader, last week launched what he called the “Grand Design” for his “New Form of Capitalism.” It is neither simple or direct. “Watered down, muddled and both confusing and a bit confused, Kishida’s flagship economic policy could learn a lot from the Three Arrows,” which effectively simplified “a complex recipe of monetary, fiscal and supply-side solutions.”
Tags: “Grand Design”, Confusing, Economic policy, Fiscal, Flagship, Japan, Kishida, Monetary, Muddled, Supply side, Three arrows, Watered down
Reuters (June 6)
“Even though supply disruptions in many parts of the world are severe and policy solutions are challenging, Western governments do have the opportunity to reverse the rising cost of food through the simple scrapping of biofuel mandates. This would remove a very large non-food demand for crops and turn the current grain shortage to a surplus, easing the pressure on inflation.”
Tags: Biofuel mandates, Crops, Demand, Disruptions, Food, Governments, Grain shortage, Inflation, Opportunity, Solutions, Supply, Surplus
Morningstar (June 3)
“Job and wage growth” finally appear to be “moderating, and that’s good news.” This can get hidden by monthly volatility. However, the three-month rolling average of job gains “stood at a lofty 602,000” in February. “It’s now 408,000.” The economy looks to be “shifting to a steadier, healthier pace of growth.”
Tags: Economy, February, Growth, Healthier, Job, Job gains, Moderating, Rolling average, Steadier, Volatility, Wage growth
