RSS Feed

Calendar

February 2023
M T W T F S S
« Jan   Mar »
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  

Search

Tag Cloud

Archives

Financial Times (February 26)

2023/ 02/ 28 by jd in Global News

These are, according to Citigroup analysts, “distinctly echoey times.” Their “research suggests that, if it is not careful, China may be on track for a new wave of Japanification.” China is now remarkably similar to Japan’s post-property bubble era in, for example, demographics. China’s population is “now shrinking as Japan’s did years earlier… a reminder that after 1990, Japan’s housing price index fell as the 35- to 54-year-old cohort decreased.” These and other factors call for warnings about “the potential risks for China’s banking system.”

 

The Guardian (February 26)

2023/ 02/ 27 by jd in Global News

“Germany’s economic miracle was built on debt relief.” Today “unconditional debt relief” would help the poorest economies, countries that can’t reasonably repay their debts. “The biggest losers” should be private bondholders. “The UK and US should pass legislation requiring bondholders to take part in internationally agreed debt relief. The globalisation currently being orchestrated by the world’s richest countries is suffocating poor nations. What the German experience revealed is that removing the economic straitjacket would allow developing countries to breathe again.”

 

Global Times (February 25)

2023/ 02/ 26 by jd in Global News

Chinese shipbuilders have “won all 17 new orders for pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) worldwide in January, as domestic enterprises break Japanese and South Korean monopoly of PCTC construction thanks to the nation’s booming car exports.” January’s new orders “totaled a combined 510,000 deadweight tons with 152,000 parking spots.”

 

New York Times (February 24)

2023/ 02/ 25 by jd in Global News

“The energy transition poised for takeoff in the United States amid record investment in wind, solar and other low-carbon technologies is facing a serious obstacle: The volume of projects has overwhelmed the nation’s antiquated systems to connect new sources of electricity to homes and businesses.” The interconnection system now faces a multiyear logjam of over 8,100 projects (mainly clean energy) “waiting for permission to connect to electric grids,” up from 5,600 a year earlier.

 

Bloomberg (February 22)

2023/ 02/ 24 by jd in Global News

“Unloved during the pandemic with their business paralyzed almost overnight, airlines that cut back to survive the crisis are now blowing through profit forecasts and luring back investors.” Surging demand amid a tight labor market may be grating for travelers, but “for investors, it means some of the airlines they own are generating more than twice as much revenue per worker than they were two years ago.”

 

Fortune (February 21)

2023/ 02/ 23 by jd in Global News

“The housing market correction just took a new turn,” which appears to be “brutal.” KB Home’s Q4 results revealed a buyer cancellation rate that shot to 68%, up from 13% year on year. The Q4 cancellation rate “also surpassed the industry’s peak cancellation rate of 47% during the darkest days of the 2008-era crash.”

 

Wall Street Journal (February 21)

2023/ 02/ 22 by jd in Global News

“Arming Russia would be a new and explicit demonstration of China’s hostile intentions toward the U.S. and the West. It would certainly erase Beijing’s seeming desire… to put U.S.-China relations on a better course. It would also require a firm U.S. response, which would have to include further economic decoupling.”

 

Reuters (February 20)

2023/ 02/ 21 by jd in Global News

“Europe, which was late to appreciate the danger posed by Putin, won’t quickly forget the lesson even if he goes.” National defense budgets are being hiked and “Europe will be paying more for its protection for years to come,” not to mention bearing costs related to supporting and rebuilding Ukraine. Still, “these costs pale by comparison with a scenario where Putin had triumphed in Ukraine. In that case Europe would now be worrying how to protect the Baltic States and Poland from his aggression. Yet even a Russia weakened by a year of war and sanctions remains a problem for Europe.”

 

Financial Times (February 19)

2023/ 02/ 20 by jd in Global News

The Bank of Japan’s “ultra-loose policy is now on a somewhat pre-determined path — towards (if not quite through) the exit door.” The impact of investment flows retreating to Japan may be “most significant for the US Treasury market, where Japan is the largest single foreign holder.” But Japanese investors also hold sizeable market shares “in Australia, New Zealand and parts of western Europe. A shift in policy under Ueda will matter not just for Japan, but for pockets of global debt markets, too.”

 

South China Morning Post (February 17)

2023/ 02/ 19 by jd in Global News

“China’s regulators have unblocked the path for companies to list overseas, reopening the avenue of fundraising after a 20-month obstruction to enable businesses to recapitalise for growth in the post-Covid period.” Applications must be vetted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) while the issuer must adhere to rules established by industry regulators in “disclosures of customers’ data and anything that could be construed as state secret.”

 

« Older Entries

[archive]