New York Times (May 30)
“No one walked away satisfied by the agreement reached late Saturday to raise the debt ceiling…. Yet with the risk of ruinous economic default less than a week away, Congress should pass this agreement as quickly as possible.”
Tags: Agreement, ASAP, Congress, Debt ceiling, Economic default, Pass, Risk, Ruinous, Satisfied
WARC (May 29)
“The digital revolution in India is creating a level playing field for Indians across class and gender divisions, as financial services become more accessible because of the country’s digital footprint, lower data costs, and the rise in online payments.” Not only is digital transformation leading to “positive change throughout the financial system,” it is providing “strong impetus for social betterment and inclusiveness.”
Tags: Accessible, Class, Data costs, Digital revolution, Financial services, Gender, Inclusiveness, India, Online payments, Positive change, Social betterment
Wall Street Journal (May 27)
“America’s travel resurgence is finally here… Despite worries over persistent inflation, banking-sector woes and the debt-ceiling standoff, people are probably going to be spending a lot of time, and money, on trips. This should provide some support for the economy in the months ahead.”
Tags: Banking sector, Debt-ceiling standoff, Economy, Money, Persistent inflation, Resurgence, Spending, Support, Time, Travel, Trips, U.S., Woes, Worries
San Francisco Chronical (May 27)
“State Farm, California’s largest property and casualty insurer as of 2021, stopped issuing home, business and casualty insurance policies in the state Saturday, citing wildfire risks and rising construction costs…. The state has suffered increasingly massive and destructive wildfires in recent years, leading to scarcer and more expensive insurance policies in wildfire-prone zones.”
Tags: Business, California, Casualty, Construction costs, Destructive, Home, Insurer, Massive, Policies, Property, Rising, Risks, State Farm, Wildfires
Fortune (May 26)
“The pandemic spurred work-from-home era is decimating the office sector, with rising vacancy rates and declining property values.” Researchers at NYU and Columbia have revised their estimate of the negative impact upward. “They now see a 44% decline in New York City office values by 2029, and a nationwide value destruction, as they put it, of $506 billion in just a three-year period from 2019 to 2022.”
Tags: $506 billion, 2029, Columbia, New York, NYU, Office sector, Pandemic, Property values, Vacancy rates, Value destruction, Work-from-home
South China Morning Post (May 25)
Several factors help explain “the outperformance of Japanese shares.” Improved corporate governance and the end of deflation are important, but “the explanation with the most resonance for investors is Japan’s role as a safe haven in an increasingly risky world. This has taken on added significance because of concerns about the deepening geopolitical rift between the US and China, as well as economic and regulatory risks in China itself.” Japan boasts “the only market in Asia big and liquid enough to offer an alternative to China while still providing exposure to the reopening of its economy.”
Tags: Big, China, Corporate governance, Deflation, Economic, Exposure, Factors, Geopolitical rift, Investors, Japan, Liquid, Outperformance, Regulatory risks, Reopening, Risky world, Safe haven, Shares, US
BBC (May 24)
“Climate protesters stormed Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in London, with security having to step in to protect board members.” The protestors, activists and other “campaign groups are looking to ramp up the pressure on Shell and other energy companies to bring forward those targets to absolute carbon emissions cuts by 2030 and focus more resources on renewables.” The proposed targets were, however, “rejected in a vote by shareholders at the meeting.”
Tags: 2030, Activists, Annual meeting, Board members, Carbon emissions, Climate, Energy, London, Pressure, Protect, Protesters, Rejected, Renewables, Resources, Security, Shell, Targets, Vote
Washington Post (May 23)
During Q1, “another 2.3 million customers (or 7 percent of the total) cut the cord to traditional cable — the fastest cancel-my-subscription pace ever recorded.” So far cable news has not been greatly impacted, though “the rest of the cable lineup has sagged disastrously…. USA Network, once the most popular cable channel, has lost 75 percent of its nightly audience over 10 years. FX is down 68 percent. History Channel is off by 65 percent.” It probably won’t be long “when an exodus of cable subscribers leaves cable operators unable to afford the hefty license fees that those news programmers now command.”
Tags: Audience, Cable channel, Cable news, Cancel, Cord cutters, Customers, Exodus, FX, History Channel, Impacted, License fees, Q1, Subscribers, Subscription, USA Network
Financial Times (May 22)
“China ordered a swath of its infrastructure companies to stop buying from US chipmaker Micron” hours after the G7 ended and President Biden spoke of a thaw in relations. China also summoned Japan’s ambassador to protest related issues. This “underscored the big challenges to stabilising US-China relations at the end of a summit in Hiroshima where Biden and other leaders of the advanced economies issued their harshest criticism of Beijing — while also acknowledging the need to co-operate with China.”
Tags: Ambassador, Biden, Challenges, China, Chipmaker, G7, Hiroshima, Japan, Micron, Protest, Relations, Summit, Thaw, U.S.
Time (May 22)
“Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was the undisputed star of the G7. But Summit’s focus remained firmly on China…. The bulk of business in Hiroshima was not focused on Vladimir Putin’s war of choice, but some 3,600 miles east of Moscow: Beijing’s growing assertiveness.”
Tags: Beijing, China, G7, Growing assertiveness, Hiroshima, Putin, Star, Summit, Ukraine, Undisputed, War of choice, Zelensky
