Washington Post (June 28)
“Like one of the endangered species whose impending extinction it has chronicled, National Geographic magazine has been on a relentlessly downward path, struggling for vibrancy in an increasingly unforgiving ecosystem. On Wednesday, the Washington-based magazine that has surveyed science and the natural world for 135 years reached another difficult passage when it laid off all of its last remaining staff writers.”
Tags: 135 years, Endangered species, Extinction, Impending, National Geographic, Natural world, Relentlessly, Science, Staff writers, Struggling
Investment Week (June 28)
“Confidence in the UK meeting its legally-binding decarbonisation targets from 2030 onwards has fallen ‘markedly’, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has today warned in a landmark report that delivers a damning verdict on the paucity of new climate action from the government over the past 12 months.” The report concludes “the government now faces a huge uphill challenge to attract the necessary green investment and get decarbonisation progress back on track this decade so as to ensure legally binding emissions targets are met.”
Tags: 2030, CCC, Climate action, Confidence, Decarbonisation, Emissions targets, Government, Green investment, Legally-binding, UK, Uphill
Markets Insider (June 27)
“The banking crisis that unfolded earlier this year isn’t over, and banks could be hit with losses akin to what was seen in 2008 if the Federal Reserve doesn’t get inflation under control.” In its annual report, the Bank for International Settlements called attention to the “lasting ramifications of 2023’s bank failures, starting with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.”
Tags: 2008, 2023, Annual report, Banking crisis, BIS, Collapse, Failures, Fed, Inflation, Losses, Ramifications, SVB, Unfolded
Time (June 26)
In order to discuss “gender equality and women’s empowerment,” G7 representatives gathered in Nikko, making for “an awkward photo-op, highlighting Japan’s ongoing struggles with gender.” The only male was its chair “Japan’s representative to the gender equality meeting, Masanobu Ogura…. The optics are not likely to help Japan ward off mounting criticism of its deficiencies in gender and LGBT rights from its peers in the informal economic bloc of advanced democracies.”
Tags: Advanced democracies, Awkward, Criticism, Deficiencies, G7, Gender equality, Japan, LGBT rights, Nikko, Ogura, Optics, Photo-op, Struggles, Women’s empowerment
Financial Times (June 25)
“A long-anticipated reckoning is under way in the US commercial property industry…. Sharply rising rates, a regional banking crisis that curtailed credit and a trend towards remote work are all wreaking havoc. Older office buildings have borne the brunt of the downturn, but other real estate categories have not been spared.” In New York City, the value of office buildings is “estimated to have dropped by $76bn from their most recent sales price.”
Tags: Anticipated, Commercial property, Credit, Downturn, Havoc, Office buildings, Reckoning, Regional banking crisis, Remote work, Rising rates, U.S.
Reuters (June 23)
“Chinese faith in the economy is shaken…. Those who thought property was a one-way winning bet are rushing to pay down mortgages. With industrial profits plunging, companies are exhibiting similar conservatism.” Confronting this “double whammy of depressed consumption and investment is raising fears of long-term stagnation similar to Japan’s ‘lost decade’ in the 1990s.” Without successful countermeasures, “China risks slowly slipping into the same outcome.”
Tags: China, Depressed consumption, Double whammy, Economy, Faith, Fears, Investment, Japan, Mortgages, Plunging, Profits, Property, Shaken, Stagnation
American Banker (June 22)
“Companies and government agencies have been added in recent days to the list of institutions victimized by a supply chain cyberattack by a ransomware gang that exploited a weakness in file transfer software popular with enterprises.” Cl0p, a ransomware gang, “started exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Progress Software’s product MoveIt to steal data from at least 91 organizations, including state and federal agencies and at least 10 U.S. banks and credit unions. Data compromised in the leaks included names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and more.”
Tags: Banks, Companies, Compromised, Credit unions, Cyberattack, FTP, Government, Institutions, MoveIt, Ransomware, Supply chain, U.S., Victimized, Weakness, Zero-day vulnerability
Washington Post (June 22)
“America’s Asian allies are quietly joining forces to confront China.” Beijing may want “to split off Asian allies from the United States and each other, but its actions are pushing them together.” Amid perceived threats from China, “mini-laterals” have been cropping up, including the very first meeting of JAROPUS, which brought together “national security advisers from Japan, the Republic of the Philippines and the United States.”
Tags: Actions, Asian allies, Beijing, China, Confront, Japan, JAROPUS, Joining forces, National security advisers, Philippines, U.S.
Investments and Pensions Europe (June 20)
“Four German states have recently revised their sustainable investment strategies, sticking to stricter ESG standards, a move that has caused shifts to the allocation of public pension assets worth close to €30bn.” The states (North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Brandenburg) “switched to a Paris Aligned Benchmark (PAB), lining up with the EU taxonomy and United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to invest their assets.”
Tags: €30bn, Allocation, Assets, ESG standards, EU, Germany, PAB, Public pension, Revised, SDGs, Strategies, Stricter, Sustainable investment
Wall Street Journal (June 20)
“The world’s central banks underestimated inflation last year. They are trying not to make the same mistake twice.” But they are “in a tricky spot. They need to decide if inflation has stalled way above their 2% target, which could require much higher interest rates to fix, or if inflation’s decline is only delayed. Get the call wrong, and they could push the rich world into a deep recession or force it to endure years of high inflation.”
Tags: 2% target, Central banks, Deep recession, Delayed, Inflation, Interest rates, Mistake, Rich world, Stalled, Tricky spot, Underestimated
