Investment Week (July 31)
“British American Tobacco is resisting shareholder pressure to move its primary listing from London to New York.” Others haven’t. “The London Stock Exchange has seen a string of departures this year, as companies flee from cheap valuations towards the deeper investor pool the US market offers.”
Tags: BAT, Cheap valuations, Companies, Departures, Flee, Investor pool, London, LSE, New York, Primary listing, Resisting, Shareholder pressure, U.S.
Financial Times (July 29)
“Inflation is falling for a number of reasons “beyond the Fed’s control,” like an easing of the worst impacts from “the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.” But the Fed’s rate hikes have effectively “reduced demand for credit.” The results can be seen in mortgage debt and car loans. “Overall, growth in non-revolving credit—the loans you take out just once, like a mortgage—is now just below zero.” There’s one snag on the revolving credit side, where credit growth is still “coming from credit cards.”
Tags: Car loans, Credit, Credit cards, Demand, Falling, Fed, Inflation, Mortgage debt, Non-revolving, Pandemic, Rate hikes, Revolving, Ukraine, War
Washington Post (July 28)
“Everyone knows, as the Watergate scandal drove home: The coverup is always worse than the crime. Everyone, that is, but Trump.” Should “the allegations in the latest indictment of Donald Trump hold up, the former president is a common criminal — and an uncommonly stupid one.”
Tags: Allegations, Common criminal, Coverup, Crime, Indictment, Scandal, Stupid, Trump, Watergate, Worse
National Review (July 27)
“Japan Is disappearing.” The nation’s “population declined by 800,000 in the last year,” marking “14 consecutive years during which deaths outnumbered births. The mathematics of population decline get really desperate from here on out…. This problem is far too large for immigration to solve.”
Tags: Births, Deaths, Declined, Desperate, Disappearing.” Population, Immigration, Japan, Mathematics, Outnumbered, Solve
Tampa Bay Times (July 26)
“A marine heat wave has brought alarmingly high water temperatures to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In Florida’s Manatee Bay, a reading of 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit broke an unofficial world record.” If approved, it “would shatter the current world record of 99.7 degrees, which was recorded in Kuwait Bay in the Persian Gulf, and confirmed by a study, in 2020.”
Tags: 101.1 degrees, 2020, Atlantic Ocean, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Heat wave, Kuwait Bay, Marine, Water temperatures, World record
The Guardian (July 26)
“Every one of Japan’s 47 prefectures posted a population drop in 2022, while the total number of Japanese people fell by nearly 800,000,” marking “two new unwelcome records for a nation sailing into uncharted demographic territory, but on a course many other countries are set to follow.”
Tags: 2022, Demographic, Drop, Japan, Population, Prefectures, Records, Uncharted, Unwelcome
New York Times (July 25)
“One question is at the top of many investors’ minds: Is the hype around artificial intelligence, which has propelled tech giants’ stock prices sky-high in recent months, justified, or is it another bubble in the making?” At the moment, “Wall Street is deeply divided about the A.I. rally” though this may change as Big Tech reports earnings.
Tags: Artificial intelligence, Bubble, Divided, Earnings, Hype, Investors, Justified, Propelled, Rally, Sky-high, Stock prices, Tech giants, Wall Street
WARC (July 24)
“Around the world, AI is developing and it is quickly reaching a point where it is speeding up human work to the point of replacing humans. This is a point in time for brands and agencies to really think about the technology and work out what ethical, responsible uses look like.” The rise of virtual influencers in China marks “one of the first instances of true competition between humans and machines for work and will be an important test case for the technology and the labour questions it raises.”
Tags: AI, Brands, China, Competition, Developing, Ethical, Humans, Replacing, Responsible, Technology, Uses, Virtual influencers, Work
The Economist (July 22)
“Economists are not known for their optimism, but today their good cheer is palpable. Not long ago it seemed that an American recession was inevitable.” Now, expectations are heady that this can be averted, but “the surge of hope is… unusual because the world economy is slowing down.” While “falling inflation is good news,” it remains “too early to hail a ‘soft landing.’”
Tags: Averted, Economists, Expectations, Hope, Inevitable, Inflation, Optimism, Recession, Slowing, Surge, U.S., World economy
Wall Street Journal (July 20)
“With American homeowners “reluctant to sell because they can’t afford to give up the low mortgage rates they have now,” homebuyers are increasingly turning to new construction. Just over a million existing homes were on the market at May 31, a record low. In contrast, “newly built homes accounted for nearly one-third of single-family homes for sale nationwide in May, compared with a historical norm of 10% to 20%.” This marks “another example of how this housing market is behaving like no other.”
Tags: Construction, Existing, Homebuyers, Homeowners, Housing market, Mortgage rates, Newly built, Record, Reluctant, Sell, Single family, U.S.
