Reuters (September 8)
“Britain’s shaky ambitions to be the ‘Saudi Arabia of wind’ now stand at a blustery crossroads. Developers had been warning for months that the UK’s latest offshore wind auction, divulged on Friday, would receive no takers. Now that it’s happened, it may spur much-need action…. The very real prospect of zero wind schemes ought to be the kick up the backside UK politicians need to make the terms more appealing.”
Tags: Ambitions, Auction, Blustery, Crossroads, Developers, Offshore, Saudi Arabia, Shaky, UK, Warning, Wind, Zero wind schemes
The Guardian (September 8)
“Public opinion has swung away from Brexit, with more than half the country thinking it was wrong to leave the bloc. Crucially, a chunk of 2016 leave voters have changed their minds because Brexit hasn’t delivered either on promises that it would energise the economy or on reducing immigration. Rather, leaving the EU probably made the cost of living crisis worse.”
Tags: Brexit, Cost of living, Crisis, Economy, Energise, EU, Immigration, Leave voters, Promises, Public opinion, Wrong
New York Times (September 7)
“Shares in Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, continued to tumble on Thursday” amid reports of a China “ban on iPhones for government workers.” Apple looks poised “to lose $200 billion of market value, with shares falling about 6 percent over two days to roughly $175.” Ultimately, however, “the ripples will be felt more broadly: If one of the most successful operators in the world’s second-largest economy is at risk, can any Western company thrive there?”
Tags: $200 billion, Apple, Ban, China, Economy, Government workers, iPhones, Market value, Ripples, Risk, Shares, Successful, Thrive, Tumble, Valuable, Western company
Wall Street Journal (September 6)
Vladimir Putin’s meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un “underscores the global nature of the threat to U.S. interests.” Indeed, the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to Kyiv this spring was partly “because America’s allies in Asia understand that Ukraine isn’t a distant squabble. Russia has its own Pacific ambitions, including militarizing the Kuril Islands, some of which Japan also claims. A Russia that prevails in Ukraine will provoke elsewhere. Mr. Putin is also the junior partner to the neighborhood’s No. 1 threat: The Chinese Communist Party.”
Tags: Allies, Asia, CCP, Global nature, Japan, Kim, Kuril Islands, Kyiv, North Korea, Pacific ambitions, Prime minister, Provoke, Putin, Russia, Threat, U.S. interests, Ukraine
Institutional Investor (September 5)
“Hard landing? Soft landing? No recession after all? As economic news that’s far rosier than most analysts expected to see this summer keeps coming in, a growing number of pundits are now openly wondering if the ‘severe downturn’ long predicted to strike by late 2023 may turn out to be milder (and later in coming) than even the cheeriest of them had recently envisioned.”
Tags: 2023, Analysts, Envisioned, Hard landing, Later, Milder, Predicted, Pundits, Recession, Rosier, Severe downturn, Soft landing
The Guardian (September 4)
“With the population expected to decline dramatically in the coming decades–leaving a gaping hole in the workforce–Japan is quietly easing restrictions and accepting record numbers of migrants, mostly from Asian countries such as Vietnam, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.” Recent data shows “a jump in overseas-born residents, to an all-time high of around 3 million, almost 50% up on a decade ago.”
Tags: China, Decline, Dramatically, Easing, Indonesia, Japan, Migrants, Philippines, Population, Record numbers, Restrictions, Vietnam, Workforce
Investment & Pensions Europe (September Edition)
“Continental Europe appears to have largely escaped the trend known in the US as the ‘Great Retirement Boom’, where an economically comfortable cohort of 50 to 64-year-olds has retreated from work in the post-COVID period.” In contrast, labour market participation in the EU is increasing among the over-55s and “the EU expects the proportion of economically active over-55s to continue increasing, reaching around 72% by 2040.”
Tags: 2040, Cohort, Comfortable, Economically active, EU, Europe, Great Retirement Boom, Labour market participation, Over-55s, Post-Covid, Trend, U.S., Work
Financial Times (September 1)
“The US labour market cooled in August, raising hopes that the Federal Reserve is successfully orchestrating a soft landing for the world’s largest economy. Investors hailed a possible Goldilocks scenario in which inflation comes under control without causing a recession, as Friday’s figures revealed an uptick in the unemployment rate, subdued jobs growth and wage rises back at pre-Covid rates.”
Tags: August, Cooled, Fed, Goldilocks scenario, Hopes, Inflation, Investors, Jobs growth, Recession, Soft landing, U.S., Unemployment, Wage rises
Bloomberg (September 1)
“That jump in the unemployment rate was not a reflection of companies firing workers in anticipation of a slowdown.” A “very large 700,000 increase” in job seekers “caused the labor force participation rate to jump to 62.8%, the highest since before the pandemic.”
Tags: 62.8%, Companies, Firing, Highest, Job seekers, Jump, Labor force, Pandemic, Participation rate, Slowdown, Unemployment rate, Workers
New York Times (September 1)
“The narrative about China has changed with stunning speed, from unstoppable juggernaut to pitiful, helpless giant.” This isn’t solely, however, the result of a recent turn of events. “China’s economic problems have been building for a long time.” The outlook for the next few years seems bleak, but China remains “a bona fide superpower, with enormous capacity to get its act together. Sooner or later it will probably get past the prejudices that are undermining its policy response.”
Tags: China, Economic problems, Helpless, Narrative, Outlook, Pitiful, Policy response, Superpower, Unstoppable juggernaut
