Forbes (July 29)
“As central bank decisions go, the one Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda will make this week may be the toughest in modern history.” He is faced with deciding “whether to break with 25 years of zero interest rates and 23 years of quantitative easing by putting a notable rate hike on the scoreboard…. Making matters worse, smart economists can make nuanced abstractions compelling arguments for taking any of the three doors sitting before him.”
Tags: 25 years, BOJ, Central bank, Decisions, Economists, Quantitative easing, Rate hike, Toughest, Ueda, Zero interest
Wall Street Journal (July 29)
The “post-covid factory boom Is running out of steam,” leaving U.S. manufacturers to rethink “their plans as they brace for an extended slump in demand.” Compounding factors include “higher interest rates, rising operating costs, a strengthening U.S. dollar and lower selling prices for commodities” as more executives forecast “challenging business conditions for the remainder of the year.”
Tags: Commodities, Demand, Dollar, Executives, Extended slump, Factory boom, Interest rates, Manufacturers, Operating costs, Plans, Post-Covid, Rethink, U.S.
Bloomberg (July 28)
“Bond traders who’ve set themselves up for gradual interest-rate cuts starting in September are ramping up side bets in case a sudden slide in the US economy forces the Federal Reserve to be even more aggressive.” A minimum of two quarter-point rate reductions are priced in for the year and “some traders have gone even further with wagers that pay off if central bankers go bold and deliver a half-point cut in mid-September — or start lowering rates sooner.”
Tags: Aggressive, Bond traders, Central bankers, Economy, Fed, Half-point, Interest, Quarter-point, Rate cuts, September, Slide, U.S.
Market Watch (July 26)
“The selloff in U.S. semiconductor and megacap stocks has sucked up most of investors’ attention over the past couple of weeks. But they aren’t the only momentum trades that have stopped working. Across financial markets, bets that had reliably minted profits all year have come undone in July.”
Tags: Bets, Financial markets, Investors, July, Megacap, Momentum trades, Profits, Selloff, Semiconductor, Stocks, U.S., Undone
Washington Post (July 25)
“Companies are reshaping operations to cope with a changing climate” as climate risks also gain more prominence investment calculations. The month of June was the warmest since records began in 1850” so the “global steam bath” helps explain “why investors, regulators and credit-rating agencies are scrutinizing corporate plans for unrecognized climate risks.”
Tags: 1850, Climate risks, Corporate plans, Credit rating agencies, Investment calculations, Investors, June, Records, Regulators, Scrutinizing, Steam bath
Fortune (July 23)
The response of CrowdStrike has been “underwhelming,” symbolized by CEO George Kurtz’s failure to apologize immediately. With a bug that “hit less than 1% of Windows devices,” CrowdStrike “unleashed global chaos” last Friday. The fallout “grounded more than 6% of the world’s commercial flights. It also halted surgeries, broadcasts, money transfers, 911 call centers, train systems, stores, hotel reservations, mobile apps, and some government services. As of yesterday, many were still scrambling to recover.” CrowdStrike’s comeuppance may come as it enters “a risky period,” with its stock hammered “by almost a third” and angry customers reexamining their ties to the cybersecurity company.
Tags: Apologize, Apps, Broadcasts, Bug, CEO, Comeuppance, CrowdStrike, Customers, Cybersecurity, Failure, Flights, Global chaos, Hammered, Hotels, Kurtz, Money transfers, Recover, Response, Stock, Stores, Surgeries, Trains, Underwhelming, Windows
Financial Times (July 23)
“The squirts heard around the world” were fired as “anti-tourism protesters doused visitors to Barcelona with water pistols.” They resonated so broadly because the “backlash against tourism” isn’t confined to Spain. In other countries as well “the mass of pleasure seekers has grown so great that, from Venice and Amsterdam to Lisbon and the Greek island of Santorini, the patience of locals has snapped.”
Tags: Amsterdam, Anti-tourism, Backlash, Barcelona, Lisbon, Locals, Patience, Pleasure seekers, Protesters, Santorini, Snapped, Spain, Venice, Water pistols
Forbes (July 23)
“The planet recorded its hottest day ever Sunday… as an unrelenting string of heat waves continue to topple daily record high temperatures across the U.S.—and more records are expected to fall as heat alerts remain in effect along the West Coast and northern Rocky Mountains.”
Tags: Daily records, Heat alerts, Heat waves, High temperatures, Hottest, Planet, Rocky Mountains, Sunday, Topple, U.S., Unrelenting, West Coast
New York Times (July 22)
“The shock waves from President Biden ending his re-election bid, after weeks of pressure to step aside, are still reverberating around the world…. Biden’s withdrawal opened a flood of Democratic donations, with more than $50 million pouring in on Sunday, in what one strategist said might be ‘the greatest fund-raising moment in Democratic Party history.’”
Tags: 50 million, Biden, Donations, Fund raising, Pressure, Re-election, Reverberating, Shock waves, Strategist, Sunday, Withdrawal
The Atlantic (July 21)
“Crucial systems across the world collapsed on Friday, triggered by one mistake in a single company…. It may end up being the worst information-technology disaster in history. This was not, however, an unforeseeable freak accident, nor will it be the last of its kind” unless we prioritize “decentralized resilience” over “hyperconnected optimization.”
Tags: Collapsed, Crucial, Decentralized resilience, Freak accident, hyperconnected optimization, IT disaster, Mistake, Systems, Triggered, Unforeseeable, Worst
