West Monroe (September 9)
“Legacy banks are at an inflection point.” Today, banks ”are no longer just competing with each other, but rather a sprawling field of fintechs, embedded finance players, and tech firms—all of which are delivering faster, cheaper, and more intuitive financial services. The field is fragmented, but the pattern is clear: customers now expect their bank to act like a digital platform, not just a financial service provider.”
Tags: Cheaper, Competing, Customers, Digital platform, Embedded finance, Faster, Financial services, Fintechs, Fragmented, Inflection point, Intuitive, Legacy banks, Tech firms
Bloomberg (September 8)
“China’s export growth slowed to the weakest in six months as a slump in shipments to the US deepened again, although a surge in sales to other markets kept Beijing on track for a record trade surplus of over $1.2 trillion this year.” The figures ‘add to the picture of fracturing global trade flows after President Donald Trump’s tariffs of 55% on Chinese exports…. By steering exports to markets outside… China has racked up a trade surplus of just over $785 billion in the first eight months of the year, almost a third more than during the same period of 2024.”
Tags: $1.2 trillion, Beijing, China, Export growth, Fracturing, Global trade flows, Shipments, Surge, Tariffs, Trade surplus, Trump, U.S., Weakest
New York Times (September 6)
“When the federal government last month reported a sharp decline in the nation’s hiring, President Trump dismissed the numbers, claiming without evidence that they were “rigged,” and then ousted the official responsible for producing them.” This month’s jobs report was even worse, confirming “the reality that Mr. Trump has been trying to avoid. The labor market is stalling—and the nation is facing real strains—under the weight of his economic agenda.” His administration will try to deflect, but “the numbers mostly reflect what Americans already know.” Consumer sentiment has weakened in anticipation of tariff-linked inflation while “surveys show that workers are worried about holding onto their jobs and pessimistic about their chances of finding a different one.”
Tags: Consumer sentiment, Federal government, Hiring, Inflation, Jobs report, Labor market, Rigged, Sharp decline, Stalling, Strains, Tariffs, Trump, Weakened, Workers, Worried
The Economist (September 6)
“Insurgents who want to smash the system often end up running it.” Europe’s hard right is a threat to the economy and leading or polling strong in Britain, France and Germany. “In Italy they are in power; in the Netherlands they briefly led a coalition; and in Poland in June their presidential candidate saw off the nominee from the centre. By 2027 the hard right could be in office in economies worth getting on for half of European GDP.” The best case scenario is ” stagnation, at worst a bond-market rout.”
Tags: Bond-market rout, Britain, Economy, Europe, European GDP, France, Germany, Hard right, Insurgents, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Polling, Power, Smash, Stagnation, Threat
Investment Week (September 5)
The bad news in the UK is that the majority of “firms (55%) are holding off on investment decisions until after the Autumn Budget—set for 26th November.” The good news is that 43% of those businesses “are expecting to increase investment as a result.” The Barclays’ Business Prosperity index expects investment “to grow by 5.5% over the next 12 months, with 89% of businesses remaining confident in their own prosperity.”
Tags: Autumn Budget, Barclays, Business Prosperity index, Businesses, Confident, Firms, Grow, Holding off, Increase, Investment decisions, Prosperity, UK
Reuters (September 4)
“China’s automotive industry must seem like an unstoppable force to outsiders.” Nevertheless, “scores of their carmakers are heading for a crash.” They remain challenged by “a vicious price war that has lasted more than two years,” with Chinese policymakers expect an “involution” or “frantic, self-destructive struggle.” Government officials are struggling to bring the price war to an end, but their measures have not addressed overcapacity. Sales of passenger vehicles stood at 27.6 million in 2024, while “production capacity hit 55.6 million units, more than 50% higher than a decade ago.”
Tags: Automotive industry, Carmakers, China, Frantic, Government, Involution, Officials, Overcapacity, Passenger vehicles, Policymakers, Price war, Production, Self-destructive, Struggle
Fortune (September 3)
“As traders head into the final leg of 2025 they are not doing so with overconfidence. In fact, if this week’s bond market is anything to go by, they’re nervous.” Safe haven gold has hit record highs and a “global bond selloff” is creating concern over national debt. “The upset isn’t confined to America alone. In Europe, French government bonds…similarly spiked toward a 5% yield and sit at 4.49% at the time of writing, marking its highest run since 2009.” Arguably, the U.K. is getting hit hardest, “with 30-year gilts pushing above 5.7%, their highest level since the spring of 1998.”
Tags: 2025, Bond market, France, Gilts, Global bond selloff, Gold, National debt, Nervous, Overconfidence, Record highs, Safe haven, Traders, U.K., U.S.
Washington Post (September 2)
The “slow and deliberate” legal system is mismatched for the technology industry. “Google’s market position looked impregnable” in 2020 when the Justice Department filed suit against the tech giant. “Without decisive government action, many feared a natural tendency toward monopoly.” Five years later when U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta rendered his opinion, “Google was already facing the first real threat to its power since… the early 2000s.” As people increasingly redirect their queries from search engines to artificial intelligence chatbots, Google “is no longer the only real player in the ‘finding out stuff on the internet’ business.” It now “has many rivals.” This means the court is “cracking down on a search monopoly that might be in the middle of cracking up due to the natural processes of creative destruction.” To his credit, “Mehta’s opinion recognizes that reshaping a market that’s already being reshaped is a formidable challenge. His decision is somewhat restrained, rather than the sweeping meddling the plaintiffs sought.”
Wall Street Journal (September 1)
“America is becoming a nation of economic pessimists.” A recent Wall Street Journal-NORC poll found that “the share of people who say they have a good chance of improving their standard of living fell to 25%, a record low in surveys dating to 1987.” Over three-quarters of respondents lacked “confidence that life for the next generation will be better than their own.” Over two-thirds “believe the American dream—that if you work hard, you will get ahead—no longer holds true or never did, the highest level in nearly 15 years of surveys.”
Tags: 1987, American dream, Confidence, Economic pessimists, Next-generation, NORC, Poll, Record low, Respondents, Standard of living, U.S.
Wired (August 30)
“A major driver of Antarctica’s cascading crises is the loss of floating sea ice, which forms during winter.” Since 2014, “the coverage of sea ice has fallen not just precipitously, but almost unbelievably, contracting by 75 miles closer to the coast.” Over the past decade, winter sea ice “has declined 4.4 times faster around Antarctica than it has in the Arctic…. Put another way: The loss of winter sea ice in Antarctica over just the past decade is similar to what the Arctic has lost over the last 46 years.”
Tags: 2014, 46 years, 75 miles, Antarctica, Arctic, Cascading, Coast, Contracting, Coverage, Crises, Decade, Driver, Loss, Precipitously, Sea ice, Winter
