The Week (February 9)
“Climate change has led to a marked decrease in salaries across the country, including in places that haven’t experienced significant temperature changes. The problem is likely not limited to the U.S. and is expected to worsen without intervention.” With risks “expected to increase. The global economy could also be significantly altered and likely already has.”
Tags: Climate change, Decrease, Global economy, Intervention, Risks, Salaries, Temperature changes, U.S., Worsen
Reuters (February 9)
“Sanae Takaichi has curb-stomped the competition. Her Liberal Democratic Party took 316 out of 465 seats…delivering the arch-conservative prime minister her country’s first post-war single-party supermajority.” While “investors may hope the ruling party’s historic comeback relieves pressure to cooperate with a fiscally profligate opposition,” that is unlikely. Her desire to revive “the heavily indebted $4 trillion economy” and return to fiscal stimulus will prove costly. Her “desire for a regular army makes expensive militarisation look more certain.” All of these “stated ambitions” augur “more turmoil for markets.”
Tags: Army, Conservative, Curb-stomped, Economy, Expensive, Fiscal stimulus, Hope, Indebted, Investors, Japan, LDP, Militarisation, Prime minister, Supermajority, Takaichi, Turmoil
Washington Post (February 8)
China’s President Xi Jinping would like the renminbi to become a globally recognized reserve currency. He “seeks to capitalize on the dollar’s value slipping to a four-year low and gold recently hitting an all-time high amid uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, threats to Federal Reserve independence and myriad geopolitical crises.” However, China appears to be “in no position to achieve his vision absent self-sabotage by the United States and free market reforms he is hesitant to undertake.”
Tags: Capitalize, China, Dollar, Fed, Geopolitical crises, Gold, Independence, Renminbi, Reserve currency, Self-sabotage, Tariffs, Threats, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty, Vision, Xi
Wall Street Journal (February 7)
“In a week fraught with dual worries that artificial-intelligence giants are overvalued and that their products could upend entire industries, the blue-chip index on Friday surpassed 50000 for the first time.” The road here was “perilous” and even “rockier” days could follow. “An infrastructure buildout of epic proportions is underway. The exuberance is drowning out concerns—even among top Wall Street executives—that a significant correction is due.”
Tags: 50000, AI giants, Blue-chip index, Buildout, Correction, Dual worries, Epic, Exuberance, Fraught, Industries, Infrastructure, Overvalued, Perilous, Products, Rockier
Fortune (February 6)
“The amount companies are spending on AI infrastructure now rivals that of some of the largest economies in the world and is comparable to the annual GDP of countries like Sweden and Israel.” Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft combined are expected to allocate “more than a staggering $630 billion” to CAPEX in 2026 for “such big-ticket infrastructure items as data centers, servers, and power systems that fuel the AI build-out race.”
Tags: $630 billion, 2026, AI, Alphabet, Amazon, CAPEX, Data centers, GDP, Infrastructure, Israel, Meta, Microsoft, Servers, Staggering, Sweden
USA Today (February 5)
U.S. “employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January, the highest tally for the first month of the year since 2009, according to a report out Feb. 5, and a sign employers may be taking defensive steps against economic uncertainty.”
Tags: 2009, Defensive steps, Economic uncertainty, Employers, January, Job cuts, Sign, Tally, U.S.
New York Times (February 5)
“Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced on Thursday a sweeping plan to offer billions of dollars in incentives and tax breaks for auto industry investment designed to help turn Canada into a global leader in electric vehicles.” Through the new policies, the Prime Minister intends “to transform Canada’s economy and make it less reliant on a single trade partner after President Trump’s economic assaults and threats on Canada’s sovereignty have frayed relations between the two nations.”
Tags: Auto industry, Canada, Carney, Economy, EVs, Global leader, Incentives, Investment, Prime minister, Reliant, Tax breaks, Threats, Trade partner, Trump, U.S.
MarketWatch (February 4)
“Software ate the world. Now, Wall Street is worried AI will eat software. The selloff of business software continues on Wednesday as investors keep selling shares of companies that look like they could be on the menu.”
European Business Magazine (February 2)
“Xi Jinping wants the renminbi to become a global reserve currency to reduce China’s dependence on the US dollar, strengthen financial sovereignty and expand Beijing’s influence over global trade and capital flows. While the currency’s use in trade settlement is growing, capital controls and limited market access remain key barriers to full reserve-currency status.”
Tags: Barriers, Capital controls, Capital flows, China, Currency, Dependence, Dollar, Financial sovereignty, Global trade, Influence, Limited market access, Renminbi, Reserve currency, Trade settlement, U.S., Xi
Bloomberg (February 2)
“The US president’s stance toward the greenback may help Xi Jinping realize his dream of making the yuan a global reserve currency.” At the top of President Xi’s wish “list is a ‘powerful currency’ with global-reserve status that punches its weight in international trade and foreign-exchange markets.” China now looks “well positioned to benefit from any long-term shift away from the dollar.” Despite Trump’s America First bluster, his “disruptive policies may be playing into the hands of rivals like China, who are only too eager to exploit US weakness wherever they see an opening.”
Tags: America first, Disruptive policies, Dollar, Exploit, Forex, Global reserve currency, Greenback, International trade, Powerful, President, U.S., Xi, Yuan
