Bloomberg (January 26)
“Oil fell as President Donald Trump imposed his first set of sanctions and tariffs in a move that highlighted risks to the global economy and to trade.” U.S. tariffs and other sanctions have now been imposed on Columbia, and the Trump “administration has also threatened actions on flows of goods from a host of other nations, including Canada and China.” On top of that economic uncertainty, Trump is advocating for “OPEC to bring down prices, potentially raising the pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.”
Tags: Canada, China, Columbia, Global economy, Oil, OPEC, Prices, Risks, Russia, Sanctions, Tariffs, Threat, Trade, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty, War
Financial Times (January 25)
“A small Chinese artificial intelligence lab stunned the world this week by revealing the technical recipe for its cutting-edge model, turning its reclusive leader into a national hero who has defied US attempts to stop China’s high-tech ambitions.” DeepSeek claims to have “used just 2,048 Nvidia H800s and $5.6mn to train a model with 671bn parameters, a fraction of what OpenAI and Google spent to train comparably sized models.” The release of DeepSeek’s R1 model “has Silicon Valley on the defensive, raising doubts “about whether better resourced US AI companies, including Meta and Anthropic, can defend their technical edge.”
Tags: AI, Anthropic, China, Cutting edge, DeepSeek, Defensive, Google, High-tech, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, R1 model, Silicon Valley, Stunned, Technical recipe, U.S.
New York Times (January 19)
“America’s leaders and institutions must remain undeterred. They will need to show courage and resilience in the face of Mr. Trump’s efforts as they continue to play their unique roles in our democracy. Vigilance is everything: If institutions surrender to the fear and coercion — by bending the knee or by rationalizing that the next right actions aren’t worth the fight, stress or risk — they not only embolden future abuses; they are also complicit in undermining their own power and influence.”
Tags: Abuses, Coercion, Complicit, Courage, Democracy, Efforts, Fear, Institutions, Leaders, Power and influence, Resilience, Surrender, Trump, U.S., Undermining, Vigilance
Jalopnik (January 15)
“American automakers have long feared Chinese competition, worrying that cheaper cars built just as well would knock the floor out of a profitable industry. Now, regulators have found a way to protect American brands by outright banning Chinese cars — or automotive hardware or software — used for communications or autonomous driving.”
Tags: Automakers, Autonomous driving, Banning, Brands, Cars, Cheaper, China, Communications, Competition, Hardware, Profitable, Protect, Regulators, Software, U.S.
Foreign Affairs (January 14)
“America’s China strategy is incomplete.” Success will require “a full suite of economic incentives, public-private partnerships, and investment and trade deals to reduce the United States’ and its partners’ reliance on China.” The good news is that U.S. partners are “concerned about Chinese influence themselves” and “eager to work with Washington.” This means Trump’s second term could potentially “supercharge the global shift away from dependence on Chinese supply, bolstering the U.S. economy and enhancing U.S. national security” if he can effectively leverage “economic tools beyond tariffs.”
Tags: China, Eager, Economic incentives, Global shift, Influence, Investment, National security, Public-private partnerships, Reliance, Strategy, Tariffs, Trade deals, U.S.
Market Watch (January 13)
“Last week, a batch of blockbuster U.S. economic data prompted traders to consider the possibility that the Federal Reserve may need to pause interest-rate cuts until summer. As a result, stocks got crushed, with the S&P 500 erasing most of its postelection gains and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its worst start to a year since 2016.”
Tags: 2016, Blockbuster, Crushed, Dow Jones, Economic data, Fed, Gains, Interest rate cuts, Postelection, S&P 500, Stocks, Summer, Traders, U.S.
Financial Times (January 10)
“BlackRock has become the latest financial firm to bail out of a big climate change industry group in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as US president and heightened regulatory scrutiny. The world’s largest money manager told institutional clients in a letter on Thursday that it had quit Net Zero Asset Managers,” which seeks “the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.”
Tags: 2050, BlackRock, Climate change, Election, Financial firm, GHG emissions, Money manager, Net Zero Asset Managers, Regulatory scrutiny, Trump, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (January 9)
“Five people have died, but officials say the death toll is likely to be higher. More than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.”
Tags: Costliest, Damaged, Danger, Death toll, Destroyed, Disaster, Evacuation, L.A., Officials, Residents, Structures, U.S., Wildfire
Bloomberg (January 8)
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dropped his threat to cut off big US banks from municipal-bond deals after a slew of Wall Street firms exited a controversial climate-finance alliance.” Paxton’s approval power over “most public bond offerings” allowed him considerable “influence over which banks can participate in such transactions.” Paxton’s office announced a review in 2023 of financial firms that were “members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which he has repeatedly criticized.”
Tags: A.G., Banks, Climate, Controversial, Exited, Finance, Influence, Municipal-bond deals, Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Paxton, Texas, Transactions, U.S., Wall Street firms
American Banker (January 7)
“JPMorgan Chase bid farewell to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance on Tuesday, making it the last big U.S. bank to leave the climate-banking group ahead of the second Trump administration.” The latest defection “comes on the heels of similar departures last week by three of its peers — Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. In early December, Goldman Sachs became the first large U.S. bank to leave the alliance. Wells Fargo’s exit was reported about two weeks later.”
Tags: Bank, BoA, Citigroup, Climate, Defection, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Trump, U.S., Wells Fargo
