USA Today (January 2)
“The post-COVID-19 economy was finally supposed to stop defying gravity and topple into a recession this year.” While “growth is expected to slow… other factors are likely to keep the economy afloat, forecasters say, including near-record home and stock prices, a further easing of inflation to or near the Fed’s 2% goal and the central bank’s tentative plans to cut interest rates more sharply than previously anticipated.”
Tags: Easing, Economy, Fed, Growth, Inflation, Interest, Post-Covid, Rates, Recession, Record, Slow, Stock prices
The Guardian (December 31)
2023 was “the hottest year on record” and may mark “the year humanity put its stamp on Antarctica in ways that will be felt for centuries to come.” The continent “has suffered dramatic shifts that raise serious concerns about its immediate health.” These coincide with “evidence that longer-term transformations linked to the climate crisis have started much sooner” than expected. Beyond “ramifications for local wildlife,” there will be ripple effects “across the globe in ways that are often less well understood.”
Tags: 2023, Antarctica, Climate crisis, Concerns, Evidence, Hottest, Humanity, Ramifications, Record, Shifts, Transformations, Wildlife
Institutional Investor (November 27)
“Retail beef prices hit a record in July, as base demand across all grades, from prime to select, remained ‘incredibly good’…. Cattle supplies are tight and are likely to stay that way for the next few years as drought and high input prices will limit herd expansion.”
Tags: Beef prices, Cattle supplies, Demand, Drought, Grades, Herd expansion, High, Input prices, July, Prime, Record, Retail, Select, Tight
Washington Post (November 3)
“November opened with a slew of heat records from North Africa to East Asia as abnormal warmth swelled over the Eastern Hemisphere. The exceptional warmth is a recurring theme in 2023, which is poised to become the hottest year on record for the planet.”
Tags: 2023, Abnormal warmth, East Asia, Eastern Hemisphere, Exceptional, Heat records, Hottest year, North Africa, November, Record
Bloomberg (September 21)
“The value of the yen has slumped to the lowest on record, as measured against a broad basket of its peers and adjusted for inflation,” the Bank for International Settlements found based on data from 1970 onward. This serves to “underscore the pressure on the Bank of Japan to normalize its ultra-easy monetary regime, which continues to weigh down the nation’s interest rates and weaken the currency. The drop in the so-called real effective exchange rate means Japanese have to pay more for imported goods and services at a time when wage growth is failing to compensate for inflation.”
Tags: BIS, BOJ, Currency, Imports, Inflation adjusted, Interest rates, Japan, Normalize, Pressure, Real effective exchange rate, Record, Slumped, Ultra-easy, Wage growth, Yen
The Guardian (August 21)
“A spate of recent statistics shows that the Chinese economy is faring poorly,” but the most worrying stat “is the one that we can’t see. The youth unemployment rate was suspended from the monthly economic data release, having reached a record 21.3% in June – suggesting not only that July was grimmer, but that improvement is not expected soon.”
Tags: 21.3%, China, Economic data, Economy, Grimmer, July, June, Record, Spate, Statistics, Suspended, Worrying, Youth unemployment rate
Wall Street Journal (July 20)
“With American homeowners “reluctant to sell because they can’t afford to give up the low mortgage rates they have now,” homebuyers are increasingly turning to new construction. Just over a million existing homes were on the market at May 31, a record low. In contrast, “newly built homes accounted for nearly one-third of single-family homes for sale nationwide in May, compared with a historical norm of 10% to 20%.” This marks “another example of how this housing market is behaving like no other.”
Tags: Construction, Existing, Homebuyers, Homeowners, Housing market, Mortgage rates, Newly built, Record, Reluctant, Sell, Single family, U.S.
BBC (July 5)
“The world’s average temperature reached a new high on Monday 3 July, topping 17 degrees Celsius for the first time.” This marks “the highest in any instrumental record dating back to the end of the 19th century.” Scientists attribute the record high to “El Niño and mankind’s ongoing emissions of carbon dioxide.” With El Niño about to enter its hottest phase, “scientists believe that more records will be shattered as the summer goes on and El Niño gains strength.”
Tags: 17 degrees, CO2, El Niño, Emissions, High, Hottest phase, Record, Scientists, Shattered, Strength, Summer, Temperature
Bloomberg (May 12)
“The euro short-term rate, or ESTR, is currently 10.5 basis points below the central bank’s deposit rate, which is at its highest in 15 years. That’s close to the biggest gap on record…. It’s a sign the ECB’s aggressive rate hikes aren’t rippling out to banks and the economy, making it much harder for the central bank to meet its 2% inflation target.”
Tags: Aggressive, Banks, Deposit rate, ECB, Economy, ESTR, euro, Gap, Inflation target, Rate hikes, Record, Rippling out
Fortune (April 24)
“National governments are spending a record amount of money on defense and arms, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a more complicated geopoltical environment push countries to buy more military equipment.” All told, defense spending grew by 3.7% in 2002. Roughly “half of that increase was due to a 640% surge in military spending by Ukraine, as the country quickly expanded its armed forces to defend against the invasion.”
Tags: Arms, Complicated, Defense, Environment, Geopoltical, Governments, Military equipment, Record, Russia, Spending, Ukraine
