Financial Times (September 1)
“The US labour market cooled in August, raising hopes that the Federal Reserve is successfully orchestrating a soft landing for the world’s largest economy. Investors hailed a possible Goldilocks scenario in which inflation comes under control without causing a recession, as Friday’s figures revealed an uptick in the unemployment rate, subdued jobs growth and wage rises back at pre-Covid rates.”
Tags: August, Cooled, Fed, Goldilocks scenario, Hopes, Inflation, Investors, Jobs growth, Recession, Soft landing, U.S., Unemployment, Wage rises
Marketplace (August 31)
“After more than half a century in which the United States boasted a near-lock on being the world’s leading exporter of corn, the distinction has shifted to Brazil…. The reordering of the corn hierarchy follows a similar erosion of U.S. dominance in exports of other staple commodities, like wheat and soybeans, over the last decade or so.”
Tags: Brazil, Corn, Dominance, Erosion, Exporter, Exports, Hierarchy, Reordering, Soybeans, Staple commodities, U.S., Wheat, World’s leading
Council on Foreign Relations (August 25)
“American homeowners already coping with extreme weather now face a new risk: disappearing property insurance. Private companies have increasingly reduced coverage, concluding that the risks—and potential losses—threatened by climate change outweigh probable profits. As of now, this primarily affects a handful of coastal U.S. states, including California. In other states, insurers have substantially increased the price of property insurance.”
Tags: California, Climate change, Coastal, Coverage, Extreme weather, Homeowners, Potential losses, Private companies, Profits, Property insurance, Risks, U.S.
Reuters (August 23)
“Office owners’ valuations are in the basement. U.S.-listed landlords like $20 billion Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE.N), $10 billion Boston Properties as well as France’s 7 billion euro Gecina recently traded at half the forward earnings multiples they enjoyed before the virus emptied offices.” If, however, corporate leaders “are successful in driving the white-collar herds back to the office,” then those “office stocks may come back from the dead.”
Tags: Alexandria, Boston Properties, Come back, Dead, Forward earnings multiples, France, Gecina, Landlords, Office, U.S., Valuations, White collar
Washington Post (August 22)
“As a heat dome promises to smash more records this week across swaths of the Midwest, South and Southeast. The country can expect that extreme heat, which already kills more people than hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined, will only worsen in the coming summers.” Cities can do little “to reduce the intensity of hurricanes” or change the path of tornadoes, but they can intervene to “reduce heat-wave intensity.” Almost “80 percent of the U.S. population lives” in cities where “the urban heat island effect can increase temperatures by 8 degrees.” Measures like requiring “reflective building materials, such as cool roofs;” and “increasing green spaces” can lower “peak temperatures by as much as 2 to 9 degrees Celsius.”
Tags: Cool roofs; Green spaces, Extreme, Floods, Heat dome, Heat wave, Hurricanes, Intensity, Intervene, Records, Reflective building materials, Summers, Temperatures, Tornadoes, U.S., Urban heat island
Wall Street Journal (August 18)
“A fraying electric grid is a nationwide problem,” with estimates suggesting over $700 billion “will need to be spent to replace aging transmission lines and maintain grid reliability” as 60% of “U.S. distribution lines have surpassed their 50-year life expectancy” and the “average age of large power transformers is 40 years, twice their planned life span.” Meanwhile, “grid upgrades to achieve the net-zero promised land” are estimated to “cost another $2.5 trillion by 2050.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, 2050, Aging, Electric grid, Fraying, Grid reliability, Life expectancy, Nationwide problem, Net-zero, Power transformers, Transmission lines, U.S., Upgrades
CNN (August 18)
“The CNN Business Fear & Greed Index, which looks at seven indicators of market sentiment, is showing signs of fear on Friday for the first time since March. That’s a big change from just one month ago, when the index was in ‘extreme greed’ territory.” The culprit? “China’s economy is in trouble” and that “spells bad news for US stocks, and potentially for your portfolio.”
Tags: Big change, China, Culprit, Economy, Extreme greed, Fear & Greed Index, March, Market sentiment, Portfolio, Stocks, Trouble, U.S.
New York Times (August 17)
“The political fight over environmental, social and governance investing continues in corporate America,” though opponents appear to be “making little headway in the boardroom.” During the first six months of 2023, Morningstar “tracked 43 anti-E.S.G. shareholder proposals,” finding that “on average they received only 7 percent support, compared with more than 30 percent across all proposals.”
Tags: 2023, Anti-E.S.G., Boardroom, Environmental, Governance, Headway, Investing, Morningstar, Political fight, Shareholder proposals, Social, U.S.
New York Times (August 13)
“Across the country, a profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.” The energy transition is further along in other places like Europe, but “the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely.”
Tags: Coal, Economy, Energy transition, Europe, Fossil fuels, Gas, Invisible, Oil, Pace, Planet, Polluting, Profound shift, Richest, Surprising, U.S.
Reuters (August 10)
“The United States may be over the hump on inflation, but consumers aren’t acting like it. Spending is growing at the same pace as last year, and most Americans expect their finances to either stay the same or get worse…. Lingering restraint will stretch the power of price elasticity to its limits.”
Tags: Consumers, Finances, Growing, Hump, Inflation, Limits, Lingering, Pace, Price elasticity, Restraint, Spending, Stretch, U.S., Worse
