Euromoney (November 29)
“The travails of Zhongzhi, a key player in China’s poorly regulated $3 trillion shadow financing market, underline why a future crisis in the country is more likely, not less.” The government “continues to let problems mount perilously before stepping in… and to kick cans down roads in the hope that unsteady local banks will resolve bad-debt woes or find their own way out of insolvency…. Eventually, one of these financial mini-crises will mutate into a real monster. One that it cannot control.”
Tags: $3 trillion, Bad-debt woes, Banks, China, Control, Crisis, Government, https://www.euromoney.com/article/2cile3c8qd50c9ovnnrwg/opinion/zhongzhi-shows-chinas-fear-of-losing-control Travails, Insolvency, Perilously, Poorly regulated, Shadow financing, Zhongzhi
Reuters (November 24)
“The German government is working hard to demonstrate the foolishness of the country’s iron-clad ban on large budget deficits.” Though it is suspending the “debt brake” for 2023, “the welcome relief is only temporary, and the harm is done. The budget crisis will cripple the economy for years to come.”
Tags: 2023, Ban, Budget deficits, Cripple, Crisis, Debt brake, Economy, Foolishness, German, Government, Harm, Iron-clad, Relief, Suspending, Temporary
Financial Times (November 23)
“China’s repeated attempts to tackle its worsening property crisis resemble firework displays — full of light and sound, quickly extinguished. Property stock prices have burst upwards with each new set of government measures to boost the market, only to collapse shortly thereafter. This week’s rally should not differ.”
Tags: Attempts, Boost, Burst, China, Collapse, Crisis, Extinguished, Fireworks, Government, Market, Property, Stock prices, Tackle, Worsening
Financial Times (September 28)
“Another tediously pointless, economically debilitating and teeth-gratingly stupid US government shutdown is looming. Goldman Sachs now reckons that there is now a 90 per cent chance it starts this Sunday.”
Tags: 90%, Debilitating, Goldman Sachs, Government, Looming, Pointless, Shutdown, Stupid, Sunday, U.S.
Irish Times (September 10)
Some are hoping government stimulus will jumpstart the Chinese economy. “The more likely scenario is continued weak growth.” What remains to be seen is “is how quickly the government will shift away from stimulus measures to a faster fundamental overhaul of its growth strategy.” China needs to tackle “more persistent and structural growth challenges,” which have resulted from “an economic strategy that has historically over-relied on real estate, high local debt, inefficient state-owned enterprises, lower-end manufacturing, and domestic consumer internet platforms.”
Tags: Challenges, China, Economy, Government, Growth strategy, Inefficient, Jumpstart, Manufacturing, Overhaul, Persistent, Real estate, State-owned enterprises, Stimulus, Structural, Weak
The Economist (August 24)
“Whatever has gone wrong? After China rejoined the world economy in 1978, it became the most spectacular growth story in history…. Yet instead of roaring back after the government abandoned its ‘zero-covid’ policy at the end of 2022, it is lurching from one ditch to the next.” It is unlikely to be fixed soon because “an increasingly autocratic government is making bad decisions.”
Tags: 1978, 2022, Autocratic, Bad decisions, China, Fixed, Government, Growth story, Lurching, Rejoined, Spectacular, World economy, Wrong, Zero-Covid
Investment Week (June 28)
“Confidence in the UK meeting its legally-binding decarbonisation targets from 2030 onwards has fallen ‘markedly’, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has today warned in a landmark report that delivers a damning verdict on the paucity of new climate action from the government over the past 12 months.” The report concludes “the government now faces a huge uphill challenge to attract the necessary green investment and get decarbonisation progress back on track this decade so as to ensure legally binding emissions targets are met.”
Tags: 2030, CCC, Climate action, Confidence, Decarbonisation, Emissions targets, Government, Green investment, Legally-binding, UK, Uphill
American Banker (June 22)
“Companies and government agencies have been added in recent days to the list of institutions victimized by a supply chain cyberattack by a ransomware gang that exploited a weakness in file transfer software popular with enterprises.” Cl0p, a ransomware gang, “started exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Progress Software’s product MoveIt to steal data from at least 91 organizations, including state and federal agencies and at least 10 U.S. banks and credit unions. Data compromised in the leaks included names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and more.”
Tags: Banks, Companies, Compromised, Credit unions, Cyberattack, FTP, Government, Institutions, MoveIt, Ransomware, Supply chain, U.S., Victimized, Weakness, Zero-day vulnerability
New York Times (January 16)
“Intent on reversing America’s decline in the world’s production of cutting-edge semiconductors, the federal government has begun what is arguably the government’s largest foray into the private sector since World War II.” This “more muscular approach to industrial policy” is “pockmarked with risks. On balance, the record of government trying to improve the functioning of the private sector is poor, and particularly in complex sectors like semiconductors, the challenges are great.”
Tags: Complex, Cutting edge, Decline, Government, Industrial policy, Intent, Private-sector, Production, Reversing, Risks, Semiconductors, U.S., WWII
Reuters (December 22)
Despite official government figures citing just 1,800 Covid cases and only seven resulting deaths last week, more realistic estimates place the true figures at over one million daily infections, with “more than 5,000 people … dying each day from COVID-19 in China.”
Tags: Cases, China, COVID-19, Deaths, Estimates, Figures, Government, Infections, Official, One million, Realistic
