The Economist (April 25 Issue)
“Xi Jinping wants a powerful currency. America’s war has helped.” Usage of the yuan is expanding, but the currency remains far from the status of a global reserve currency. “Last month China’s currency accounted for over 8% of global trade finance, according to SWIFT, second (but a distant second) to the dollar, on over 80%.” Nevertheless, the yuan is becoming “a source of comfort for countries and firms disconcerted by America’s haphazard stewardship of the truly powerful dollar.”
Tags: 80, China, Comfort, Countries, Disconcerted, Finance, Firms, Global reserve, Global trade, Haphazard, Powerful currency, Stewardship, Swift, U.S., Xi, Yuan
Washington Post (February 14)
Continuing a trend from 2025, “nearly all of the jobs added to the U.S. economy in recent months have come from one industry: health care.” Since the pandemic, the health care sector has benefitted from changing demographics and “buoyed an otherwise slow labor market.” Over one in six “Americans is now 65 or older, an age group that spends an outsize amount on medical care” and estimates suggest that the number of Americans over 80 will double by 2045.
Tags: 2025, 65%, 80, Demographics, Double, Economy, Health care, Jobs, Labor market, Medical care, Pandemic, Trend, U.S.
Reuters (May 13)
“With scars from a post-Ukraine energy security crisis fresh, oil prices around $80 a barrel, and central banks’ rate hikes reducing the value of long-term businesses like offshore wind, investors have already voted with their feet. Shell’s share price has risen by a third since 2023, while the benchmark FTSE 100 Index only gained 16% during the same period. Morningstar recorded net outflows globally from sustainable investing in the fourth quarter.”
Tags: 80, Barrel, Benchmark, Central banks, Crisis, Energy security, FTSE 100, Investors, Morningstar, Offshore wind, Oil prices, Outflows, Rate hikes, Share price, Shell, Ukraine, Value, Voted
Washington Post (October 26)
“The coronavirus pandemic numbers have been going the wrong direction for more than a month, topping 80,000 newly confirmed infections daily across the country, with hospitalizations rising in more than three dozen states and deaths creeping upward. Now, the United States is barreling toward another inflection point: a holiday season dictated by the calendar and demanded by tradition.”
Tags: 000, 80, Confirmed, Coronavirus, Deaths, Holiday season, Hospitalizations, Infections, Inflection point, Pandemic
