Vox (November 15)
Prime Minister Theresa May “and the EU are desperately trying to avoid a no-deal scenario. After months of stalled negotiations, the two sides finally thought they had reached a breakthrough this week that solved some of the thorniest issues of the divorce, and provided for a transition period so they could work out a future trade deal…. But the latest dramatic resignations reveal the obstacles that May faces in finalizing the withdrawal.”
Tags: Breakthrough, Desperate, EU, May, Negotiations, No-deal, Obstacles, Resignations, Trade deal, Transition, Withdrawal
New York Times (August 9)
The $30 trillion U.S. stock market hogs the attention, but “the larger domestic debt market—at around $41 trillion for the bond market alone—reveals more about our nation’s financial health. And right now, the debt market is broadcasting a dangerous message: Investors, desperate for debt instruments that pay high interest, have been overpaying for riskier and riskier obligations…. with little concern that bonds can be every bit as dangerous to own as stocks.” The mispricing of risk is still rampant and when spreads rise and defaults begin, “trillions of dollars in invested capital could be lost.” Although, we’re not necessarily “on the verge of a recession. But the corporate debt bubble inevitably will play a role in causing it.”
Tags: Bonds, Bubble, Dangerous, Debt market, Desperate, Interest, Investors, Mispricing, Overpaying, Recession, Riskier, Stock market, U.S.
The Guardian (July 17)
“Desperate with hope,” many Brits are “drawn to the crescendo of signals that Brexit can’t and won’t happen, to stories that say the sheer impossibility of leaving the EU gets clearer by the day.” The signals are everywhere. “Fall off the EU cliff and put a third of our just-in-time food supply at risk. No flying to the EU, warns Ryanair, as easyJet moves its new HQ to Austria….car sales are down 10%, credit card debt up 10%, wages are falling behind rising inflation.” Yet even as the UK’s economy “sinks, while the EU’s charges ahead,” there is no guarantee that Brexit will ultimately prove reversible.
Tags: Austria, Brexit, Car sales, Credit cards, Debt, Desperate, EasyJet, Economy, EU, Food supply, Hope, HQ, Ryanair, UK, Wages Inflation
New York Times (May 16)
“The world is led by a child.” Donald Trump is mentally “still a 7-year-old boy who is bouncing around the classroom” and “desperate for the approval of those he admires.” The President is “too incompetent to understand his own incompetence.” This has created a “perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.”
Reuters (May 14)
“Desperate to overcome Japan’s growing shortage of labor, mid-sized companies are planning to buy robots and other equipment to automate a wide range of tasks, including manufacturing, earthmoving and hotel room service…. If the investment ambitions are fulfilled it would show there is a silver lining as Japan tries to cope with a shrinking and rapidly aging population. It could help equipment-makers, lift the country’s low productivity and boost economic growth.”
Tags: Aging, Automate, Desperate, Economic growth, Japan, Labor, Manufacturing, Productivity, Robots, Shortage, Silver lining
The Economist (January 28)
The upcoming White House visit by the UK’s Prime Minister will be “a study in awkwardness: the mother superior dropping in on the Playboy Mansion.” Theresa May is not a natural fan of the Donald. “So why is Mrs May hurrying to Washington? Because Brexit compels Britain’s leaders to show that the country has powerful allies.” She “is desperate to line up a Britain-America trade deal that can be closed as soon as Brexit takes place, probably in 2019.”
Tags: Allies, Awkwardness, Brexit, Desperate, Prime minister, Theresa May, Trade deal, UK, Visit, White House
