OilPrice.com (May 24)
De-Dollarization has begun. In China, the majority of cross-border payments had always been in dollars. “In March 2023, the share of the RMB in China’s settlements surpassed the USD for the first time.” In other transactions, the currency’s progress may be masked. For example, “the Bank for International Settlements reveals that, in 2022, the USD remained the most-used currency for FX settlements. The euro and the Japanese yen came in second and third, respectively.” However, “the Chinese renminbi, though accounting for a relatively small share of FX transactions, gained the most ground over the last decade. Meanwhile, the euro and the yen saw decreases in use.”
Tags: BIS, China, Cross-border payments, De-Dollarization, euro, FX, Japan, Renminbi, RMB, Settlements, Transactions, USD, Yen
Washington Post (May 23)
During Q1, “another 2.3 million customers (or 7 percent of the total) cut the cord to traditional cable — the fastest cancel-my-subscription pace ever recorded.” So far cable news has not been greatly impacted, though “the rest of the cable lineup has sagged disastrously…. USA Network, once the most popular cable channel, has lost 75 percent of its nightly audience over 10 years. FX is down 68 percent. History Channel is off by 65 percent.” It probably won’t be long “when an exodus of cable subscribers leaves cable operators unable to afford the hefty license fees that those news programmers now command.”
Tags: Audience, Cable channel, Cable news, Cancel, Cord cutters, Customers, Exodus, FX, History Channel, Impacted, License fees, Q1, Subscribers, Subscription, USA Network
