Bloomberg (September 28)
“Something a little worrying has happened to the global economy: Trade is slowing down…. Trade has stopped growing as a percentage of output, the way it had in the past. A few years isn’t necessarily enough to establish a trend, but the slowdown in trade is unprecedented in the postwar era.”
Tags: Global economy, Output, Postwar era, Slowdown, Trade, Trend, Unprecedented, Worrying
Washington Post (November 18)
Shinzo Abe reached two difficult, but “justifiable” decisions. He will postpone the tax increase and seek a new mandate. “The prime minister still represents the best available option to those who regard Japan’s recovery as indispensable to the global economy and, by extension, the U.S. economy.” The U.S. should “do more to support Japan’s economic recovery,” beginning with the passage “of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, whose market-opening provisions could spur Japanese farms and businesses to change their uncompetitive ways.”
Tags: Abe, Farms, Global economy, Japan, Justifiable, Mandate, Market opening, Recovery, Tax increase, TPP, U.S., Uncompetitive
Institutional Investor (September 3)
“We have lived for some time in an integrated global economy mirrored by a globalized financial system. This means that the credit cycle and the business cycle have become almost one and the same.”
Financial Times (August 26)
“China’s tottering property market presents one of the greatest threats to the global economy.” The reverberations would be felt around the globe, particularly by nations reliant on natural resource exports. “The size of China’s property boom–and therefore the fallout from any crash–is awe-inspiring. In just two years, 2011 and 2012, China produced more cement than the US did in the entire 20th century.”
Tags: Boom, Cement, China, Crash, Exports, Fallout, Global economy, Natural resources, Property market, Threats, U.S.
Time (January 10, 2014)
“Only a short time ago, the world’s emerging markets, especially the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – were supposed to be the saviors of the global economy…. Now, however, with the opening of 2014, many emerging markets look like they’re the ones that need saving.”
Tags: 2014, Brazil, BRICS, China, Emerging markets, Global economy, India, Russia
Wall Street Journal (October 30)
Al Gore warns a carbon asset bubble “is still growing because most market participants are mistakenly treating carbon risk as an uncertainty, and are thus failing to incorporate it in investment analyses. By overlooking a known material-risk factor, investors are exposing their portfolios to an externality that should be integrated into the capital allocation process.” If we are to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming, many fossil fuel reserves will ultimately end up as stranded carbon assets. “The transition to a low carbon future will revolutionize the global economy and present significant opportunities for superior investment returns. However, investors must also acknowledge that carbon risk is real and growing. Inaction is no longer prudent.”
Tags: Al Gore, Capital, Carbon assets, Carbon risk, Fossil fuel, Global economy, Global warming, Investment, Investors, Material-risk factor, Opportunities, Returns
Wall Street Journal (May 28)
“It used to be said that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” Now, it’s China. “As the reality of slowing growth in China sets in—and with little help on the way from a still-sluggish America and a Europe in euro crisis—economies from South Korea down to New Zealand and Japan over to Thailand are starting to feel the effects. China’s flu is set to become the main preoccupation for policy doctors across the continent.”
Tags: China, Europe, Global economy, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, U.S.
New York Times (December 18)
China’s bubble appears to be bursting “and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.” The biggest is that “a world economy already suffering from the mess in Europe really, really doesn’t need a new epicenter of crisis.”
China’s bubble appears to be bursting “and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.” The biggest is that “a world economy already suffering from the mess in Europe really, really doesn’t need a new epicenter of crisis.”
Tags: Bubble, China, Crisis, Europe, Global economy
Barron’s (August 8)
S&P diverted attention from the real problems facing the global economy. The U.S. debt “is perhaps the least of the clear-and-present problems besetting the world’s economy.” Bigger problems include the soft U.S. economy, the European debt crisis and a growing bubble in China linked to local debt, “which at $1.7 trillion equals 27% of that nation’s 2010 gross domestic product.” As for the U.S. downgrade, “the U.S. government may be the world’s largest debtor, but its liabilities still are the safest assets in the world.”
Tags: Chinese debt, Europe, Global economy, S&P downgrade, U.S. debt
