Bloomberg (July 26)
“Back-to-back heat waves across the US are straining electricity grids serving millions of households and businesses amid a surge in demand from data centers that require around-the-clock power.” Regional transmission operators (RTOs) are struggling to keep up and it’s no longer clear the RTOs are up to present day challenges. “Emergency alerts have been cascading across grids covering more than half of the 50 US states in recent weeks, including the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), and the Southwest Power Pool, which manage electricity systems from the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains.”
Tags: Businesses, Challenges, Data centers, Demand, Electricity grids, Heat waves, Households, Power, Straining, Struggling, Surge, Transmission operators, U.S.
The Guardian (July 7)
“Fears of a recession have fallen away, with economists saying Australia is set to safely navigate the biggest global oil supply shock in history even as they warn of substandard growth in the year ahead. The de-escalation of the Middle East conflict has been accompanied by a major retreat in global oil prices back to prewar levels, essentially removing the worst-case scenarios.” But pessimism still runs deep amongst households, with consumer confidence at roughly “a 50-year low as many Australians struggle to cope with substantially higher prices after years of above-average inflation.”
Tags: Australia, Consumer confidence, Cope, De-escalation, Economists, Fears, Global oil prices, Households, Inflation, Middle East conflict, Pessimism, Recession, Retreat, Struggle, Supply shock
MarketWatch (May 30)
“Rising gas prices and inflation are causing a majority of U.S. households to fall behind financially… and the longer the situation goes on, the more stress it will place on the economy.” According to Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY Parthenon, the U.S. expansion is supported by a fragile pillar formed by “Three A’s,” namely “Affluent consumers, AI investment and Asset appreciation.” This pillar “masks an important reality. A huge swath of middle-class and lower-income families with little or no savings in stocks have not benefited much from the bull market or the AI boom.”
Tags: Affluent consumers, AI boom, AI investment, Asset appreciation Savings, Bull market, Daco, Economist, Economy, Expansion, Fragile, Gas prices, Households, Inflation, Pillar, Stocks, Stress, Three A’s, U.S.
NBC News (April 15)
“Oil prices have started to slip — but not necessarily for reasons that suggest a return to market normalcy.” According to the IEA, “demand destruction” is resulting from “the acute energy commodity shortages stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.” Oil is now at the “point where it is now so expensive that overseas businesses and households have begun curbing investment and consumption.”
Tags: Acute, Businesses, Closure, Demand destruction, Energy commodity, Expensive, Households, IEA, Investment, Market normalcy, Oil prices, Overseas, Shortages, Slip, Strait of Hormuz
Wall Street Journal (February 19)
Last week, several economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York “found that American households and businesses are bearing nearly 90% of the cost of the Trump tariffs, contrary to Mr. Trump’s claim that foreigners will pay.” This week, a defensive White House tried to fight back and sully the research. “If the tariffs are such an unambiguous economic and political winner, why is the Administration so defensive about them…. Clearly the White House is worried that voters might conclude this research aligns with their own experience.”
Tags: Businesses, Cost, Defensive, Economists, Foreigners, Households, New York Fed, Research, Trump tariffs, U.S., Voters, White House, Worried
Fortune (October 24)
“Some economists have called the “K shaped economy.” Affluent households continue to spend freely on travel, entertainment, and premium goods, keeping service-sector inflation stubborn. Lower- and middle-income consumers, by contrast, are pushing back, trading down, stretching budgets, or delaying purchases altogether.”
Tags: Affluent, Consumers, Economists, Entertainment, Households, Inflation, K shaped economy, Middle-income, Premium goods, Service-sector, Spend, Travel
Market Watch (May 17)
“President Donald Trump’s move to defuse an ugly trade war with China not only sparked a massive stock-market rally but also drove down the chances of a recession — for now.” Though it’s a welcome sign of relief, numerous obstacles remain. Nobody can rest assured. “Ongoing trade wars have not gone away, for one thing. Trump could change his mind or the U.S. could fail to strike more economic-friendly deals with China, after that 90-day pause, and other countries.” Moreover, the uncertainty has “made households and business hesitant to spend, hire and invest. Confidence has plunged in the past few months, and anxiety is unlikely to fade quickly.” U.S. growth remains likely “to taper off sharply this year.”
Tags: 90-day pause, China, Confidence, Deals, Defuse, Hire, Households, Invest, Obstacles, Recession, Relief, Spend, Stock-market rally, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Ugly, Uncertainty
Reuters (March 26)
“Thanks to advances in AI, chips and hardware, the United States and China are now racing to develop humanoid robots that can be deployed in factories, restaurants, hospitals and even households. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently declared that in less than five years, humanoid robots will be widely used in manufacturing.” At the moment, “China has shaky upper hand in battle of the robots” and tremendous motivation to succeed. The country faces a tremendous “labour crunch: in 2021 officials forecasted a shortage of nearly 30 million manufacturing workers by 2025” and this is projected to grow worse as China’s workforce continues to contract.
Tags: AI, Battle, China, Chips, Crunch, Factories, Hardware, Hospitals, Households, Huang, Humanoid, Labour, Manufacturing, Nvidia, Restaurants, Robots, Shortage, U.S.
International Banker (December 18)
If Japan’s Financial Services Agency and the nation’s “asset-management industry work together to establish ‘customer-oriented business operations’, they may succeed in gaining the trust of retail investors, and the financial assets of Japanese households may finally show a visible shift from cash and deposits to securities.” Two decades of failed efforts starting with the Big Bang financial reform suggest “it will take much effort to gain the trust of retail investors, some of whom have experienced disappointing returns in the past. Unless the Japanese financial industry works harder than ever for customers’ interests, the goal of ‘savings to investments’ will turn out to be elusive once again.”
Tags: Asset-management industry, Big bang, Customer-oriented, Disappointing, Elusive, Failed, Financial assets, Financial Reform, FSA, Households, Investments, Japan, Retail investors, Securities, Trust
Financial Times (October 30)
Empty housing poses an increasing threat to both Japan and China. The former already grapples with surplus units while the latter “may already have enough housing to meet its future needs.” Nomura Research Institute has forecast that in Japan, “even as the number of empty units roughly doubles between 2023 and 2038, construction will add more than 8mn new ones.” Due to the rise of single person households, the total number of households will only peak next year. From that point, “the housing surplus will rise more acutely and the downward pressure on property prices strengthen.” The major demographic issue facing China, “may be how to avoid a Japan-style property crisis.”
Tags: China, Construction, Demographic, Downward pressure, Empty, Households, Housing, Japan, NRI, Peak, Property crisis, Surplus, Threat, Units
