Bloomberg (April 16)
“China’s economy soared in the first quarter as consumer spending strengthened, joining production and investment in recovering from the Covid slump a year ago.” Year on year, GDP “climbed a record 18.3%,” but that is “skewed by comparisons from a year ago when the economy was in lockdown. A better reading of the economy’s momentum comes from quarter-on-quarter growth, which slowed to 0.6% from 2.6% in the previous three months.”
Tags: China, Consumer spending, Covid, Economy, GDP, Investment, Lockdown, Momentum, Production, Record, Recovering, Skewed, Slump, Strengthened
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (February 16)
“Once again, Texans are suffering because of a failure of disaster planning and investment to prepare for the worst. First, it was the pandemic…. This time, it’s an unprecedented — but, importantly, not unpredictable — stretch of cold weather and storms blanketing the entire state.” The resulting power outages could have been prevented. “There must be accountability. People must be fired. Companies must be fined and required to do better. Winterization of power plants must be a priority.”
Tags: Accountability, Cold, Disaster planning, Failure, Fined, Fired, Investment, Pandemic, Power outages, Prepare, Storms, Suffering, Texans, Unprecedented, Weather, Winterization
New York Times (January 12)
“As America went through a week from hell, with the prospect of fresh hells yet to come, financial markets signaled … growing optimism.” This actually makes sense. Other things that happened, aside from the act of insurrection, like the Georgia win giving Democrats control over the Senate. This makes “a huge difference for economic policy, making it almost certain that we’ll have an additional large relief package, and fairly likely that we’ll get some much needed investment in infrastructure.”
Tags: Control, Democrats, Economic policy, Financial markets, Georgia, Insurrection, Investment, Optimism, Relief package, Senate, Sense, Signaled, U.S.
New York Times (April 28)
“Delaying the Tokyo Games by a year already poses enormous economic, political and logistical challenges, including whether Japan can hope to recoup its $10 billion investment.” Without a vaccine, however, a 2021 “timeline may be optimistic.”
Tags: Challenges, Delay, Economic, Investment, Japan, Logistical, Optimistic, Political, Recoup, Timeline, Tokyo, Vaccine
WARC (January 28)
“Advertiser spend on sports sponsorship is expected to rise 5% this year to reach more than $48bn worldwide–the strongest growth in a decade and ahead of growth projections for all traditional media.” The growth has “been buoyed by record investment ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”
Inc (November Issue)
“The real estate business is finally getting renovated, as a new wave of startups build property-technology platforms that improve or simplify the complicated process of buying, selling, renting, or owning a home…. Since 2013, annual investment in U.S. proptech companies has grown at a rate five times that of investment in all U.S. businesses. In 2019, investment in U.S. proptech is on pace to exceed $10 billion.”
Tags: Buying, Homes, Investment, Owning, Platforms, Proptech, Real estate, Renting, Selling, Startups, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (November 1)
In the U.S., “GDP growth accelerated to 3% for a time along with investment, but then came Mr. Trump’s trade interventions. More than the damage from tariffs, business confidence fell amid the uncertainty of what Mr. Trump might do next. This has led to slower growth that is reflected in roughly 2% GDP growth in the last two quarters…. The strong evidence is that trade policy is the main growth culprit.”
Tags: Business confidence, Culprit, Damage, GDP, Growth, Interventions, Investment, Tariffs, Trade, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty
Financial Times (October 30)
“As the world economy slows and even Germany’s economy shows signs of weakness…. Policymakers in Germany and elsewhere should promote public and private spending—investment, above all. Huge opportunities do seem to exist. Moreover, the chance to borrow at today’s ultra-low long-term interest rates is a blessing, not curse…. In today’s economy, it is the only prudent thing to do.”
Tags: Borrow, Economy, Germany, Investment, Opportunities, Policymakers, Private, Prudent, Public, Slows, Spending, Ultra-low rates. Interest, Weakness
Market Watch (August 24)
“U.S. China tensions over trade policy have reached a boiling point, the only question remaining is whether business executives — and the stock market — can stand the heat…. The further upping of trade barriers, along with Trump’s forceful response, threatens to further erode already sagging business confidence and trigger more weakness in U.S. business investment, which could eventually lead to rising unemployment.”
Tags: Barriers, China, Confidence, Investment, Stock market, Tensions, Trade, Trump, U.S., Unemployment, Weakness
BBC (June 17)
According to the British Chambers of Commerce, “Brexit worries will see business investment contract faster this year and recover more slowly next year” as businesses are focusing on contingency planning and stockpiling, rather than sustainable investment.
