New York Times (October 26)
Under Donald Trump, a “casino… now passes for the American economy.” Distinguished by froth, Trump’s “casino economy” is “built on speculation and risk. Across markets and policy, wagers on the future are being made with other people’s money at a cost that could prove catastrophic.” While it’s true that “economies run on risk, growth and ambition…. There’s risk, and then there’s reckless gambling.”
Tags: Ambition, Casino, Casino economy, Catastrophic, Cost, Froth, Future, Gambling, Growth, Money, Reckless, Risk, Speculation, Trump, U.S.
Reuters (October 22)
“Sanae Takaichi wants to spend a lot of money on Japan, but she also needs to sort out some hefty financial obligations to the United States.” She is coming under immediate “pressure to secure backing for $550 billion her predecessor Shigeru Ishiba pledged to invest in U.S. projects as part of his tariff deal with the White House.” Given the new Prime Minister’s “desire to use fiscal spending to boost growth, she’s likely to lean on” private, rather than public, funding “to avoid immediate budgetary constraints.”
Tags: $550 billion, Financial obligations, Fiscal spending, Funding, Growth, Invest, Ishiba, Japan, Money, Pressure, Prime minister, Private, Public, Takaichi, Tariff deal, U.S.
The Economist (October 2)
Donald Trump has remade, rather than destroyed, American financial diplomacy. He has refashioned it “in his image. It is now nakedly self-interested. Money flows to ideological allies, to leaders who control something he covets and to countries he hopes to lure away from China. In the long run, spending on these goals may outpace what was once allocated to poverty alleviation.”
Tags: China, Control, Covets, Destroyed, Financial diplomacy, Ideological allies, Leaders, Lure, Money, Outpace, Poverty alleviation, Remade, Self-interested, Spending, Trump, U.S.
Minnesota Star Tribune (May 21)
“The world changed” in 2020 when “a police officer murdered George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner.” Corporations put money and muscle into doing things better. In 2025, however, “a national backlash has slammed the brakes on investments aimed at improving deep-seated socioeconomic disparities…. President Donald Trump issued executive orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the public and private sectors.” U.S. corporations fell in line “by stepping back their public-facing efforts.”
Tags: Backlash, Banning, Corporations, Deep-seated, DEI, Executive orders, Floyd, Investments, Minneapolis, Money, Murdered, Police, Socioeconomic disparities, Trump, U.S.
Institutional Investor (March 27)
Private equity funds just have too much money: They are struggling to find potentially profitable investments, can’t sell companies they already own, and are being pressured by exasperated limited partners.” The buyout industry holds “$1.2 trillion in unspent capital… and 24 percent of that total has been held for four years or longer.” Buyout funds are simultaneously “having trouble selling the companies they already own,” with fully “$3.6 trillion of unrealized value in some 29,000 unsold companies in the funds’ portfolios.” The massive overhang “is leading investors to slam shut their pocketbooks to new funds.”
Tags: Buyout industry, Exasperated, Investors, Money, Overhang, Partners, Portfolios, Pressured, Private equity, Profitable investments, Struggling, Unrealized value, Unsold companies, Unspent capital
Fortune (February 11)
President Donald Trump’s “penny proposal” misses the “real villains:” nickels. Trump has “directed the Treasury to kill pennies, which have lost the U.S. Mint money for decades, as every penny costs 3.7 cents to produce. Nickels are even more wasteful, though, costing 13 cents each to produce, and eliminating pennies could push up demand for five-cent pieces.”
Tags: Demand, Eliminating, MINT, Money, Nickels, Pennies, Produce, Treasury, Trump, U.S., Villains, Wasteful
New York Times (December 13)
Venture capital (VC) stands at a cross roads as firms adopt opposing paths. The “industry that funds and fosters American innovation” is undergoing “a profound debate” about its future. Some funds are remaining true to the lean, traditional VC model of infusing capital and not much else. Others are adopting a “bigger-is-better” approach in the belief that “even more money is needed to solve society’s thorniest problems with innovation. Small funds, they scoff, can back only small ideas.”
Tags: Bigger-is-better, Capital, Debate, Future, Innovation, Lean, Money, Society, Thorniest problems, Traditional, U.S., Venture-capital
Institutional Investor (August 26)
Multistrategy funds “are no longer the hottest thing in hedge funds. Investors fear too much money, and overcrowding of trades could pose systemic risk.” There is now growing interest in “single manager market-neutral funds.”
Tags: Fear, Hedge funds, Hottest, Investors, Market-neutral, Money, Multistrategy funds, Overcrowding, Single manager, Systemic risk, Trades
New York Times (January 20)
“The money flowing out of funds that invest in companies with environmental, social and governance principles has gone from a trickle to a torrent as investors sour on a sector hit by green-washing concerns, red-state boycotts and boardroom debates.” The phrase ESG “has become increasingly politicized” and has even “been scrubbed from the World Economic Forum’s official program in Davos, Switzerland, after being on the agenda in previous years.”
Tags: Boardroom debates, Boycotts, Davos, ESG, Funds, Green-washing, Invest, Investors, Money, Outflows, Politicized, Red state, Scrubbed, Sour, Torrent
Wall Street Journal (September 24)
“America’s billionaires love Japanese stocks. Why don’t the Japanese?” Despite enthusiasm from overseas, “there are few signs its estimated 125 million residents share in the excitement. Burned by dismal returns since the bursting of Japan’s asset bubble in the late 1980s and early 1990s, generations of families here have stashed most of their money in low-yielding savings accounts rather than trying to increase their wealth through the stock market.”
Tags: 1980s, 1990s, Asset bubble, Billionaires, Dismal returns, Enthusiasm, Excitement, Japan, Low-yielding, Money, Overseas, Residents, Savings accounts, Stashed, Stock market, Stocks, U.S.
