Reuters (November 16)
“China’s factory output and retail sales grew at their weakest pace in over a year in October, piling pressure on policymakers to revamp the $19 trillion export-driven economy as mounting supply and demand strains threaten to further curtail growth.” Officials may be running out of options to keep “the world’s second-largest economy humming…. even an economy of China’s size can only squeeze so much growth from building more industrial parks, power substations and dams.”
Tags: China, Dams, Demand, Economy, Export-driven, Factory output, Industrial parks, October, Officials, Policymakers, Retail sales, Substations, Supply, Weakest
New York Times (October 6)
“For companies and governments worldwide, defending their digital operations is a constant challenge.” Recent cyberattacks at big British brands demonstrate how they can “upend company operations.” Marks & Spencer, Co-op, and Jaguar Land Rover have all been “severely disrupted by cyberattacks this year, bringing pain to the lives of customers, workers, suppliers and government officials.” In fact, “Jaguar Land Rover hasn’t built a single car” since shutting its systems down on September 1. This has halted “production at its factories in England, as well as sites in Brazil, China, India and Slovakia.”
Tags: Brazil, Challenge, China, Co-op, Companies, Customers, Cyberattacks, Defending, Digital, Governments, Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, Officials, Operations, Suppliers, UK, Upend, Workers
Reuters (September 4)
“China’s automotive industry must seem like an unstoppable force to outsiders.” Nevertheless, “scores of their carmakers are heading for a crash.” They remain challenged by “a vicious price war that has lasted more than two years,” with Chinese policymakers expect an “involution” or “frantic, self-destructive struggle.” Government officials are struggling to bring the price war to an end, but their measures have not addressed overcapacity. Sales of passenger vehicles stood at 27.6 million in 2024, while “production capacity hit 55.6 million units, more than 50% higher than a decade ago.”
Tags: Automotive industry, Carmakers, China, Frantic, Government, Involution, Officials, Overcapacity, Passenger vehicles, Policymakers, Price war, Production, Self-destructive, Struggle
Los Angeles Times (January 9)
“Five people have died, but officials say the death toll is likely to be higher. More than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.”
Tags: Costliest, Damaged, Danger, Death toll, Destroyed, Disaster, Evacuation, L.A., Officials, Residents, Structures, U.S., Wildfire
CNN (October 30)
“The US economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement.” James Bullard, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is among the “economists and officials who told CNN the economy has finally pulled off” a soft landing. “That scenario, in which inflation is tamed without a recession” would mark “an exceptionally rare achievement.”
Tags: Bullard, Economists, Economy, Fed, Historic, Inflation, Officials, Rare, Recession, Remarkable, Soft landing, St. Louis, Tamed, U.S.
Inc. (October 4)
There was “a collective sigh of relief from U.S. business owners and economic officials” with Thursday’s agreement “to send 45,000 striking longshoremen back to work, and reopen nearly 40 East and Gulf Coast ports that had been closed since Tuesday.” The move “allows nearly half of the nation’s imports and exports to begin flowing again, and avoid the serious blow to retailers and industrial companies—and the wider economy—that could have occurred if the walkout had continued.”
Tags: Agreement, Business, East coast, Exports, Imports, Industry, Longshoremen, Officials, Owners, Ports, Relief, Reopen, Retailers, Striking, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (October 31)
“Monetary policy officials are hinting to financial markets that the Federal Reserve will stop raising interest rates—even as the Fed signals that it is too early to declare victory over inflation. Wary investors can only speculate, while market analysts are happy to guess the Fed’s next move.”
Tags: Analysts, Federal Reserve, Financial markets, Hinting, Inflation, Interest rates, Investors, Monetary policy, Officials, Signals, Speculate, Victory, Wary
Bloomberg (October 31)
“Japan’s central bank insists it still wants to cap long-term market rates,” but their “actions suggest officials are losing the stomach for it.” Kazuo Ueda is dismantling “the cumbersome legacy of his predecessor… more rapidly” than expected “when he took the helm of the Bank of Japan.” Nevertheless, BOJ officials are insisting that the “policy is only being tweaked.” This threatens “the credibility of its communications” as “key parts of the BOJ’s entire approach to setting borrowing costs are being removed or watered down.”
Tags: BOJ, Cap, Central bank, Credibility, Cumbersome, Japan, Legacy, Long term, Market rates, Officials, Predecessor, Threatens, Ueda
Washington Post (November 17)
“Republican officials seem to be hoping that their voters will do their dirty work for them and deliver them from Trump — reversing the usual roles of leaders and followers. But it won’t work. The party must put an end to its moral cowardice and finally and frontally confront the cancer within.” These officials must “explain to their voters that Trump is a demagogue who tried to undermine American democracy.”
Tags: Confront, Demagogue, Democracy, Dirty work, Followers, Leaders, Moral cowardice, Officials, Party, Republican, Trump, U.S., Undermine, Voters
San Francisco Chronicle (December 16)
While there have only been 10 omicron cases in Santa Clara, “officials have “found the highly contagious variant in all four of the county’s wastewater treatment facilities, encompassing most of the local population.” The CDC said the new variant now accounts for about 3% of all cases nationwide “with the highest—13%–in the New York-New Jersey area.”
Tags: CDC, Contagious, New Jersey, New York, Officials, Omicron, Santa Clara, Treatment facilities, Variant, Wastewater
