Bloomberg (December 8)
“Foreign investors are storming into Japan’s once-placid government bond market, exposing the world’s second-largest pool of sovereign debt to bouts of volatility sparked by traders thousands of miles away.” Overseas investors are “on course to scoop up more Japanese government bonds this year than in any period since records began in 2005” and currently “account for roughly 65% of monthly cash JGB transactions, up from 12% in 2009.” Welcomed by some, this “increased foreign involvement also raises the risk of a rapid or unruly retreat.”
Tags: 2005, 65%, Bond market, Foreign investors, Japan, JGB transactions, Overseas, Retreat, Risk, Sovereign debt, Traders, Volatility
Bloomberg (May 12)
“Xi Jinping’s decision to stand his ground against Donald Trump could hardly have gone any better for the Chinese leader…. The Trump administration’s retreat from sky-high tariffs wouldn’t have occurred if China hadn’t responded so forcefully, not only with retaliatory duties but also export controls and other steps.”
Tags: China, Decision, Duties, Export controls, Forcefully, Leader, Responded, Retaliatory, Retreat, Sky-high tariffs, Trump, U.S., Xi
New York Times (February 16)
“Fearing Trump, Wall Street sounds a retreat on diversity efforts.” Seemingly everybody is rushing to ensure “they don’t wind up in the cross hairs of the Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion.” Among those scurrying away from DEI are “white-collar investment banks, consultancies, mutual funds and stock exchanges. The latest was Goldman Sachs, which said on Tuesday that it would drop a quota that forced corporate boards of directors to include women and members of minority groups.”
Tags: Consultancies, Corporate boards, Cross hairs, DEI, Directors, Diversity, Equity, Fear, Goldman Sachs, Inclusion, Investment banks, Minority groups, Mutual funds, Quota, Retreat, Stock exchanges, Trump, Wall Street, White collar, Women
Washington Post (February 5)
“Freaked out by the prospect of a plunging stock market, President Donald Trump backed off his plan to slap 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. He covered up his retreat with the assertion that his threat had prodded America’s neighbors into sending resources to combat drug trafficking at its borders — something, it turns out, they were already doing.”
Tags: 25%, Borders, Canada, Drug trafficking, Freaked out, Mexico, Plunging, Retreat, Stock market, Tariffs, Threat, Trump
Wall Street Journal (August 26)
In the “latest retreat by U.S. companies,” IBM is shuttering its R&D operations in China. “Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China have led many multinational companies to reassess their business in China.” IBM once viewed “China as a major growth market,” but its market share has plummeted. Revenue dropped nearly 20% last year when “Beijing pushed Chinese buyers to purchase more from domestic technology suppliers, in a campaign dubbed ‘Delete America.’”
Tags: China, Companies, Geopolitical tensions, Growth, IBM, Market share, Multinational, R&D, Reassess, Retreat, Revenue, Shuttering, Suppliers, Technology, U.S.
Washington Post (May 17)
With May “more than half over,” Russia’s Plan B is clearly “fizzling” with a notable retreat from Kharkiv. Russia “now appears to be aiming to take, at most, the entirety of a single Ukrainian region, Luhansk. And even that might be beyond the capability of Russia’s depleted, poorly led forces.” Instead, “a widening Ukrainian counteroffensive” might succeed in bringing “more of the Russian-held south and east of Ukraine back under the control of its legitimate government.”
Tags: Control, Counteroffensive, Depleted, Fizzling, Government, Kharkiv, Legitimate, Luhansk, May, Plan B, Retreat, Russia, Ukraine
New York Times (August 21)
“The speed and scope of the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has prompted introspection in the West over what went wrong…. China, though, is looking forward. It is ready to step into the void left by the hasty U.S. retreat to seize a golden opportunity.”
Tags: Afghanistan, China, Hasty, Introspection, Opportunity, Retreat, Scope, Speed, Takeover, Taliban, U.S., Void
The Economist (January 30)
“No part of the world matters more to America’s interests than Asia, and no part stands to lose so much from an American retreat.” As he sets about repairing four years of Trump damage, Joe Biden will find many receptive. “None of China’s neighbours wants it to call all the military and economic shots,” but “the trick for President Joe Biden will be to restore faith in America without asking Asian countries to take its side openly against China.”
Tags: Asia, Biden, China, Damage, Economic shots, Interests, Military, Receptive, Repairing, Restore, Retreat, Trump, U.S.
Bloomberg (October 25)
“Thanks partly to the plunging costs of renewable energy… coal is in rapid retreat all over the world.” It is “dying faster than anybody expected” and not just in America’s heartland. “The profitability of coal-fired power is plunging” in Germany and “demand is dying even in Southeast Asia, long seen as a sort of industry firewall.”
Tags: Coal, Costs, Germany, Heartland, Plunging, Profitability, Renewable energy, Retreat, Southeast Asia
Wall Street Journal (October 12)
“President Trump prides himself on one-on-one diplomacy, but too often it results in rash and damaging decisions like his abrupt order Sunday for U.S. troops to retreat from northern Syria. Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now dictating terms to the American President, and the consequences are likely to be felt far beyond Syria and Turkey.”
Tags: Abrupt, Damaging, Decisions, Diplomacy, Erdogan, Pride, Rash, Retreat, Syria, Troops, Trump, Turkey, U.S.
