New York Times (September 8)
“Investors are bracing for more inflation data this week that could persuade the Fed to raise its benchmark lending rate for the first time in three years. That uncertainty is roiling the bond market, just as rising oil and copper prices (more on copper below) threaten to pinch households and businesses.”
Tags: Benchmark, Bond market, Bracing, Copper, Fed, Households, Inflation, Investors, Lending rate, Oil, Pinch, Prices, Raise, Rising, Roiling, Uncertainty
San Francisco Chronicle (August 22)
“This week rising bond yields forced the U.S. Treasury Department into an unusual intervention and raised the specter of higher borrowing costs putting the brakes on consumer spending, the lifeblood of the economy. It also sparked concerns that investors might finally be thinking twice about financing a seemingly endless flow of government borrowing.” The Treasury intervention could fail since it doesn’t address “the deeper forces pushing yields higher: federal debt above $40 trillion, persistent deficits, inflation concerns and heavy borrowing tied to the AI investment boom.”
Tags: $40 trillion, AI investment, Bond yields, Boom, Borrowing costs, Concerns, Consumer spending, Deficits, Economy, Financing, Government, Inflation, Intervention, Investors, Rising, Treasury, U.S., Yields Federal debt
Barron’s (August 20)
“Japan has leapfrogged France and Germany to become the No. 3 destination for cross-border real estate investment after the U.S. and United Kingdom…. The flows are a vote of confidence in a new Japan where prices are rising and wages are rising faster.”
Tags: Confidence, Cross-border, Destination, Flows, France, Germany, Investment, Japan, Leapfrogged, No. 3, Prices, Real estate, Rising, U.S., UK
MarketWatch (December 3)
“The stock market is at record highs. Unemployment is still extremely low at 4.4%. And incomes have been rising faster than prices for the past few years. So why do Americans say they are miserable? It’s no mystery, of course. The answer is relentless inflation” which at 3% annually, hovers ”well above the Fed’s 2% goal.”
Tags: 3%, Incomes, Miserable, Prices, Record highs, Relentless inflation, Rising, Stock market, Unemployment
Foreign Affairs (April 24)
Assuming Peak China has arrived is “both ill advised and premature.” Chinese President Xi Jinping “still believes China is rising, and he is acting accordingly.” He remains determined to achieve his “China Dream” by 2049. In fact, Xi and most Chinese elites “believe it is the United States that is in terminal decline. For them, even if China is slowing down, the power gap between the countries is still narrowing in China’s favor.”
Tags: 2049, Dream, Elites, Ill advised, Narrowing, Peak China, Power gap, Premature, Rising, Slowing down, Terminal decline, U.S., Xi
The Guardian (January 11)
“Global renewable energy capacity grew by the fastest pace recorded in the last 20 years in 2023,” rising 50% to 510 GW and marking “the 22nd year in a row that renewable capacity additions set a new record.” The tremendous growth in 2023 “could put the world within reach of meeting a key climate target,” set at Cop28, “to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.”
Tags: 2023, 2030, 510 GW, Capacity, Climate target, COP28, Fastest, Global, Growth, Record, Renewable energy, Rising
Reuters (October 2)
“Tensions between the West and China are rising, from tit-for-tat trade tariffs to tech rivalry and spying allegations. The ramifications for global markets are significant, with Washington and Beijing’s determination to loosen dependence on each other fraying long-established supply chains. That could help keep inflation and interest rates elevated. Still, there are gains for emerging nations and tech giants on the right side of the power battle.”
Tags: China, Dependence, Emerging nations, Fraying, Global markets, Inflation, Interest rates, Ramifications, Rising, Spying, Supply chains, Tech rivalry, Tensions, Tit-for-tat, Trade tariffs, West
San Francisco Chronical (May 27)
“State Farm, California’s largest property and casualty insurer as of 2021, stopped issuing home, business and casualty insurance policies in the state Saturday, citing wildfire risks and rising construction costs…. The state has suffered increasingly massive and destructive wildfires in recent years, leading to scarcer and more expensive insurance policies in wildfire-prone zones.”
Tags: Business, California, Casualty, Construction costs, Destructive, Home, Insurer, Massive, Policies, Property, Rising, Risks, State Farm, Wildfires
Wall Street Journal (February 16)
“Fresh figures on jobs and prices drove the economy’s surprising vigor this year, joining rising household incomes, consumer resilience and other data that have persuaded investors the Federal Reserve’s battle against inflation is likely to be a longer one than they hoped.” In January, U.S. hiring rose while “unemployment fell to a 53-year low.”
Tags: Consumer resilience, Economy, Fed, Hiring, Household incomes, Inflation, Investors, January, Jobs, Prices, Rising, Surprising, U.S., Vigor
Reuters (December 16)
“The euro zone will soon have to pay for a decade of European Central Bank largesse. Rising interest rates are turning the ECB’s portfolio of bonds acquired since 2014 into a money-losing machine. The question of how those losses are shared could become a major source of tension between member states.”
Tags: 2014, Bonds, ECB, Euro zone, Interest rates, Largesse, Losses, Money-losing, Portfolio, Rising
