The Guardian (August 4)
“The Swiss stock market has plunged, the cabinet has held crisis talks and the country’s president, Karin Keller-Sutter, has been accused of mishandling a vital phone call with the White House after Donald Trump hit the country with a shock 39% export tariff.” Roughly one-sixth of Switzerland’s exports go to the U.S. and prior to the phone call “negotiators believed they had secured a 10% tariff on exports.” Instead, Switzerland now confronts “one of the steepest US duties – only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%.”
Tags: 10%, 39%, Cabinet, Crisis talks, Exports, Keller-Sutter, Laos, Myanmar, Negotiators, Phone call, Plunged, Shock, Stock market, Swiss, Tariff, Trump
Bloomberg (April 16)
Investors have learned that “there’s no way to guess what America will do next. With its on-again, off-again tariffs, the US administration has demonstrated a rare and reckless willingness to shock markets.” Given the “radical uncertainty, a financial crisis isn’t out of the question.” It is regrettable “that policymakers need to contemplate a self-inflicted crisis of this kind. But the possibility must be taken seriously. Regulators everywhere should do what they can to be ready.”
Tags: Crisis, Financial Crisis, Investors, Markets, Off-again, On-again, Policymakers, Radical uncertainty, Rare, Reckless, Regrettable, Regulators, Self-inflicted, Shock, Tariffs, U.S.
Financial Times (June 5)
“India’s benchmark Nifty 50 rose 2.3 per cent following a sharp sell-off on Tuesday after a shock election result.” Meanwhile “Japan’s Topix index led losses as it dropped 1.4 per cent, driven lower by a decline in the financial and energy sectors. The yen was the region’s worst-performing currency as it fell 0.6 per cent against the dollar to ¥155.75.”
Tags: Benchmark, Currency, Decline, Election, Energy, Financial, India, Japan, Nifty 50, Sell-off, Shock, Topix, Worst-performing, Yen
New York Times (January 1)
In the years ensuing the appearance of COVID-19, “the big question… was whether America would ever fully recover from that shock. In 2023 we got the answer: yes. Our economy and society have, in fact, healed remarkably well. The big remaining question is when, if ever, the public will be ready to accept the good news.”
Washington Post (July 8)
“The death of Shinzo Abe is a loss to the U.S. and its allies.” The former Prime Minister’s “assassination was a brutal and completely unforeseen end to a life of public service to the people of Japan. The shock of his death will not dissipate quickly. He was a visionary leader, someone who believed his country was capable of taking a central, and responsible, role in international affairs. His loss will be deeply felt in part because he had more contributions to make.”
Tags: Abe, Allies, Assassination, Brutal, Capable, Contributions, Death, International affairs, Japan, Loss, Public service, Responsible, Shock, U.S., Visionary leader
Wall Street Journal (June 16)
The Federal Reserve Board’s 75-point increase “was supposed to signal shock and awe, and it was the Fed’s first move of that magnitude since 1994.” Though the Fed is “front-loading its rate increases,” it does not realize the need to “go all that high to beat inflation.” The current forecast calls for a fed-funds interest rate of only 3.4% by year end. “That means increases will taper off through the rest of the year, and the Fed predicts a peak of only 3.8% in 2023.”
Tags: 1994, 2023, 3.8%, 75-point, Awe, Fed, Forecast, Front-loading, Inflation, Interest rate, Peak, Rate increases, Shock, Signal, Taper
Bloomberg (February 12)
“GameStop is only the most public manifestation of a trend that radically departs from all precedents. Some of the potential consequences are worrying…. The most heavily shorted stocks have been doing well ever since the recovery from the initial shock of the pandemic got under way last March.” This has created “a historic ‘black swan’ disaster for short sellers.”
Tags: Black swan, Consequences, Disaster, GameStop, Historic, Pandemic, Precedents, Recovery, Shock, Shorted stocks, Trend, Worrying
Financial Times (August 15, 2020)
“Forecasters least understand what is going on, and so make their biggest errors, when an economy is hit by a shock that is both novel and large. The coronavirus pandemic is both.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Economy, Errors, Forecasters, Novel, Shock, Understand
Financial Times (March 10)
“At some point the music stops playing for investors.” That happened yesterday. “The initial shock was the cornonavirus outbreak’s impact on the global economy. Then came the blow of an oil price war. Next is escalating financial contagion. Markets are likely to burn until the fuel of high debt levels and aggressive risk taking is extinguished.”
Tags: Cornonavirus, Debt, Economy, Financial contagion, Investors, Markets, Music, Oil price war, Risk-taking, Shock
Bloomberg (March 7)
“A second hit could be coming for China’s economy after its initial shock from the coronavirus…. While China has seen new cases of the virus slow,” growing cases in “the U.S. and Europe…could knock a half percentage point off of China’s gross domestic product for the year as demand for Chinese goods slows.”
