The Guardian (June 11)
“Since the historic Nato summit in The Hague one year ago this month, European leaders have pledged massive increases in defence spending in the face of increasingly acute threats of Russian aggression. Yet the reality is that key west European governments – especially the UK, France and Italy – are not putting their money where their mouth is for fear of undermining lenders’ confidence in their national debt.”
Tags: Assistance, Bitter, Conflict, Europe, Grim, Incalculable, Invasion, Milestone, Perished, Prove, Putin, Russia, Success, Suffering, U.S., Ukraine, Waver, WWI
Bloomberg (May 21)
“The euro area will slow markedly while suffering the fastest inflation since 2023 as it succumbs to the energy-cost surge from the Iran war.” The European Commission issued new EU forecasts predicting that “output will rise 0.9% this year, notably below the 1.4% expansion last year, and 0.3 percentage points lower than expected in November. For 2027, it revised its outlook down to 1.2%.”
Tags: 2023, 2027, Energy-cost surge, EU, European Commission issued, Forecasts, Inflation, Iran war, Markedly, Output, Slow, Succumbs, Suffering
The Telegraph (July 1)
“Twenty-six years ago today, Hong Kong was handed over to China on a promise…. Beijing made the commitment, under an international treaty, to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms, the rule of law, human rights, way of life and autonomy.” China has effectively “ripped up its promises. If there is one lesson from the city’s suffering, it is that China cannot be trusted on any commitments it makes to the West.”
Tags: Autonomy, Beijing, China, Commitment, Commitments, Freedoms, Hong Kong, Human rights, International treaty, Promise, Rule of law, Suffering, Trusted
Institutional Investor (December 6)
“Hedge funds have outperformed public markets but are now suffering from redemptions as investors find they are overweight alternatives.”
Tags: Alternatives, Hedge funds, Investors, Outperformed, Overweight, Public markets, Redemptions, Suffering
Forbes (August 24)
“Europe’s worst drought and heatwave in half a millennium is also a disaster in the realm of energy.” Though unspeakable suffering has followed in its wake, “it is the drought, especially the drying of European rivers, which should worry everyone the most…. Rivers are Europe’s economic and transportation backbone, and their drying will drive up energy and commodity prices” and stifle logistics and energy production. “Rivers form an invisible but vital infrastructure to every part of the European economy, and energy is no exception.”
Tags: Backbone, Commodity prices, Disaster, Drought, Drying, Energy, Europe, Heatwave, Logistics, Millennium, Rivers, Suffering, Transportation, Worst
Barron’s (July 24)
“China’s property slump and suffering economy is leading some to wonder if China could be on the brink of its own Lehman-style crisis. While the troubles facing China’s economy are substantial, it’s unlikely to push China into the type of meltdown that sends the country’s financial system into a tailspin.”
Tags: China, Crisis, Economy, Financial system, Lehman-style, Meltdown, Property, Slump, Suffering, Tailspin, Troubles
Mercury News (February 17)
“Despite an unprecedented 2.4 million jobs lost in the spring, Californians joined fellow Americans in paying down interest-heavy debt such as credit card bills while acquiring wealth-building loans by taking out mortgages…. But looks can be deceiving.” Aggregate figures can obscure real suffering. “Millions of Californians suffering job losses have accumulated crippling debt that goes uncounted in national measures: unpaid rent, utility bills, borrowed money from loved ones and, in some cases, predatory loans.”
Tags: California, Credit card, Debt, Interest, Jobs, Loans, Mortgages, Predatory, Rent, Suffering, U.S., Uncounted, Unprecedented, Utility bills, Wealth-building
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (February 16)
“Once again, Texans are suffering because of a failure of disaster planning and investment to prepare for the worst. First, it was the pandemic…. This time, it’s an unprecedented — but, importantly, not unpredictable — stretch of cold weather and storms blanketing the entire state.” The resulting power outages could have been prevented. “There must be accountability. People must be fired. Companies must be fined and required to do better. Winterization of power plants must be a priority.”
Tags: Accountability, Cold, Disaster planning, Failure, Fined, Fired, Investment, Pandemic, Power outages, Prepare, Storms, Suffering, Texans, Unprecedented, Weather, Winterization
Wall Street Journal (August 13)
“The U.K. recorded a steeper second-quarter contraction than its peers, suffering the worst economic hit from the coronavirus in Europe as well as reporting the highest death toll there.” Great Britain’s GDP “shrank 20.4% in the second quarter, equivalent to an annualized rate of 59.8%,…. In the same period, U.S. and German output declined by around 10%, while Italy lost 12%, France 14% and Spain 19%.”
Tags: Contraction, Coronavirus, Death toll, Economic hit, Europe, France, GDP, Germany, Italy, Output, Peers, Suffering, U.K., U.S.
Financial Times (April 16)
“Sadly, it is quite possible that when we meet again we will be no better placed to face the unequal world in which we live. Yet it need not go that way. A concern with equity in crisis management would lessen suffering in many countries now, and offer new ideas to inspire us to build a less unequal world in the future. Since we are less than half way into the crisis, dare we hope this can still happen?”
