Financial Times (April 9)
“Among the many consequences of the stand-off in the Strait of Hormuz, it seems that we may look back on this as the week in which one of America’s most powerful geopolitical tools was shown to be a weakened stick. Threatening to limit access to the global dollar system now seems less fearsome.” US Treasury sanctions cover the entire country of Iran. “But not only does this not appear to have prevented it from selling oil while at war with the US, it has not seemed to stop it from charging ransom fees to international shipping seeking to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Tags: Consequences, Fearsome, Geopolitical tools, Global dollar system, Iran, Oil, Ransom fees, Sanctions, Stand-off, Strait of Hormuz, Threatening, Treasury, U.S., Weakened
Bloomberg (May 19)
“‘Sell America’ is back as Moody’s pushes 30-year yield to 5%.” Just a week after traders “had to react quickly to weekend news of an improvement in trade relations between the US and China,” they will again have to paddle hard, but this time in the opposite direction. Rising Treasury yields are also expected to “complicate the government’s ability to cut back by running up its interest payments, while also threatening to weaken the economy by forcing up rates on loans such as mortgages and credit cards.”
Tags: 5%, China, Economy, Government, Interest payments, Loans, Moody, Mortgages, Rates, Sell America, Threatening, Traders, Treasury yields, U.S., Weaken
The Economist (April 22)
“Monetary madness” continues in the U.S. as “Trump fires at the Fed.” After Trump took potshots, threatening to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the American economy became “collateral damage…. When markets opened on April 21st, after a long Easter weekend, American stocks, Treasury bonds and the dollar all sharply declined—another example of the ‘sell America’ trade.”
Tags: Collateral damage, Declined, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Fire, Markets, Monetary madness, Potshots, Powell, Sell America, Stocks, Threatening, Treasury bonds, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (February 8 Issue)
“If dealmaking means threatening catastrophe in order to win small gains, then Donald Trump is the master of the art.” Despite the collective sigh of relief when he suspended tariffs on Canada and Mexico in return for “some old promises,” the story is not necessarily over: “Donald Trump could still blow up global trade.” There is a real chance that “ideology, complacent markets and a need for revenue may still lead to big tariffs.”
Tags: Canada, Catastrophe, Complacent, Dealmaking, Global trade, Ideology, Mexico, Promises, Relief, Small gains, Tariffs, Threatening, Trump
Reuters (February 5)
“Prolonged factory deflation is threatening the survival of smaller Chinese exporters who are locked in relentless price wars for shrinking business as higher interest rates abroad and rising trade protectionism squeeze demand.” Fifteen months of falling producer prices have crushed “profit margins to the point where industrial output and jobs are now at risk,” further “compounding China’s economic woes, which include a property crisis and debt crunch.”
Tags: China, Demand, Economic woes, Exporters, Factory deflation, Interest rates, Jobs, Output, Price wars, Producer prices, Profit margins, Prolonged, Property crisis, Relentless, Risk, Survival, Threatening, Trade protectionism
South China Morning Post (January 17)
“China’s population has declined for the first time in six decades, with the national birth rate for 2022 falling to a record low and the nation’s deepening demographic crisis threatening far-reaching implications for economic growth.” The nation’s “overall population plummeted by 850,000 people – to 1.4118 billion in 2022” while “the national birth rate fell to a record low of 6.77 births for every 1,000 people in 2022… marking the lowest rate since records began in 1949.”
Tags: 1949, 2022, Birth rate, China, Declined, Demographic crisis, Economic growth, Far-reaching, Implications, Population, Record low, Threatening
Bangkok Post (September 2)
“Many developing countries are teetering on the edge of a debt crisis, with the Covid-19 pandemic, soaring food and energy costs, and the monetary tightening of major economies all threatening to push them over.” Lebanon, Sri Lanka and some other countries have already teetered. “As of the end of March, 38 of 69 low-income countries were either already in or at high risk of debt distress. Middle-income developing countries’ debt-service burden is at its highest level in 30 years.”
Tags: COVID-19, Debt crisis, Developing countries, Distress, Energy costs, Food, High-risk, Lebanon, Low income, Major economies, Middle-income, Monetary tightening, Pandemic, Soaring, Sri Lanka, Teetering, Threatening
The Guardian (July 7)
“When this nightmare is over – and it is over for Boris Johnson, but not yet for the rest of us – the Conservative party owes this country a grovelling apology. It should hang its head in shame for foisting on us a man so wholly unfit for office that he had to be dragged from it kicking and screaming and threatening to burn everything to the ground.”
Tags: Apology, Conservative, Dragged, Johnson, Kicking, Nightmare, Screaming, Shame, Threatening, Unfit
Chicago Tribune (December 26)
“China is both a customer of the United States and a competitor. Friend but possibly foe. The relationship is complex and unresolved…. It may be China’s destiny to match the United States in wealth and firepower. Those are not reasons to fear China. They are reasons to engage the country today as a partner and challenge Chinese intentions when they appear threatening.”
Tags: Challenge, China, Competitor, Complex, Customer, Engage, Fear, Firepower, Foe, Friend, Threatening, U.S., Unresolved, Wealth
Reuters (June 21)
“An increasingly shrill exchange of words between the United States and China that is threatening to trigger a global trade war has claimed another victim—- Germany’s auto sector.”
Tags: Auto sector, China, Germany, Global trade war, Shrill, Threatening, Trigger, U.S., Victim
