Washington Post (September 29)
“Climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes. An unprecedented number of storms rated Category 4 or stronger have lashed the U.S. shoreline in recent years.” Factors include “the warming waters…that give hurricanes more energy to release through crushing winds and pounding waves.” Moreover, climate change may be slowing the movement of storms, giving them “a greater opportunity to strengthen and destroy as long as day-to-day conditions remain ripe.”
Tags: Category 4, Climate change, Energy, Factors, Fueling, Hurricanes, Shoreline, Storms, Super hurricanes, U.S., Unprecedented, Warming, Waters, Waves, Winds
Wall Street Journal (September 19)
“A few years ago, auto executives weren’t sure there would be enough buyers for plug-in electric models. Now, they worry they can’t build them fast enough, while they intensify a multibillion-dollar rush to accelerate timelines and bring factories online.” In July, EVs and PHEVs accounted for “five of the six fastest-selling vehicles in the U.S,” where EVs have tripled in vehicle share over the past two years as “sales of other types of vehicles have declined.” Waiting lists now exceed a year for new electric models at GM and Ford.
Tags: Accelerate, Auto executives, Buyers, EVs, Factories, Fast enough, Fastest-selling, GM, PHEVs, Rush, Share, Timelines, U.S., Vehicles, Waiting lists
Reuters (September 15)
“A railway hiatus is the last thing America needs.” Fortunately, “the narrowly averted shutdown of U.S. rail services should avoid widespread economic damage.” Even though trucks “carry the majority of freight in U.S. domestic shipments, rail still accounts for about $700 billion worth of annual shipments.”
Tags: $700 billion, Annual shipments, Averted, Domestic shipments, Economic damage, Freight, Rail services, Railway, Shutdown, Trucks, U.S.
Business Insider (September 9)
“For the first time in decades, the western world is preparing for widespread and rolling energy shortages. The US, UK, and EU have all been squeezed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring costs for electricity and fuel, and record-breaking heat waves. While fall is just around the corner, the worst of the energy strain is likely still to come.”
Tags: Costs, Electricity, Energy shortages, EU, Fuel, Heat waves, Invasion, Record breaking, Russia, Soaring, U.S., UK, Ukraine, Western world
Wall Street Journal (September 6)
Numerous states have warned the “Big Three” asset managers (BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street) that their ESG policies appear to run counter to “the sole interest rule, a well-established legal principle. The sole interest rule requires investment fiduciaries to act to maximize financial returns, not to promote social or political objectives.”
Tags: “Big Three”, Asset managers, BlackRock, ESG, Fiduciaries, Financial returns, Investment, Maximize, Political, Social, Sole interest rule, State Street, States, U.S., Vanguard, Warned
Fortune (September 4)
“The Pandemic Housing Boom saw U.S. home prices spike an unprecedented 43% in just over two years. But that’s over now: Spiked mortgage rates have pushed the U.S. housing market into a sharp slowdown that could threaten some of those gains.” Estimates on potential 2023 home price changes range from +2.4% to -15%, with nearly all certain that some regions will decrease.
Tags: 43%, Gains, Home prices, Housing boom, Mortgage rates, Pandemic, Slowdown, Spike, Threaten, U.S., Unprecedented
Bloomberg (August 19)
“The US mortgage industry is seeing its first lenders go out of business after a sudden spike in lending rates, and the wave of failures that’s coming could be the worst since the housing bubble burst about 15 years ago.” Though a “systemic meltdown” is not expected, market watchers still anticipate “a string of bankruptcies broad enough to trigger a spike in layoffs in an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of workers, and potentially an increase in some lending rates.”
Tags: Bankruptcies, Failures, Housing bubble, Industry, Layoffs, Lenders, Market, Mortgage, Rates, Spike, Systemic meltdown, U.S.
Reuters (August 10)
“What a difference a year makes: Consumers have gotten off the couch…. There is evidence that the streaming market has hit a saturation point. Netflix lost 1.3 million American and Canadian customers in the second quarter, where it enjoys the highest average revenue per user.”
Tags: ARPU, Canada, Consumers, Couch, Customers, Difference, Netflix, Q2, Saturation, Streaming market, U.S.
Investing.com (August 9)
“Inflation expectations among consumers in the U.S. have plunged, falling at the fastest rate ever in the history of the New York Federal Reserve’s monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations.” The July survey revealed “consumers expect inflation to rise 6.2% over the next year and 3.2% over the next three years,” down considerably from 6.8% and 3.6% in June’s survey.
Bloomberg (August 7)
“Sky-high US inflation may finally be approaching a peak as global economic growth sputters and oil and other commodity prices plunge. Now the focus is shifting to how fast and far it will retreat.” The tight job market “is probably the biggest reason why inflation may prove more entrenched than the optimists expect.”
Tags: Commodity prices, Entrenched, Global, Growth, Inflation, Job market, Oil, Optimists, Peak, Plunge, Sky-high, Sputters, U.S.
