MarketWatch (May 15)
“A big bounce for stocks on Friday still leaves the main U.S. stock market benchmark close to entering a bear market as investors fret over the Federal Reserve’s ability to get a grip on inflation without sinking the economy stokes fears of stagflation — a pernicious combination of slow economic growth and persistent inflation.”
Washington Post (May 8)
“Why are Americans so gloomy about the economy? Jobs are plentiful and unemployment is back at pre-pandemic lows, yet sentiment is in the dumps.” Inflation is “the obvious answer,” but “a deeper force” better explains “why Americans are so upset: scarcity.” Inventories of homes and cars are at record lows while stockouts at supermarkets are double or triple standard levels. “There is good economic news, but until Americans can easily get ahold of what they want, too many will still feel like they’re not able to get ahead.”
Tags: Cars, Economy, Gloomy, Homes, Inflation, Inventories, Jobs, Obvious, Plentiful, Pre-pandemic, Scarcity, Sentiment, Stockouts, U.S., Unemployment
Reuters (April 28)
“An annualized 1.4% fall in U.S. GDP in the first quarter sounds pretty grim. But the U.S. economy may be taking one step backwards to take two forward.”
Time (April 26)
The CDC found that “almost 60% of the U.S. population—and 75% of U.S. children—have evidence in their blood suggesting a past infection with the virus that causes COVID-19…. By that estimate, most people in the U.S.—almost 200 million—have had COVID-19 as of February. That far exceeds the 80.8 million cases officially tallied by the CDC as of April 26.”
Wall Street Journal (April 26)
“Worries about the war in Ukraine, China’s Covid-19 outbreak, a U.S. or European recession and surging global inflation are making a long-spurned asset increasingly popular with Wall Street’s top money managers these days: cash.” Increasingly asset managers “are looking to move funds into low-risk, cash-like assets. That marks a shift from recent years, when steadily climbing equity indexes trained investors to buy every dip and not miss out on gains by holding cash.”
Tags: Asset, Asset managers, Cash, China, COVID-19, Dip, Europe, Inflation, Investors, Low-risk, Money managers, Recession, Shift, Spurned, Surging, U.S., Ukraine, Wall Street, War, Worries
Fortune (April 24)
The U.S. may be experiencing “the hottest housing market ever recorded. Over the past 12 months, U.S. home prices are up a staggering 19.2%.” Analysts expected the market “would lose some steam” in 2022, but that “hasn’t come to fruition—yet.” Instead, things have actually “gotten a bit hotter, with housing inventory on Zillow down 52% from pre-pandemic levels.” All of this leaves “a growing chorus of economists speculating that if home price growth doesn’t abate soon, the housing market could eventually overheat. Or worse: We could wind up in another full-fledged housing bubble.”
Tags: Analysts, Bubble, Economists, Home prices, Hotter, Housing market, Inventory, Overheat, Staggering, U.S.
Washington Post (April 15)
“The world has been understandably transfixed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine,” but we must still stay alert to threats elsewhere. “President Xi Jinping has been quietly taking advantage of the West’s distraction by expanding China’s sphere of influence in the South Pacific. If Washington doesn’t wake up to this threat, China’s efforts to dominate the region will gain dangerous and perhaps irreversible momentum.”
Tags: China, Dangerous, Distraction, Dominate, Horrific, Influence, Invasion, Irreversible, Putin, Russia, South Pacific, Threats, Transfixed, U.S., Ukraine, World, Xi
Investment Week (April 13)
“2021 was a stand-out year for environmental finance, as COP26, a new US administration, and rapid growth in industry collaboration drove climate action and commitments across businesses and the asset management industry.” Morningstar found that “the number of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with a climate-focused mandate grew to 860 at the end of last year… and assets in the space doubled to $408bn.”
Tags: 2021, Asset management, Assets, Businesses, Climate action, Collaboration, Commitments, COP26, Environmental finance, ETFs, Mandate, Morningstar, Mutual funds, Rapid growth, Stand-out, U.S.
New York Times (April 11)
“Even though globalization has its problems, the current fad for re-shoring production is likely to run into some limits…. If cutting the Russian economy off from the rest of the world and forcing it to produce everything it needs at home is a punishment to Russia, why would it be a good thing for the United States to try to become self-sufficient?”
Tags: Economy, Fad, Globalization, Limits, Problems, Production, Punishment, Re-shoring, Russia, Self-sufficient, U.S.
Washington Post (March 27)
“North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has a way of reminding the world that he has not gone away.” North Korea’s launch of “its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile ever, in defiance of sanctions and prohibitions” is a reminder of a “foreign-policy headache for the United States and its allies.” The North’s “potential for trouble should not be underestimated.” Kim does not deserve “concessions for his unruly behavior. There is a need for some fresh thinking about how to resolve this long-festering threat.”
Tags: Allies, Ballistic missile, Concessions, Festering, Foreign policy, Fresh thinking, Intercontinental, Kim, Launch, North Korea, Prohibitions, Sanctions, Threat, Trouble, U.S., Unruly
