BBC (September 16)
America’s standing in the world has tumbled to “its lowest point in nearly two decades.” The most recent Pew Research Center poll of 13 countries found that only 34% of respondents had positive views of the U.S. and only 16% had confidence in President Trump. Interestingly the Belgians had the lowest confidence in Mr. Trump (just 9%) while “the president’s highest rating among the countries polled was in Japan, where a quarter of those surveyed said they trusted Mr Trump.”
Tags: Belgians, Confidence, Lowest, Pew Research, Positive, Standing, Trump, Tumbled, U.S.
Washington Post (September 15)
President Trump claims “America’s cities are in flames” and a Biden election would leave the suburbs engulfed in flames. Meanwhile, wildfires have refocused attention on the issue of climate change. Speaking to the real “fires of the present and future” which are “raging across much of the Western states, devouring towns and turning the sky red,” Joe Biden is now “going further than any party nominee has before and talking like someone with a genuine commitment to strong action on climate.”
Tags: Biden, Climate change, Commitment, Election, Flames, Genuine, Strong action, Suburbs, Trump, U.S., Wildfires
Reuters (September 10)
“Wildfires across the U.S. West are among the sparks from climate change that could ignite a U.S. financial crisis by damaging home values, state tourism and local government budgets.” This was just one of the findings of an advisory panel to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.
Tags: Budgets, CFTC, Climate change, Financial Crisis, Findings, Home values, MRAC, Sparks, Tourism, U.S., Wildfires
New York Times (September 10)
The Social Progress Index “finds that the quality of life has dropped in America over the last decade, even as it has risen almost everywhere else.” Steeper than any other country’s, the decline “is a reminder that we Americans face structural problems that predate President Trump and that festered under leaders of both parties. Trump is a symptom of this larger malaise, and also a cause of its acceleration.”
Tags: Acceleration, Festered, Malaise, Quality of life, Social Progress Index, Structural problems, Symptom, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 9)
“If the race comes down to a character contest, Mr. Trump will lose.” Nobody dislikes Joe Biden. “Americans have also seen Mr. Trump in office for 42 months, and even millions of his supporters dislike the way he conducts himself.”
The Guardian (September 4)
“Donald Trump is the most repellent individual ever to have sought, let alone won, the presidency of the United States. The latest proof comes in a quadruple-sourced account of Trump describing US troops who died for their country as ‘losers’ and ‘suckers.’” But it’s not just what he says. The nation’s economy now “lies in tatters, racked by mass unemployment. And yet, despite that record of lethal failure, this inadequate, malignant man still has the support of 42% of the American people.”
Tags: Economy, Inadequate, Lethal failure, Losers, Malignant, Presidency, Repellent, Suckers, Support, Tatters, Troops, Trump, U.S., Unemployment, Won
Investment Week (August 24)
“Global dividends plummeted by $108.1bn to $382bn in Q2 this year… marking an underlying decline of 19.3% – the biggest fall seen…. All regions except the US suffered a drop in pay-outs, with the UK and Europe seeing the biggest falls at 54% and 45% respectively on an underlying basis.” By comparison, Japan fared well with payouts falling just 3.1% and “four-fifths of companies actually increasing or maintaining their dividends.”
Washington Post (August 21)
“In the past century, since the passage of the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote, Americans developed nuclear bombs, traveled to space and invented the Internet. But the country has not come even close to achieving equal representation for women and men in politics.”
Tags: 19th Amendment, Century, Equal representation, Internet, Nuclear bombs, Passage, Politics, Space, U.S., Vote, Women
Wall Street Journal (August 19)
“Coronavirus infections are surging again across much of Europe and governments are racing to prevent a full-fledged second wave of the pandemic.” Infection levels still “remain far lower in Europe than in much of the U.S. The seven-day average of new daily U.S. cases is running at nearly 150 cases per million people, about five times the number across Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the U.K.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Europe, France, Germany, Governments, Infections, Italy, Pandemic, Prevent, Second wave, Spain, Surging, U.S.
Barron’s (August 19)
“Apple is the first U.S. company to achieve a valuation of $2 trillion,” a valuation that Saudi Aramco has also achieved. There are three other “stocks with a valuation above $1 trillion.” Amazon.com and Microsoft are each about $1.6 trillion with Alphabet trailing at $1.0 trillion. “Facebook (FB) is the next-closest U.S. stock to the 13-digit level, with a valuation of $748.1 billion.”
