Barron’s (September 12)
“Be careful what you wish for when calling for zero or negative interest rates, Mr. President.” There’s a downside and the results are not inspiring. “The record of negative rates in the euro zone, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Japan has been mixed…. While bond yields have fallen below zero, banks been reluctant to impose negative rates on depositors, resulting in a squeeze on their profits.”
Tags: Banks, Bond yields, Denmark, Depositors, Downside, EU, Interest rates, Japan, Negative rates, Sweden, Switzerland, Trump, U.S.
Boston Globe (September 8)
“President Trump’s trade war with China isn’t just about how much the next pair of running shoes will cost American consumers…. Its impact is spreading like a virus to all segments of the US economy, affecting the manufacturing supply chain, with the potential to whack consumer confidence.”
Tags: China, Consumers, Economy, Manufacturing, Supply chain, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Virus
Wall Street Journal (September 5)
“A decade after fueling a crisis that nearly brought down the global financial system, America’s banks are ruling it. They earned 62% of global investment-banking fees last year, up from 53% in 2011.” In 2018, “U.S. banks took home $7 of every $10 in merger fees, $6 of every $10 in stock commissions, and $6 of every $10 paid to hold and move corporate cash.”
Tags: Banks, Crisis, Financial system, Investment-banking fees, Merger fees, Stock commissions, U.S.
Washington Post (September 3)
“Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under public assault for his scheme to suspend Parliament to push through a no-deal Brexit, has now lost his majority.” This is typical of the “right-wing populist canard,” which works best in the minority. “Being snake oil salesmen and anti-government nihilists,” they “don’t know how to fix much of anything, and after all the huffing and puffing, the public gets the idea the populist cult leader is an incompetent charlatan.” While in this case it’s Johnson, Trump’s turn will come. “The lessons here for the United States are not hard to discern.”
Tags: Brexit, Charlatan, Cult leader, Huffing, Incompetent, Johnson, Majority, No-deal, Parliament, Populist, Public assault, Snake oil, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (August 31)
Another recession “could be devastating for people who have only just recovered.” The record long U.S. expansion “has showered” the top 1% of households with “staggering new wealth,” but bypassed others. “The bottom half of all U.S. households, as measured by wealth, have only recently regained the wealth lost in the 2007-2009 recession and still have 32% less wealth, adjusted for inflation, than in 2003…. If another recession comes, it could be devastating.”
New York Times (August 30)
“The iconic American worker of the 20th century—a man making cars in a Detroit factory—remains the focus of political debate about work in America. But the real face of the modern working class is a woman caring for that retired autoworker somewhere in the suburban Sun Belt. Half of the 10 fastest growing jobs in America are low-paid variants of nursing.”
Tags: Autoworker, Debate, Detroit, Factory, Nursing, Real face, Retired, Suburban, Sun Belt, U.S., Woman, Worker, Working class
Washington Post (August 26)
President Trump has recently “vacillated back and forth between praising China and harshly criticizing it, all while claiming that the trade war he initiated is going great for the United States as evidence mounts that it is pushing us toward recession.” He seems to labor “under a series of misconceptions, bred by ignorance and what appears to be a complete lack of interest in grasping how the trade war appears from China’s perspective.” It is becoming painfully obvious that “Trump is in fact the world’s worst negotiator. And the price Americans are paying for his weakness keeps getting higher.”
Tags: China, Criticizing, Ignorance, Misconceptions, Praising, Recession, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Vacillated, Worst
Financial Times (August 26)
“British society is so deeply divided—politically, socially, geographically and generationally—that it is unable to react. The UK has become a mere chessboard, a toy in the hands of a force far greater than that of its inhabitants; the geopolitical interests of the Trump administration,” which seeks to use the UK “as the latest battlefield on which to achieve its twin goals of undermining the EU, and challenging its rival China.”
Tags: Battlefield, Chessboard, Divided, EU, Geopolitical interests, Society, Trump administration, U.S., UK
Market Watch (August 24)
“U.S. China tensions over trade policy have reached a boiling point, the only question remaining is whether business executives — and the stock market — can stand the heat…. The further upping of trade barriers, along with Trump’s forceful response, threatens to further erode already sagging business confidence and trigger more weakness in U.S. business investment, which could eventually lead to rising unemployment.”
Tags: Barriers, China, Confidence, Investment, Stock market, Tensions, Trade, Trump, U.S., Unemployment, Weakness
LA Times (August 23)
“The real threat to the U.S. economy Friday wasn’t Powell,” the Federal Reserve Chairman. “It was Trump’s trade policies and public outbursts. Having righted itself by the end of Powell’s speech, the Dow dropped sharply immediately after the president’s Friday tirade. As of this writing, it was down 455 points.”
