Fortune (September 24)
“Nowhere is this crisis more pronounced and more dangerous than in Europe, where a long-standing gambit on cheap Russian gas has backfired.” With winter, it looks certain to get even worse. “Even the slightest uptick in energy demand… could push entire sectors of Europe’s manufacturing industry to shut down entirely, devastating European economies with a wave of unemployment, high prices, and in all likelihood public unrest and divisions between European nations.”
Tags: Backfired, Cheap, Crisis, Dangerous, Devastating, Economies, Energy demand, Europe, Gas, High prices, Manufacturing, Pronounced, Russia, Unemployment, Uptick, Winter, Worse
Bloomberg (September 24)
“As the likelihood of additional federal stimulus fades, U.S. stock investors are returning their focus to the coronavirus pandemic and not liking what they see.” Consumers are again cutting back and “the prospects for a vaccine in the next few months have also waned just as the latest data shows an uptick in cases.” Moves by the Federal Reserve and “$3 trillion of federal stimulus helped fuel a torrid five-month rally that began in March,” but “their limitations have become clear.”
Tags: Consumers, Coronavirus, Cutting back, Fed, Limitations, Pandemic, Rally, Stimulus, Stock investors, U.S., Uptick, Vaccine
Washington Post (October 27)
“Not many countries would cheer about an economic growth rate of one-tenth of 1 percent, sustained for a mere three months. But for Spain, which has been mired in negative growth for two years, the tiny uptick in the third quarter of 2013 represents a kind of breakthrough.” For Europe, however, this is just the slightest hint of a “silver lining in a what is still a very dense, dark cloud hanging over Europe’s economy. Spain and its fellow euro-zone debtors — Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece — don’t just need a trickle of growth to bring down their unemployment rates and debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratios. They need a gusher; many consecutive months of high-single-digit growth. And there is no short-term prospect of that.”
Tags: Breakthrough, Debt, Economy, Euro zone, Europe, GDP, Greece, Growth, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Unemployment, Uptick
