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ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
Back in November of 2022, The Trends Journal had forecast a stock market spike in 2023. We noted that over the past 40 U.S. midterm elections, the S&P 500 rose 16.3 percent in the next 12 months and considering the economic data, the trend would continue.
MAXIMUM SATURATION
For many years now, I have warned that at one point a “maximum saturation” moment would eventually occur in the financial system—it’s already started.
GLOBAL DEBT SETS RECORD AT $307 TRILLION
The amount of money owed by governments, businesses, households, and individuals grew by $10 trillion in this year’s first half to a record $307 trillion, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said in a 19 September report.
BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
Authors looking for permissionless web3 alternatives to Amazon or Barnes & Noble to publish their works have yet to see anything that approaches the ease of use of those platforms.
LAVROV AGREES WITH TRENDS JOURNAL: U.S. IS AT WAR WITH RUSSIA
Sergey Lavrov, the top Russian diplomat, said the U.S. and its NATO allies are in a direct war with Moscow—no matter how these countries try to officially frame it.
JOURNALISM IS DEAD: GANNETT HIRING REPORTERS TO COVER TAYLOR SWIFT, BEYONCE
While newsrooms across the country are cutting staffers and local news is an essentially dead market, Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper owner, announced earlier this month that it will hire two journalists who will exclusively report on Taylor Swift and Beyonce Knowles.
Economy
SPOTLIGHT: “BIGS” GETTING BIGGER
As we have noted since the Central Banksters started to rapidly raise interest rates, the decade’s long merger and acquisition spree is over. However, the “Bigs” will still get bigger, as they buy out overleveraged companies that can’t afford to borrow at high rates to refinance while, at the same time, recessionary pressures erode their profitability.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC STRUGGLE
China’s economic crisis has emboldened reformers who argue for structural change to the country’s economy, challenging other officials who contend that stimulus spending will put China’s productivity back on track, Reuters reported.
SPOTLIGHT, TOP TREND 2023: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
About 24 percent of office space in 18 major Chinese cities sat empty in June, compared to 18.2 percent in the U.S., real estate services firm CBRE reported. In that month, the national value of office rents fell 7 percent below that of 2019.
Geopolitics
FRENCH TROOPS, AMBASSADOR WILL EXIT NIGER, MACRON SAYS
French troops and the ambassador from the country will exit Niger and will end all military cooperation with the military leaders of Niger in place since the July coup.
MALI, BURKINA FASO, NIGER FORM SECURITY ALLIANCE AMID THREAT OF FRENCH INVASION RISK
A group of African nations in the Sahel region announced last week that they’ve formed a security alliance amid what they see as a growing risk of intervention by France in its former colony Niger.
GERMANY’S SCHOLZ’S UN SPEECH WOULD MAKE HITLER PROUD, JOURNALIST SAYS
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addressed the United Nations in New York last week and told the body that there should be no “phony” solution of the Ukraine War and that it is essential that Moscow is punished for its decision to invade.
Trends in AI
U.K. WILL PLACE THIRD IN GLOBAL AI SWEEPSTAKES, STUDY SAYS
Britain’s AI sector will grow from £1.36 trillion (about $1.7 trillion) to £2.4 trillion ($3 trillion) by 2027, making it the world’s third-largest AI economy behind the U.S. and China, according to an analysis by the information clearinghouse Global AI Ecosystem.
AHEAD OF AI SAFETY SUMMIT, U.K. REGULATORS LIST GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR AI DEVELOPMENT
“The speed at which AI is becoming part of everyday life for people and businesses is dramatic,” Sarah Cardell, CEO of the CMA, said in a statement listing the principles.
NEW INTEL CHIP BRINGS AI TO LAPTOP COMPUTERS
In December, chip-making giant Intel will unveil its new “Meteor Lake” chip able to run a generative AI program on a notebook computer instead of forcing users to connect to data centers to muster enough computing power for the task, the company announced last week at a Silicon Valley developers conference.
Hi-Tech Science
COMPUTER SUSSES OUT THREE NEW ANTI-AGING COMPOUNDS
Elderly cells in our bodies stop functioning but live on, after a fashion, causing inflammation and emitting waste and other damaging chemicals into the bloodstream.
3-D PRINTED LIVING BRAIN CELLS SEND AND RECEIVE INFORMATION
Using “bio-inks,” researchers at Australia’s Monash University have 3D-printed living neurons—brain cells—that continue growing in a lab and are able to send and respond to nerve signals.
GOODBYE, GRAY CEMENT. HELLO, GREEN CEMENT.
Making cement—the main ingredient in concrete—is estimated to be responsible for producing 8 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, at a rate of a ton of CO2 per ton of cement.