Each week, we report instances where the money junky hedge funds, private equity groups and the already big companies swallow another piece of the global economy. Here are some more of what the BIGS have been gobbling up and how the Bigs keep getting bigger and the rich keep getting richer. It should be noted...
EUROZONE INFLATION RISES TO 8.9 PERCENT IN JULY Inflation across the 19 countries sharing the euro currency sped up to 8.9 percent in July from 8.6 percent the month before, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency. In July 2021, the rate was 2.2 percent. Energy prices rose 4.02 percentage points. Food, alcohol, and...
Vocational education is key to China’s employment and entrepreneurship and to speeding economic and social development, president Xi Jinping wrote in a letter last week to the World Vocational and Technical Education Development Conference. The conference, the first of its kind, was held in the Chinese city of Tianjin, where manufacturing accounts for about half...
Responding to July’s inflation rate of 79.6 percent, Turkey’s central bank cut its key interest rate from 14 to 13 percent last week. Analysts had expected the bank to leave the rate untouched at 14 percent. “Leading indicators in the third quarter point to some loss of momentum in economic activity,” the bank said in...
Poland’s economy is racing toward Dragflation: Sinking economy and rising inflation. Its economy shrank 2.3 percent in this year’s second quarter, which also signals fears of a regional recession later this year. And on the inflation side, it hit a 25-year high at 15.6 percent… while consumer confidence has sunk to its lowest level since...
Norges Bank, Norway’s central bank, added a half point to its key interest rate for the second time this year, lifting the rate to 1.75 percent as inflation rose to 6.8 percent in July. It plans another increase next month. Analysts expect it to be another half-point bump, the Financial Times reported. The bank’s inflation...
On 15 August, natural gas futures in Europe grew by another 3.2 percent to €233.56, or about $237, per million Btus, a new record price. It continued rising on 22 August, climbing to €257.40. The continent is in the midst of its third heatwave this summer, with temperatures exceeding 100°F in France and reaching 106°F...
Business travel may not return to pre-COVID levels until some time in 2026, two years later than previously forecast, according to a study by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). A slowing global economy and geopolitical uncertainty surrounding the Ukraine war and the U.S.-Chinese tensions over Taiwan are making companies cautious, CNBC reported. Also, inflation...