ECONOMIC UPDATE It’s one sick joke the politicians keep playing, the Presstitute media keeps selling, and the people keep swallowing. Two and a half years ago, January 2020, the Year of the Rat, the COVID War was launched in China. Following their draconian lockdown mandates to kill the coronavirus, Italy’s political dictators were the first...
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...
China’s retail sales and industrial production grew in July, year on year, but missed analysts’ predictions by significant amounts, showing the impact of the nation’s real estate crisis and massive zero-COVID policy lockdowns. These trends were forecast in previous Trends Journals and again reported in this issue. Retail sales expanded 2.7 percent in the month,...
On 1 August, the world’s venture capital firms were sitting on a record $539 billion in cash waiting to be deployed. The amount has grown by $100 billion this year alone, data service Preqin reported. Funds that focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain businesses have done especially well, drawing in $21 billion so far this year,...
Banxico, Mexico’s central bank, added three-quarters of a point to its base interest rate last week, lofting it to a record 8.5 percent after annual inflation sped up to 8.15 percent in July, its fastest clip since 2001. Wages rose an average of 9.5 percent at the same time, putting more upward pressure on prices....
On 11 August, Argentina’s central bank added 9.5 percentage points to its key Leliq interest rate, moving it up to 69.5 percent in the largest single rate hike in almost three years. The bank had raised the rate by eight percentage points just two weeks earlier. The bank has jacked up the Leliq eight times...
Russia’s GDP shrank by 4 percent in this year’s second quarter, Rosstat, the country’s statistics agency, reported on 12 August. Russia’s economic productivity contracted much less than predicted during the first full quarter after it invaded Ukraine and after an array of Western sanctions had been laid against it. Economists had predicted a median 7-percent...
Britain’s economy shrank by 0.1 percent in this year’s second quarter, the national statistics agency reported, after growing 0.8 in the first quarter. Analysts had foreseen a 0.2-percent reduction. Spending on services puckered by 0.4 percent as COVID-related testing and vaccinations wound down, cutting back health care expenditures. Overall, consumers spent 0.2 percent less during...
Inflation and interest rate hikes are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. To illustrate the employment trends and the socioeconomic implications, each week we will list important job losses from various sectors. Warby Parker cut 63 corporate staff members Peloton cut 800 staff, hiked prices and shut down stores Best Buy is...