A new study from asset management firm BNP Paribas sees the oil industry’s future path shrinking from today’s superhighway to a country lane over the next 25 years. The study looked at the transportation “energy at the wheels” to be gained over the next 25 years through a $100 billion investment in oil compared to the same amount put toward...

At the University of Leeds, British biologists have been able to undo key symptoms of aging by tickling people’s ears. A lobe in humans’ outer ear holds a strand of the vagus nerve, a neurological highway carrying messages between the gut and brain. It plays several central roles in the parasympathetic nervous system, the branch of the body’s autonomic nervous...

As part of the world’s quest for increasingly scarce potable water, chemists at the University of California at Berkeley have fashioned a material that pulls water vapor out of air, even in a desert, and delivers it as liquid water. The material is a metal-organic framework or MOF; think of metal atoms as balls linked by organic sticks to create...

Why did the S&P 500 reach record highs last week in the U.S?  For the same simplistic reason the mainstream business media gives for when they go down: the U.S.-China trade war.  This time, it was “positive” news of a partial “Phase-One” deal to roll back tariffs that pushed up equities. The dollar still remained strong at $98.40. Gold fell...

The S&P 500 has hit record highs, in part boosted by corporate earnings.  While so far this year 75 percent of the S&P 500 companies posting earnings beat estimates, U.S. company earnings are on pace to post a 2.4 percent decline in the third quarter according to FactSet. Trading volume, however, is relatively low, and company share buybacks year-to-date are...

While the Federal Reserve pumps in trillions of cheap money to keep the White Shoe Boys on the Street gambling, it’s a different game for the average American. Americans are working longer hours, and with “real” wages trending between low and flat the debt burden gets heavier. Adding to the debt load is transference of debt from previous car loans...

Industrial production in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has slipped 4.3 percent in the 12 months to September. Last Wednesday, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy slashed Germany’s GDP forecast to 0.3 percent for the third quarter. Growth forecasts for 2020 were reduced from 1.6 percent to 1.0 percent, and for 2021, it was 1.4 percent. Germany’s Council of Economic...

Despite its slowing GDP of 6 percent in the third quarter, the lowest in 27 years (which is still sizeable compared to the 2 percent of the GDP’s of the U.S. and Europe), China is set to be the year’s best performing stock market. It should be noted that major manufacturers in China are diverting funds into financial products rather...

Either exemplifying the economic slowdown or because the business model is a failure, WeWork is suffering from low-occupancy rates in China. The vacancy rate in Shanghai was 35.7 percent in October. Shenzhen had a 65.3 percent vacancy, and Hong Kong was at 22.1 percent. Central China had a staggering 78.5 percent vacancy rate. WeWork has been aiming for at least...

Last week, the IMF reported that almost half of the less advanced economies in the developing world, with a record high $38 billion in market debt and at risk for falling into debt distress. Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, and Zimbabwe are among the list of nine countries in debt distress. An additional 24 countries are expected to follow suit,...