As we had long forecast, the higher central banks raise interest rates, the lower the Merger and Acquisition trend… which hit record highs at the height of the COVID War in 2021 when interest rates sank and governments pumped in countless trillions to artificially prop up sinking economies.
As we have noted, China’s current economic decline is mostly self-inflicted.
The nation’s economy boomed at the greatest level in modern history when the U.S. allowed it to join the World Trade Organization some two decades ago. Their economy boomed as western companies gave the cheap labor communist nation all the high-tech intelligence and heavy industry manufacturing skills they never had... to make what they were selling.
The post-COVID War economic landscape has presented an array of challenges that have profoundly affected the business community.
First-half cuts among healthcare companies including hospitals are up 97 percent year over year. The volume of cuts have already surpassed last year's totals. Many of these cuts are only affecting administration.
As we reported in “Worry Sign: Major Investors Holding Onto Cash” (8 Aug 2023), foundations, pension funds, and the other major investors who fund private equity’s deals have been sitting on their cash, waiting for a more encouraging economic outlook.
WeWork, which assembled a billion-dollar global empire of coworking spaces during the ‘teens, said in an 8 August statement that “substantial doubt exists about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
After showing signs of a revival, business-class air travel among Europe’s three major airline groups has begun to level off, according to the carriers’ most recent earnings reports.
The threat of strikes at several Australian ports exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) rocketed up prices for the fuel across Europe from around €30 per megawatt-hour on 8 August to €40 the next day.
Oil demand set a record of 103 million barrels a day in June, driven by summer air travel, a surge in use by China’s petrochemical plants, and stronger-than-expected economic activity in Europe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported.
Inflation swaps, analyst surveys, and other indicators find Europe’s economy watchers expecting inflation to continue above the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) 2-percent target for at least a decade.