Lai Xiaomin, a former employee of Huarong Asset Management, was executed last week, three weeks after being convicted of bribery by a court in the city of Tianjin. He was convicted of taking about $280 million in bribes over ten years while he worked at Huarong and, before that, as a regulator at the Chinese...
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT
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EMERGING MARKETS PILE ON DEBT, SPARKING FUTURE DEFAULT FEARS
Developing nations’ businesses and governments sold a record $115.2 billion in bonds to foreign investors during the first 27 days of this year, Bond Radar reported. The figure eclipses the previous record of $112.8 billion set last January as emerging markets struggled with burdensome debt. The new debt is in addition to the $847 billion...
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INDIANS FEAR OF SPENDING HOBBLES ECONOMIC RECOVERY
COVID cases are dwindling in India after a severe lockdown, which shrank the economy by 15 percent from April through September. The contraction turned what had once been the world’s fastest-growing economy into one of the world’s worst performers. However, despite infections dropping from 100,000 a day to less than 20,000 now, wary consumers have...
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GERMANY’S INFLATION SURGES
Germany’s consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in December, then the rate more than doubled to 1.6 percent in January, the country’s Federal Statistical Office reported. Analysts had expected a modest 0.5-percent bump. The price inflation was not due to an overall economic recovery but was caused by three factors, analysts say: Germany had reduced its...
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TORONTO RENTAL LISTINGS MORE THAN DOUBLE IN FOURTH QUARTER
The number of condominiums for rent in Canada’s largest city ballooned by 132 percent in the last quarter of 2020 year over year as the city reimposed a stringent lockdown, a 27 January report from the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board disclosed. The glut of empty flats pushed rental prices down. A one-bedroom condo was...
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CANADIAN HOTELS: BUSINESS DOWN, INSURANCE COSTS SKYROCKET
Canadian hotels, financially drained after months of occupancy rates below their break-even points, have seen their property insurance premiums skyrocket. In the province of Alberta, property insurance rates have risen 100 to 300 percent in the past year, according to the Alberta Hotel & Lodging Association. A group owning hotels in western Canada reported rates...
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GOVERNMENTS CAN PILE UP HIGHER DEBT, IMF SAYS
As the COVID pandemic ends, governments should not rush to reduce their debt but “rethink” their financial policies so they continue to support recovery and reduce joblessness, Vitor Gaspar, chief of fiscal policy for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a 28 January public statement reported by the Financial Times. The position is a...
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TOP TRENDS 2021: THE RISE OF CHINA
As we have forecast, the 20th century was the American century – the 21st century will be the Chinese century. The business of China is business; the business of America is war. While America spent countless trillions waging and losing endless wars and enriching its military-industrial complex, China has spent its trillions advancing the nation’s...
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GOING DOWN, GOING BUST, GOING OUT
CARNIVAL STOCK PRICE DOWN 60 PERCENT. Share prices of the world’s largest cruise line fell 2.5 percent last week after the company announced it would suspend all U.S. cruises through April and Australian departures until at least mid-May. Carnival also canceled planned outings in Europe for its Carnival Legend ship, which were scheduled from May...
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COBALT PRICE JUMPS AS SUPPLIES TIGHTEN
Supplies of cobalt, a key element of the positive terminals in lithium batteries as well as other electronic components, have tightened in recent months due to logistical disruptions in South Africa, where an economic shutdown froze economic activity earlier in 2020. At the same time, demand for the blue metal is rising as the world...