On 25 October, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued the eNaira, Africa’s first digital currency. The continent’s most populous country has now joined six Caribbean nations that previously have welcomed electronic currencies. In the currency’s first 10 days in circulation, more than 400,000 people created digital wallets to accept the eNaira, the bank reported. The...
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CHINA’S REAL ESTATE CRISIS GROWS
On 5 November, a unit of China’s debt-plagued Evergrande Group property development company made a last-minute, $83.5-million bond payment a day before a grace period was to expire. We detailed the beginnings of the crisis in “China’s Real Estate Market Teeters on Evergrande Debt” (21 Sep 2021) and “Will Evergrande Dive Crash Chinese Markets?” (5...
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SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS WORSENING
The number of ships anchored outside the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles has risen from about 60 in early October to nearly 80 now and there is no clear end to the pile-up in sight, Soren Skou, CEO of shipping giant Moller-Maersk said in a Financial Times interview last week. (See “Backlogged Ships...
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CHINA: STORE UP ON FOOD, OTHER ESSENTIALS WHILE GOVERNMENT FIGHTS COVID WAR
China has taken extreme measures to snuff out a new outbreak of COVID-19 after authorities identified 54 new locally transmitted cases last Monday (out of a population of 1.4 billion people). Authorities in the country told families that they should store food items and other essential products in case the emergency order gets more severe...
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CHINA’S FACTORY PRODUCTION SLOWS, SERVICES CONTINUE STRONG
Shortages of power and high prices for raw materials shrank China’s factory output in October, while the services economy continued to expand, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported. Factories’ productivity and demand for their products both declined last month, the bureau said. The manufacturing sector’s purchasing managers index slipped from 49.6 in September to...
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GLOBAL CHIP SHORTAGE SLASHES ECONOMIC OUTLOOK
Samsung Electronics warned it is unable to predict its’ 2022 financial performance because of the continuing shortage of computer chips. Maruti Suzuki India, that nation’s largest car maker, predicted fewer sales next year. Fanuc, a major Japanese robotics company, also lowered its financial forecast. “We are receiving a lot of orders but can’t increase production...
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CHINA’S REAL ESTATE TROUBLES RIPPLE ACROSS EMERGING MARKETS
Through recent years, China’s insatiable construction industry has drawn a steady flow of imported materials from emerging nations. Now, however, giant property developers such as Evergrande and Fantasia are on the brink of collapse, as we documented in “Spotlight China: Crash Coming? Recovery Ahead?” (19 Oct 2021). As a result, exports of raw materials—a crucial...
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THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN A TIME OF MORAL AND SPIRITUAL BLACKOUT
By Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD In a recent opinion essay published on the pharmaceutical industry-friendly MedPage Today, Dr. Matthew Wynia, a medical ethics professor at the University of Colorado School of medicine, propagated an old trope by accusing doctors who advocate cheaper, effective drugs and natural supplements for treating Covid patients as a...
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SPOTLIGHT CHINA. CRASH COMING? RECOVERY AHEAD?
CHINA: EMPEROR XI IN CHARGE China is on the move; it has big plans, and so does the man at its helm, President Xi Jinping. To help facilitate those plans, he has eliminated term limits on the presidency and put himself in a position to serve a third term, during which he hopes to further...
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CHINA’S ECONOMY SLOWING?
Beyond the potential collapse of Evergrande—the Chinese conglomerate toting more than $300 billion in debt, that missed a $83.5-million bond payment last week, and that has 1.6 million unfinished apartments on its hands—there are signs that China’s overall economy is losing momentum. However, we do not see as drastic a slowdown as Wall Street is...