The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That truth tells the individual who possesses the common horse sense to understand it, exactly what kind of blow is the fastest in striking its target: i.e., the un-telegraphed straight-line thrust that takes the attacking hand from where it is now straight into the adversary’s...
The poison pill didn’t work. On 25 April, neo-libertarian futurist Elon Musk closed a 40-billion plus deal to take ownership of Twitter. It has raised hopes that the platform might return to some semblance of permitting the sort of free speech rights that certainly should have a wide platform in a nation that birthed the...
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. KKR BIDS $15 BILLION...
Overview: As we have detailed for nearly two years, inflation across the globe was on the rise despite the central banks denying the reality so they could continue to pump in cheap money to artificially pump up equites and economies. And as we have also greatly detailed in previous Trends Journals, as a result of...
After raising prices 5.2 percent in this year’s first quarter, international food conglomerate Nestlé reported a 7.6-percent gain in sales for the period, beating analysts’ forecasts. The company hiked prices most in the Americas, raising them 8.5 percent in North America and 7.7 percent south of the U.S. border. “We stepped up pricing in a...
Japan’s Honda Motor Co. plans a ¥5-trillion investment, about $40 billion, over the next 10 years to create 30 models of all-electric vehicles (EVs), making up 40 percent of the company’s line-up, Japan’s second largest car maker announced this month. Honda intends to make two million EVs a year by 2030, CEO Toshihiro Mibe said,...
Western battery companies, car makers, and governments have failed to develop adequate sources of lithium, leaving auto companies unable to meet the surge in demand for electric vehicles (EVs), Stuart Crow, chair of Australian mining company Lake Resources, said in a Financial Times interview. Lithium is the central element in the batteries that power EVs....
Share values for Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, Germany’s two biggest lenders, dropped more than 10 percent after investors sold €1.75 billion worth of stock in the two. The sales took place on 11 April. Capital Group, Deutsche Bank’s second largest stockholder, dumped €1.27 billion worth of shares. An unknown investor unloaded €475 million in Commerzbank’s...
An immediate and complete ban on all Russian natural gas from Europe would cost Germany’s economy €165 billion, the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, warned. Germany gets about 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia, a third of which is used by industry. The bank assumed that German manufacturers would not be able to fully...
Italy’s sovereign debt has grown 2.1 percent since December, adding about €59 billion to reach a record total of €2.74 trillion, according to the Bank of Italy. “The debt of each family…would amount to €104,482—a debt for a heart attack,” Massimiliano Dona, president of Italy’s National Consumers Union, said in a public statement. The previous...