In fiscal year 2021, Amtrak gave top executives the highest incentive bonuses in years, despite the company’s mediocre financial performance and weak ridership during the COVID lockdown, The New York Times reported. Of the railroad’s 12 top executives, nine took in bonuses between $230,000 and CEO Stephen Gardner’s $293,000 last year. Gardner has received more...
Tag: aug 9 2022
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
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. It should be noted...
SPOTLIGHT: CENTRAL BANKS PILE ON THE POINTS
RATE HIKES ENCIRCLE THE GLOBE The world’s central banks collectively added almost 1,200 basis points, or 12 full percentage points, to interest rates in July, Reuters reported. Central banks managing five of the ten most-traded currencies added 325 basis points. The so-called G10 group of industrialized countries have piled on 1,100 points to their key...
TAILWINDS ARE ENDING FOR THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY
AP Moller-Maersk, the Danish shipping company that moves 17 percent of the world’s seagoing cargo, reported its 15th consecutive quarter of rising earnings last week but warned that such smooth sailing is likely over. Although the company raised its gross revenue forecast to $31 billion this year, it also warned that growth in container shipments...
INFLATION IN TURKEY: 80 PERCENT AND RISING
In July, inflation in Turkey edged up to 79.6 percent from 78.6 percent in June and has further to climb, Bloomberg reported. In Istanbul, the country’s most populous city, prices in July virtually doubled over the past 12 months, notching a 99-percent gain. Turkey’s central bank now says inflation will peak at 85 percent in...
M&A ACTIVITY PLUNGING
After setting a record pace in 2021, the number and value of mergers and acquisitions are at their lowest in five years, excluding 2020 when COVID-related lockdowns slammed the economy shut. In the U.S. this year, about $1 trillion worth of deals were made through 31 July, Dealogic reported, 40 percent below last year’s level....
HONG KONG ENTERS RECESSION
Hong Kong has entered its second recession in three years. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted Hong Kong’s economy would contract 0.2 percent in the second quarter. Instead, it shrank by 1.4 percent on top of a 3.9-percent contraction in the year’s first quarter. About 65,000 Chinese visited Hong Kong from the mainland in 2021,...
EUROPE IMPORTS MORE RUSSIAN DIESEL FUEL IN JULY
Europe increased its imports of Russian diesel fuel by 22 percent in July, year over year, to almost 700,000 barrels a day, the Financial Times reported. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 19-country European Union (EU) has vowed to end imports of Russian natural gas by the end of this year, of Russian diesel by...
POLAND LETS HOMEOWNERS STOP PAYING MORTGAGES
To ease inflation’s pressure on households, Poland’s government is allowing homeowners to skip mortgage payments for up to four months this year and another four in 2023. More than 500,000 homeowners in the country took advantage of the program within two days of its opening, according to the website Notes From Poland. The country’s central...
TOP TREND 2022, DRAGFLATION: GERMANY’S RETAIL SALES CRATER
In June, retail sales in Germany fell by 8.8 percent, year over year, their fastest annual rate of decline since 1994 when records began to be kept, the Financial Times reported. Inflation ran at a record 8.5 percent for the month, discouraging consumers from making discretionary purchases, especially with energy rationing under way as Russia...