For the eighth consecutive month, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its ally nations (OPEC+) plan to raise output by another 400,000 a month in February, continuing the agreement the group made as the world’s economy showed signs of recovery from the COVID War. Last week, both benchmark Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate...
Tag: feb 8 2022
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SUPPLY CHAINS SNARLS WILL LAST LONGER THAN EXPECTED, WTO HEAD SAYS
Kinks in the world’s supply chains may last through this year or even into next year, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said in a 1 February Paris speech. “We thought supply chain disruptions would be temporary,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “We still think that, but they are taking longer to resolve than we...
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SOARING FOOD PRICES HIT POOR HARD
In January, world food prices rose to levels not seen since 2011, according to a 3 February report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Food prices shot up 6.85 percent in December, year over year, the International Monetary Fund said, the highest since the agency began tracking the rate in 2014. From...
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LATIN AMERICA MIGRANT WAVE COMING
After experiencing the world’s worst economic contraction during the COVID War, Latin America faces a future of galloping inflation, slow growth, and higher interest rates that will keep tens of millions of people in poverty for the foreseeable future, according to The Wall Street Journal. That collision of negative forces “is a recipe for political...
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ECB ABOUT FACE: INTEREST RATE HIKES
In its meeting on 3 February, the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) governing council agreed that it should not rule out the possibility of raising interest rates some time this year, insiders who asked not to be named told Bloomberg. The Eurozone’s annual inflation rate climbed to 5.1 percent in January, its highest in more than...
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BOND DUMP ON PARADE
Around the world, investors sold bonds on 3 February as central banks acted, or hinted at impending actions, to raise interest rates and end bond-buying programs that had been launched to stabilize COVID-era economies. At a 3 February press conference, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), refused to reiterate her often-stated position...
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BOUNCE BACK? FACTORY ORDERS FALL MOST SINCE APRIL 2020
New orders for U.S. factory-made goods fell 0.4 percent in January, the largest month-to-month decline since April 2020 at the start of the COVID War, the U.S. commerce department reported. The consensus among economists was for a 0.2-percent slip, only half the recorded slide. Meanwhile, the cost of U.S.-made goods climbed 0.5 percent in December,...
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CONSUMERS SWITCHING SPENDING HABITS: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
During the COVID War, consumers bunkered at home and focused their spending on buying “stuff” while restaurants, gyms, and concert halls were closed and travel was restricted. Now, consumers apparently have enough cars, couches, food processors, and home exercise equipment; spending on services is rising, bringing outlays on goods and services back into balance. Goods...
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U.S. JOBS BOOM. GOING UP OR GOING DOWN?
The U.S. economy gained 467,000 new jobs in January, the U.S. Labor Department reported. The gain defied predictions that the economy would add no more than 150,000 jobs or even lose as many as 200,000. The growth likely would have been stronger if the Omicron surge had not prevented two million people from actively seeking...
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: ISRAEL’S TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS AMOUNTS TO APARTHEID
While essentially unreported in the United States, and chastised when it was, the human rights group Amnesty International said last week that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians meets the internationally accepted definition of apartheid. This is not the first time Israel has been criticized for its treatment of Palestinians. (See: “ISRAEL ACCUSED OF APARTHEID BY HUMAN...