As we had long forecast, the higher central banks raise interest rates, the lower the Merger and Acquisition trend... which hit record highs during the COVID war when interest rates sank and governments pumped in countless trillions to artificially prop up sinking economies. Now M&A activity has slowed to a trickle as we have continued to detail.
Tag: jun 13 2023
TOP TREND 2023: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
As we correctly predicted, loans on office properties are increasingly hard to come by as property values and lease rates fall while landlords’ costs rise.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC STUMBLE
China exported 7.5 percent less in May than a year before and imported 4.5 percent less, the General Administration of Customs said, cutting factory output and adding evidence that the country’s delayed post-COVID rebound has sputtered, which we reported in “China’s Post-COVID Recovery Fizzles” (6 Jun 2023).
TURKEY’S LIRA CONTINUES TO FALL
Having secured his re-election on 28 May as Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appointed a new finance minister who promises “rational” fiscal policies.
BANK OF CANADA SETS INTEREST RATE AT 22-YEAR HIGH
After a five-month pause in rate increases, the Bank of Canada (BoC) lifted its key rate on 7 June from 4.50 percent to 4.75 percent, its highest since 2001.
WWIII: U.S. TO PROVIDE UKRAINE WITH DEPLETED-URANIUM TANK ROUNDS
The U.S. is expected to follow the United Kingdom’s lead and provide the Ukrainian military with tank rounds with depleted-uranium rounds that can pierce the coat of Russian tanks but raise health concerns for people in areas these munitions are used.
CRYPTO OWNERSHIP WIDER THAN THOUGHT, STUDIES SHOW
Bitcoin has lost 60 percent of its value after peaking in November 2021. The FTX crypto exchange spectacularly collapsed last November, vaporizing billions of dollars in clients’ holdings. The U.S. is suing exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
BLOCKCHAIN BATTLES
Call it more Chokepoint, or crippling “regulation by enforcement”, but the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) suing Binance and Coinbase in the space of two days galvanized crypto supporters and Congress last week.
WEB3 THE KEY, POLYGON HEAD TELLS CONGRESS
It’s all about decentralization and putting users in control of their data and assets. That’s how Ryan Wyatt of Polygon Labs explained the fundamental importance of blockchain technologies to members of Congress this past week.
BEIJING’S LATEST CRACKDOWN TARGET: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
While other governments are deliberating how best to regulate AI, China’s leaders are already at work shutting down websites and arresting suspects.