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World economy 22nd October 2021

The Freight Rate For A Standard Container Almost Tripled To Around USD 10,000

Bert Flossbach (Flossbach von Storch) | Delivery times for goods are rising worldwide due to a lack of intermediate products. The acute shortage of semiconductors, which are used in almost all devices, machines and cars, is causing particularly large problems for many companies. Ford therefore stopped production at its plant in Cologne until the end of October and Opel even stopped production in Eisenach until the end of the year….

World economy 20th October 2021

34 years on from “Black Monday”: The Dow Jones has a 90% accumulated appreciation since 2020 lows, but drawing parallels is difficult

Santander Corporate & Investment | Yesterday, Tuesday, marked the 34th anniversary of “Black Monday”. On Monday, 19th October, the Dow Jones slumped 508 points, or 23%, collapsing in the wake of a 44% rally at the peak of the year (August). All this happening after the economy went from a rapid recovery following the recession of the early ’80s to a “soft landing” from the end of 1985. The massive…

World economy 17th October 2021

Squid Game: The Real Debt Crisis Shaking South Korea That Inspired The Hit TV Show

Sarah A. Son (The Conversation ) | Squid Game adds to other recent South Korean screen productions, most notably the 2020 Oscar-winning film Parasite, in providing a sharp critique of the socio-economic inequality that plagues the lives of many in South Korea. Household debt in South Korea has risen sharply in recent years to over 100% of its GDP – the highest in Asia. The top 20% of earners in the country have a net worth 166 times that of the bottom 20%, a disparity which has increased by half since 2017.

World economy 16th October 2021

With Its “Global Gateway”, The EU Is Upping The Pressure On China’s BRI

European Views | A foreign policy instrument explicitly designed to counter the BRI, the GG diametrically opposed to China’s investment approach by seeking to “create links and not dependencies”, in the words of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. The GG’s launch comes at a time when the EU is feeling the adverse effects of BRI-induced encroachment within its own borders and wider neighbourhood. Several EU countries, such as Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, have controversially signed up to the project.

World economy 15th October 2021

US: Jobless Claims Fall Below 300,000 For The First Time During The Pandemic

J.J. Fernández Figares (Link Securities) | It is difficult to explain the reason for the recent rally in bonds, which has led to a significant fall in yields. Particularly when most of the macro figures published in the last few days have confirmed that “high inflation” is here to stay, at least for much longer than initially estimated by central banks. It is quite another matter if the latter, under…

World economy 13th October 2021

China’s September Trade Surplus Rises To $66.6 Billion

Link Securities | China’s General Administration of Customs reported early this morning that the September trade surplus rose to $66.67 billion, up from a consensus expected reading for a $45 billion surplus, and up from a figure of $53.3 billion in August. Dollar exports rose by 28.1% y-o-y, against a consensus reading of 21.5%, and compared with a 25.6% increase in August. Meanwhile, imports rose 17.6 per cent year-on-year, compared…

World economy 11th October 2021

Corporate Insolvencies To Increase By 33% In 2022

Crédito y Caución expects global insolvencies to increase by 33% in 2022. According to the latest report released by the credit insurer, the still low level of corporate bankruptcies this year is due to the extension of fiscal measures in many countries and the continuation of moratoria on the application of bankruptcy legislation. Contrary to initial fears when the pandemic broke out, corporate insolvencies fell by 14% in 2020. France,…

Facebook is working to consolidate the technology behind them

World economy 9th October 2021

Facebook’s Scandals And Outage Test Users’ Frenemy Relationship

Elizabeth Stoycheff (The Conversation) | When Facebook was down for most of the day on Oct. 4, 2021, did you miss it, were you relieved or some of both? Social scientists have compiled an expansive body of research that shows how people have come to develop a love-hate relationship with the social media giant with nearly 3 billion users. Facebook’s stunning success has come at the expense of the privacy of its virtual friends. Its “we sell ads” business model may sound benign, but the platform collects more data and information about users than they may consciously know about themselves.

World economy 6th October 2021

The Fed Announces An Internal Investigation Into The Financial Operations Of Its Members

The investigation follows the recent resignations of Rosengren and Kaplan, presidents of the Boston and Dallas Federal Reserve respectively, for questionable trading in 2020. The spotlight is now on Clarida, the Fed’s vice chairman, after she moved between $1m and $5m from a bond fund to an equity fund a day before Powell’s statement in late February 2020, in which he announced possible Fed policy action because of the pandemic….

World economy 3rd October 2021

Will The Pandemic Threaten The Future Of Big US Cities?

Jared Franz & Lisa Thompson ( Capital Group) | While the data is short term and the jury is still out, there are early signs of a powerful deurbanization trend in the United States and other major developed economies. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, migration from some big cities has accelerated while suburban home prices have soared. Moreover, national labor force surveys indicate an overwhelming majority of employees who have been working from home want to continue doing so one or more days per week.

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