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2022-02-22 13:55:40 Tens of Thousands Go Broke in Spain after Investing in Solar

Approximately 62,000 citizens in Spain have gone bust, 17 years after the govt offered subsidies for investing in renewable energy. (France24)

After investors saturated the market hoping to cash in, Madrid has cut them off - putting significant financial strain on the families who invested heavily.

Boom to bust for solar in a European sunny spot?

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2022-02-22 00:47:51 Credit Suisse $100bn+ leak exposes ‘Criminals & Corrupt Politicians’

Details of over 30,000 Credit Suisse clients with assets over $110bn that allegedly include human traffickers, a jailed Hong Kong stock exchange boss and a Vatican account that spent $400mn in a fraudulent London property deal have been leaked. (The Guardian)

The anonymous whistleblower claimed Swiss banking secrecy laws are “immoral”, allegations the bank denies claiming reporters have used “selective information taken out of context”.

The massive leak comes just weeks after chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio lost his job after breaking Covid regulations, a $475mn loan scandal in Mozambique and the bank becoming the first in Swiss history to face criminal charges over a cocaine dealer money laundering case.

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2022-02-21 20:52:54 Happy President's Day

Liberty,
when it begins to take root,
is a plant of rapid growth.

- George Washington -

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2022-02-20 20:42:22 Shortages Problem could Persist

Globally, we find that up to 40% of the supply constraints in manufacturing can be traced to shutdowns, which should have only transient effects on inflation. The same is true of the severe weather and industrial accidents that hindered microchip and auto output in 2021. Other drivers of supply constraints, such as labor shortages (which explain up to 10% of manufacturing supply constraints globally) and aging logistics infrastructure, could however have more persistent effects on supply and inflation than shutdowns.

Late last year industry experts expected supply shortages for autos to largely dissipate by mid-2022, and broader bottlenecks by the end of this year. Omicron has injected new uncertainty. Europe and China have imposed new restrictions and more disruptions could follow. All in all, supply disruptions could last for longer, possibly into 2023.

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2022-02-20 20:38:38 Supply Disruptions Add to Inflation, Undermine Recovery in Europe

With supply constraints likely to persist, the challenge for policymakers is to support recovery without allowing high inflation to become entrenched.

When countries asked people to stay at home to control COVID-19, consumers cut spending on services and bought more manufactured goods instead. The reopening of economies boosted manufacturing output, but renewed lockdowns and shortages of intermediate inputs from chemicals to microchips caused the factory recovery to stall. Prices of core consumer goods rose rapidly as delivery times reached record highs — sparking a debate about inflation and the course of monetary policy.

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2022-02-19 18:12:48 Pandemic’s Economic Impact is easing, but Aftershocks may linger

The pandemic’s grip on the economic system seems to be loosening. Job progress and retail spending have been robust in January, whilst coronavirus instances hit a document. New York, Massachusetts and different states have begun to raise indoor masks mandates. California on Thursday unveiled a public well being method that can deal with the coronavirus as a manageable long-term threat.

But the economic system stays removed from regular. Patterns of labor, socializing and spending, disrupted by the pandemic, have been gradual to readjust. Costs are rising at their quickest tempo in 4 many years, and there are indicators that inflation is creeping right into a broader vary of services. In surveys, Individuals report feeling gloomier concerning the economic system now than on the peak of the lockdowns and job losses within the first weeks of the disaster.

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2022-02-19 17:46:32 You’re already paying more for groceries and gas. Here’s where consumers will feel the next round of ‘sticker shock.’

So far shoppers have been helped by additional savings, but S&P expects things to change in the second half of the year.

Consumers may already be reeling from higher prices for things like groceries and energy, but S&P Global Ratings says inflation has more surprises in store.

“Packaged food and household products companies have yet to pass through all of their price hikes, and so consumers will likely face more sticker shock before prices stabilize,” a published note on Thursday.

“As grocery and gas bills increasingly squeeze budgets, we expect that consumers will defer some expenditures and switch to less-expensive brands in the second half of the year.”

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2022-02-18 23:42:45 Death cross crystallizes in Nasdaq Composite on Friday for first time in 2 years, in a bearish sign for the stock market

The Nasdaq Composite index has produced a “death cross” chart pattern on Friday, a bearish chart pattern for an asset.

History suggests this occurrence could weigh on the broader stock market over the shorter term, however, it is unclear if the formation of the downbeat pattern, closely followed by market technicians, signals more pain ahead or simply affirms a downtrend that has taken shape in markets.

A death cross appears when the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day moving average, an event that many chart watchers view as marking the spot a shorter-term correction morphs into a longer-term downtrend.

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2022-02-18 21:10:00 A cargo ship full of luxury cars is on fire and adrift in the middle of the Atlantic

The Felicity Ace, ship full of luxury cars is shown on February 17, stranded in the middle of the Atlantic. It caught fire in the North Atlantic on Wednesday, as it carried cargo including Porsches and Volkswagens from Emden, Germany to Davisville, Rhode Island. After a fire broke out in the cargo hold, it spread and forced all 22 crew members to abandon ship. The crew was safely picked up by the Portuguese Navy.

The Felicity Ace can carry over 17,000 metric tons of cargo, according to the Associated Press, with possibly thousands of cars on board . The Portugese Navy said that as of Thursday, the fire is ongoing, and an ocean patrol vessel remains on site to monitor the abandoned ship.

Actually, the entire economy runs on supply bottlenecks, but obviously only luxury cars are running well !?

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2022-02-17 21:42:22 Why the surge in retail sales is not as good as it looks

A peek under the hood suggest retail sales are growing but slowing.

The big burst in sales at U.S. retailers in January was a good sign for the economy, but the increase was not as hot as it looked.
Retail sales sizzled 3.8% last month, the government said Wednesday. Taken at face value, it was the biggest advance since the Biden administration sent out stimulus checks last spring.
Yet the rebound in sales came after a sharp 2.5% decline in December. So some of the increase in last month was just payback after poor results at the end of last year.
Not only that, soaring inflation also accounted for part of the increase in retail sales. Consumer prices jumped 0.6% in January, which means Americans are paying more for the same amount of goods and services.

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