September 2024
Teresa Ribera, formerly Spain’s deputy prime minister, has been named the European Union’s “competitiveness minister,” putting her in charge of pumping up mergers and acquisitions, while also pushing the region’s green transition and overall economic competitiveness.
The Financial Times called it “arguably the European Commission’s most powerful policy portfolio.”
Tech companies have dumped about 137,000 workers so far this year, according to Layoffs.fyi. Paid internships have become scarce. Job postings for software developers are 30 percent fewer than in February 2020, job website Indeed.com reported.
As of 12 September, the U.S. treasury had paid $1.049 trillion in interest on the national debt this fiscal year, 30 percent more than last year at this time as the U.S. This marks the first time that interest payments have surpassed $1 trillion.
As the fiscal year nears its 30 September end, the annual budget deficit is closing in on $2 trillion, CNBC reported. The overall national debt itself has reached $35.3 trillion.
After peaking at 10.6 percent in October 2022, inflation in the 20-country Eurozone slowed to 2.2 percent in August, moving down from 2.6 percent in July and nearly reaching the European Central Bank’s 2-percent target. It was the region’s lowest inflation reading since July 2021
The economic output of the 20-country Eurozone grew just 0.2 percent in this year’s second quarter, Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, reported after previously estimating a 0.3-percent expansion.
Investment and consumer spending slumped during the period.
During the same period, the U.S. GDP gained 3 percent.
It’s global. From developed to underdeveloped nations, economies are slowing down and/or contracting. Banks Go Bust, the Big Banks Goldman Sachs & Wells Fargo announced significant layoffs last week.
DNB Bank in Norway announced 500 layoffs in anticipation of lower interest rates Big Tech was dealt a blow this week as several gaming companies announced layoffs due to shifting market conditions.
Layoffs continue in the education field as school districts grapple with budget cuts due to COVID-19 stimulus funding ending. The retail, restaurant and manufacturing industries continue to be hit hard as demand slows.
On 20 August, Sweden’s Riksbank took a quarter point off its policy interest rate, reducing it to 3.5 percent. The bank could make as many as three more cuts still this year in an attempt to revive the country’s feeble economy, bank officials said.
The additional cuts, more than the bank projected when it started cutting its rate in May, are likely if inflation remains tame. Inflation has remained below the bank’s 2-percent target rate since June.
The number of Mergers and Acquisitions sank to a 10-year low last year as interest rates remained high & buyers and sellers often failed to agree on an assets market value.
Now, with lower interest rates in site, M&A activity is picking up again and the “Bigs” keep getting Bigger
Many ventures creating clean energy received funding under 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act but have been unable to sustain their momentum. Many have shut down or are barely surviving.
United Airlines was among investors who put 100s of millions into a startup promising to make jet fuel from trash.
On 20th of August, the U.S. dollar fell to its lowest level this year as investors prepared for the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate next month.
The dollar lost 2.2 percent of its value in August against a collection of other major currencies.
U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell virtually guaranteed the central bank will cut its interest rates when it meets in mid-September. “The time has come for policy to adjust,” Powel stated in a 23 August speech. “We do not seek or welcome further cooling in the labor market”
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On 24 September, the People’s Bank of China (PBC) announced its most dramatic stimulus since the COVID lockdowns in an attempt to revive China’s torpid economy and restore confidence after months of disappointing economic results.
The central bank will soon reduce the amount of cash commercial banks must hold in reserve, PBC governor Pan Trends Journal 47 24 September 2024 Gongsheng told a press briefing.
The amount is a percentage of banks’ loan portfolios and the percentage will be cut by half a percentage point. That is expected to liberate about 1 trillion yuan, equivalent to about $142 billion, for new loans.
Invest Heavily or Living Standard Will Crumble, Europe Told
To maintain the living standards its residents desire and compete with China and the U.S., the European Union must invest €750 billion to €800 billion a year—about $885 billion—for several years to come, according to a study led by Mario Draghi, Italy’s former prime minister who also has served as president of the European Central Bank
For the second time in two months, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has reduced its 2024 oil demand outlook, once again citing China’s “rapidly slowing” oil usage.
The intergovernmental agency sees 2024’s global oil demand now growing by 903,000 barrels a day, down from its August forecast of 970,000. It maintained its 2025 outlook at 954,000 barrels. In this year’s first half, worldwide oil demand averaged 800,000 barrels a day above last year’s, the smallest increase since 2020, the IEA noted.
EUROZONE FACTORY ACTIVITY CONTRACTS AS ASIA, U.K. IMPROVE
The Hamburg Commerce Bank’s purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the 20-country Eurozone’s manufacturing industry rated factory activity at 45.8 in August, well below the 50 mark that separates decline from growth.
Germany’s factory activity continued to contract, while France’s declined at the fastest pace this year.
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY TOP CONCERN In a new Gallup survey, half the respondents in the world’s wealthiest countries—including 60 percent of U.S. residents—cited the lack of affordable housing as their chief worry, edging out education, healthcare, and other urgencies.
The U.S. government’s debt has reached $35.3 trillion, carrying an interest payment of $3 billion a day at current interest rates, according to Torsten Sløk, chief economist at private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
The interest charge has doubled since 2020 due to massive government spending during the COVID War and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s campaign of interest rate hikes to fight inflation.
China’s Major Consumer Companies Fail to Ignite Economic Recovery- Alibaba Group Holding, Kuaishou Technology, and other major Chinese consumer companies have failed to meet revenue targets, “upsetting expectations for a market recovery to take hold,” the Financial Times reported
The world’s economy is showing signs of resilience, despite high interest rates & nations still struggling to recover their momentum, according to The WSJ. S&P Global’s Flash U.S. Composite Purchasing Managers Index — a measure of economic activity in goods and services—rated 54.
Over the past 12 months, business startups failed at a rate 60 percent higher than the 12 months prior, according to Carta, which provides services to young companies.
Founders are running out of the cash they raised during the post-COVID tech boom in 2021 and 2022.
News that the U.S. labor department had slashed the number of jobs created from April 2023 through last March reached a handful of Wall Street firms 15 minutes before the report became public.
That allowed those firms the chance to place bets on how the market would move on the news before others could react.
