Commentary Every year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) releases its annual report on the global arms trade. It is a short document (just 12 pages) but a worthwhile read. In particular, it is chockablock with useful data on international arms transfers. In the first place, for example, the volume of overall arms exports…
Higher Oil Prices Expected to Revive Inflation Pressures, but Can a Recession Stop It?
Since Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ crude oil producers announced additional production cuts of about 1.16 million barrels per day (bpd), there has been increasing concern that these efforts will affect American consumers by adding to inflationary pressures, particularly at the pump. U.S. oil prices had been trending downward since hitting a peak of $130 per…
Is This Finally Some Tolerable Inflation News?
April 13, 2023
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AnalysisBusiness & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsCPIinflationmoney supplyOpinionPPIrecessionU.S. economy
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Commentary For reasons I don’t get, the whole of financial markets is obsessed with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) but the Producer Price Index (PPI) is largely ignored. It hardly makes the headlines. That makes no sense because everything we consume (except maybe bugs) has to be produced. The consumer experience of inflation is downstream…
Why Can’t Inflation Escape the Fate of the Mid-1970s?
Commentary As the first round of the banking crisis fades, the market is refocusing on inflation and interest rate hike. Although U.S. inflation did come down, whether measured by consumer price index (CPI) or personal consumption expenditure (PCE), the year-over-year (YoY) downtrend was slow, and the month-over-month (MoM) decline was not persistent. For other advanced…
Is South Korea Asia’s Canary in the Coal Mine?
April 12, 2023
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Asian economyBusiness & MarketsBusiness ColumnistsChinaChinese industryOpinionSouth KoreaThinking About Chinazero-COVID
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Commentary The expression used in the title conveys a sense of foreboding and early warning of trouble. It comes from the time before electronic sensory equipment when coal miners used these fragile birds to warn them of the presence of deadly methane gas in the mine shaft. If the bird collapsed, the miners had an…
The Inflation Tax Keeps Rising
Commentary They keep telling us that the Fed is fighting inflation. Month after month, they say that it is cooling, softening, easing, pulling back, losing its edge, calming down, and gradually going away. These claims have been consistent for 28 months. And yet when you look at the big picture, the dollar has lost nearly…
The Fiduciary Responsibilities of Boards of Directors in Terribly Run Cities
April 11, 2023
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Board of DirectorsBusiness & MarketsBusiness Columnistscitiesfiduciary responsibilityOpinionRegional & State NewsState NewsUSViewpoints
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Commentary The boards of directors of public and private companies are charged with a duty of fiduciary responsibility under the laws governing them in the United States. This is a role not to be taken lightly. Often, a decision comes before a board that will adversely impact the personal finances of a board member if the decision…
China’s Battery Weapon
Commentary It appears as if the Chinese Communist Party is running the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA this week is announcing new emissions rules for cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks for the model years 2027 to 2032, and possibly for heavy-duty vehicles, too. According to The New York Times, the rules would…
The US Dollar Is Not Going Anywhere
April 10, 2023
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Business & MarketsBusiness Columnistsgold reservesOpinionreserve and trading currencythe U.S. dollarthe YuanThinking About China
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Commentary China, Russia, and other countries want to drop the U.S. dollar, but there is no alternative. In recent weeks, Chinese state media, cryptocurrency media, and other non-mainstream media have been running stories about how the world is abandoning the U.S. dollar as its reserve and trading currency. Other reports claim that the yuan is…
Taking Risk Is No Longer Necessary, but That Is a Problem
Commentary Taking risks is no longer necessary to make a return on your savings. Not long ago, “cash is trash” was a common theme as savings accounts yielded zero. Of course, such was the intent of the Federal Reserve following the financial crisis of 2008–09 in the hope that inflating asset prices would trickle down…
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