“Jamie Dimon doesn’t have much positive to say about negative interest rates in Europe and Japan or public policy in the United States during the past decade.
“The JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.12% Chairman and CEO blasted the policy of negative interest rates adopted in Europe and Japan during an interview Wednesday with CNBC…
“People think that central banks around the world can do whatever they want. They can’t,” he said during an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.”
“Eurozone bank executives have launched a fresh lobbying push to convince policymakers of the dangers of long-term negative interest rates, warning they will hurt savers and pensioners while fuelling price bubbles in riskier assets…
“Two chief executives of large eurozone banks said they were also working on plans to pass the cost of negative rates on to a much larger chunk of retail savers, setting the stage for a political backlash that the banking industry hopes will lead to wider public awareness of the ECB’s policy.”
https://www.ft.com/content/b19b3458-3d25-11ea-b232-000f4477fbca
“Without meaningful intervention, the [US] subprime auto loan bubble is primed to burst, Schmidt warns.
“Regulators can glean valuable insight from the 2008 housing crisis, but because most car ownership requires extending credit, remedies such as the ability-to-repay rule cannot be easily implemented.”
https://www.theregreview.org/2020/01/23/alford-subprime-auto-loans-driving-next-financial-crisis/
“The chief victims of the U.S. trade war have been American farmers, who have lost billions in exports because of retaliation, and the U.S. manufacturing sector, which is flirting with recession because of the higher costs, disrupted trade, and global uncertainty inflicted by the administration’s tariff war.”
“In the last decade, liabilities have surged in China, primarily in the corporate sector.
According to the Bank for International Settlements, corporate liabilities in China grew fourfold from 31 trillion yuan at 2008 year-end (about ¥480 trillion) to 136 trillion yuan (about ¥2.1 quadrillion) at 2018 year-end. The ratio of corporate liabilities to GDP has surged from 98% to 152% during the same period.
“As the figure shows, this rapid growth of liabilities is reminiscent of Japan’s asset bubble years.”
https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00531/can-china-avoid-a-bad-loan-financial-crisis.html
“The spread of the deadly Wuhan virus from its country of origin, China, to other countries in Asia and the United States has raised fears that the virus could lead to a global pandemic, causing stock prices around the world to fall this week.
“Here’s how the virus could impact the global economy as a whole, according to the economic impacts from past outbreaks.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-virus-economy-impact-based-on-past-outbreaks-2020-1?r=US&IR=T
“
…the conflict between the two Asian powerhouses [Korea and Japan] is serious enough to cause global concern and create a major headache for the Asian economy…
“…this is a selfish political dispute that ultimately hurts businesses and people.”
Probably not the most unbiased source but…
“Nissan Motor Co. will go bankrupt within two to three years, Carlos Ghosn told a defense attorney during more than 10 hours of interviews before the auto executive skipped bail and left Japan.”
“As large swathes of the Australian landscape continue to burn, the world’s central bankers have hit the panic button.
“The usually calm and measured overlords (and a few ladies) of the global financial system – who, it must be said, failed to predict the last major financial crisis – warned this week that we may be staring down the barrel of a climate change-induced financial crisis.”
“Economic losses from natural disasters topped $232bn in 2019 as the costliest decade on record comes to a close, according to a new report by insurance giant Aon.
“There were 409 natural disasters in 2019, 41 of which were responsible for wiping out over a billion dollars each.”
https://www.cityam.com/natural-disasters-knock-global-economy-for-232bn-hit-in-2019/
“The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index fell to its lowest since February on Wednesday, hurt by a seasonal slowdown in demand amid higher costs for shipowners due to a new regulation for shipping fuels.”
“Strength in commodities is turning to weakness, and that can only mean one thing—it’s time to start worrying about the global economy again.
“Both West Texas and Brent Crude oil are rolling over. Accompanying their breakdowns is weakness in copper. Taken together, their poor price action suggests that perhaps the global economies’ growth rates are slowing.”
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