A New Era of Hunger Has Hit the US:
“I started my Financial Times career covering famine in Africa in the 1980s. I did not expect to be writing about hunger in my own homeland 40 years later.
“But as America finishes its sixth month of coronavirus chaos, queues of hungry New Yorkers stretch a quarter of a mile outside a food bank in Queens and food giveaways provoke traffic jams that can last for hours.”
“Ms Babineaux-Fontenot provides some shocking numbers. “I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not”, she says, an extra 17m people in the US could be “food insecure” in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
“”That would make a total of 54m, according to Feeding America’s calculations, up from 37.2m before the crisis. And 18m, or one in four, of those hungry people will be children.”
https://www.ft.com/content/14324641-7be1-4efa-b544-09395429c0e7
“…the foundation underpinning the recent [US] recovery is shaky, according to several analysts, and many believe that both the economy and financial markets will need more government help – fiscal stimulus – to continue to make gains.”
“In 2020, unprecedented protests have swept through Louisville and the US. Why now?
“Pandemic has ‘heightened the unease that we’re all living with,’ expert says.”
“Local lockdowns have put the brakes on recoveries in Covid-hit areas [of the UK], the latest data is signalling, prompting warnings from economists that a second wave risks causing a double-dip downturn… as a second wave threatened to combine with mounting Brexit worries and rising unemployment.
“Fears of mass job losses ahead of the furlough scheme’s end have also been stoked by rocketing online searches on redundancies and workers seeking advice.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/09/19/second-wave-risks-double-dip-recession/
“British sport was on the brink of financial implosion on Monday night after government forecasts of a devastating Covid-19 second wave raised fears that competitions and clubs would be folding within weeks.
“The Premier League, Rugby Football Union and England and Wales Cricket Board are among more than 100 national and grass-roots governing bodies to sign a letter pleading with the Prime Minister for a major new bail-out as the pandemic tightens its grip again.”
“A leading rating agency on Friday cut the outlook on Spain’s debt to negative from stable and warned that the pandemic-hit economy will struggle to return to growth.”
https://www.thelocal.es/20200919/sp-downgrades-spains-debt-to-negative-on-pandemic-hit
“ECB to review flagship bond-buying tool in fighting Covid crisis: …Until the new PEPP programme’s introduction, the ECB’s sovereign bond purchases were bound by self-imposed rules, designed to avoid it being accused of using monetary policy to directly finance governments, which is illegal under EU law…
“Any move to increase the flexibility of the ECB’s overall bond-buying programme is likely to prove controversial, particularly among its critics in Germany who are gearing up to launch another legal challenge at the country’s constitutional court.”
https://www.ft.com/content/8ff55eff-ed3a-49db-b26a-2f49fa7822d4
“Europe could be facing a new sovereign-bank “doom loop” if a coronavirus crisis surge in government bond buying by banks in those same countries persists, rating agency S&P Global has warned.
“The “doom loop” was at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis when banks had huge holdings of their own governments’ debt. As it tumbled in value the banks needed bailing out which made the governments’ debt problems even worse.”
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-banks-sovereigndebt-idUKKCN26C15A
“As India emerges to be the new global hotspot for COVID-19 with 54, 85,612 cases till 21 September, the economy struggles to sustain itself.
“Global institutions and economists are speculating a poor future for India’s economic growth as all trends point towards negative.”
https://thepolicytimes.com/indias-economy-in-shambles-headed-for-a-double-digit-decline/
“A Chinese county government recently admitted that it was unable to meet a quota to set up a 5 million-kilogram (about 5,511-ton) grain reserve, fueling concerns that China faces a food crisis.
“According to the website of the Huguan county government of Changzhi city, Shanxi Province, the city in 2014 assigned Huguan county to establish the grain reserve. Shanxi Province is a major wheat-producing region of China.”
“China is tackling unbridled borrowing in the real estate development sector anew with caps for debt ratios.
“But sources at developers say a rush to get around the rules by moving more debt off balance sheets is on.”
“Indonesia’s economy is set to contract for the first time since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago as the country struggles to get virus cases under control.
“Gross domestic product is forecast to decline 0.6% to 1.7% this year, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Tuesday at a briefing in Jakarta.”
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/indonesia-sees-economy-contracting-first-045901239.html
“JobSeeker, JobKeeper changes from September 25 may cause [Australia an] economic collapse:
“The countdown is on to the day the rug will be pulled from under us. This is when Aussies will feel the real economic pain of the pandemic.”
“New Zealand’s great sensitivity to zigs and zags in the global economy makes it the canary in the coal mine of Asian trade. And at the moment, globalization’s early warning system is on life support as COVID-19 kills demand everywhere…
“With the U.S. slumping amid nearly 7 million COVID-19 infections, Japan and Europe stumbling, and China recovering only modestly, New Zealand export prospects are darkening by the day… Nor does the central bank have much ammunition left.”
https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/New-Zealand-slump-a-red-alert-for-world-economy
“Latin America could be heading for a systemic banking crisis if authorities do not confront threats to financial stability head on, a new report warns.
“Many governments across the region have taken action to support their economies, and central banks have eased policy. But intense strains on banks could lead to failures that supervisors are not fully equipped to tackle and governments have little fiscal room remaining.”
“Cuba’s Economy Was Hurting. The Pandemic Brought a Food Crisis:
“Cuba, a police state with a strong public health care system, was able to quickly control the coronavirus, even as the pandemic threw wealthier nations into crisis. But its economy, already hurting from crippling U.S. sanctions and mismanagement, was particularly vulnerable to the economic devastation that followed.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/world/americas/cuba-economy.html
“Lebanese seeking safety and jobs have joined the thousands risking their lives by setting sail in flimsy rafts and small boats with the aim of reaching peaceful and employment-rich shores…
“The exodus from Lebanon, caused by that country’s economic collapse, has accelerated since the August 4th explosion of nearly 300,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut’s port.”
https://www.gulftoday.ae/opinion/2020/09/20/economic-ruin-forces-thousands-of-lebanese-to-flee
“Sudan’s PM calls for international aid as transition teeters amid economic collapse:
“Western countries encouraged Sudan to overthrow a dictator, but now these ‘friends’ are needed to provide support.”
“The west will be haunted for decades to come by its failure to do more to help poor countries cope with the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 crisis, the United Nations humanitarian chief has warned.
“…Sir Mark Lowcock, the former top civil servant at the UK’s Department for International Development, said rich nations had acted decisively to deal with their own problems but failed to show the same vigour in response to the growing international crisis.”
“Saudi Arabia’s energy minister is keeping his options open while the recovery in oil prices splutters…
“…Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman is reluctant to commit to any new measures to bolster the oil market, telling reporters last week that “anyone who thinks they will get a word from me on what we will do next, is absolutely living in La La Land”.”
https://www.ft.com/content/229ffc72-320d-4611-b37f-5ce71c4dd0e4
“At World Oil, we have finished compiling the 2020 mid-year forecast update for drilling and production.
“On the drilling side, we now can tell you, our readers, that if this forecast is realized, the U.S. total for the year will definitely be the lowest since before 1940.
“Indeed, it could go back considerably further than the 1930s…”
“Downward spiral continues in U.S. shale as 190 companies teeter on brink of bankruptcy:
It is less than two months since U.S. President Donald Trump travelled to Texas to declare that the U.S. energy industry, laid low by this year’s oil price crash, was back on its feet. “We’re OK now,” the president told the assembled crowd.
“But bankruptcy numbers released this week tell a different story.”
“HSBC allowed fraudsters to transfer millions of dollars around the world even after it had learned of their scam, leaked secret files show… The files show the investment scam started soon after the bank was fined $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in the US over money laundering. It had promised to clamp down on these sorts of practices.
“The scam was a Ponzi scheme – a notorious type of investment racket that pays existing stakeholders with money collected from new members.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54225572
“Deutsche Bank Money Laundering Scandal Could Create Greatest Economic Crisis in History:
“The leak of the FinCEN Files over the weekend has rocked global markets and augurs a financial crisis of epic proportions as Deutsche Bank hovers over the precipice.”
“A financial crisis could surprise investors ‘sooner rather than later,’ warns Deutsche Bank.:
“…the Deutsche Bank strategists… see a looming financial crisis, tipped by a “growing overvaluation of assets and mounting debt levels,” and driven by the massive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus efforts.”
[FWIW this is what I also see!]
You can read the previous ‘Economic’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here. I’ll be back tomorrow with a ‘Climate’ round-up.
