“Fears about the health of the global economy have intensified following downbeat news about service sector activity in China, the eurozone and the UK.
“Share prices fell in Asia and the pound dropped to a 12-week low against the US dollar after fresh signs of weakness in China triggered speculation that its post-lockdown recovery was running out of steam.”
“The world’s most powerful financial watchdog has warned of “further challenges and shocks” in the months ahead, as high interest rates undermine economic recoveries and threaten key sectors including real estate…
“Klaas Knot, chair of the Basel-based Financial Stability Board, said: “The global economic recovery is losing momentum and the effects of the rise in interest rates in major economies are increasingly being felt.””
https://www.ft.com/content/8f16ea1e-f926-4e23-b627-f22e58d0abbb
“Is this how globalisation ends?
“…if you were to sum up the headwinds faced by globalisation during this period in two words, these would be: populist backlash. Successive crises, and policymakers’ management of those crises, created mounting popular discontent with the operation of the global economic system.”
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/globalisation/62824/is-this-how-globalisation-ends
“Oil hits $90 for first time in 2023 as Saudi Arabia and Russia extend cuts…
“The move, which threatens to reignite inflation concerns globally, is the latest effort by two of the world’s largest oil producers to boost prices despite much of the world grappling with higher energy costs.”
https://www.ft.com/content/4d95aaaf-0186-4541-8926-525ec5ed5cdb
“Orsted CEO says abandoning US wind projects a ‘real option’…
“Denmark’s Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer, is prepared to walk away from projects in the U.S. unless the Biden administration guarantees more support, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing the company’s CEO.”
“The Coming Green Energy Bailout…
“According to a report late last month by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Nyserda), large offshore wind developers are asking for an average 48% price adjustment in their contracts to cover rising costs. The Alliance for Clean Energy NY is also requesting an average 64% price increase on 86 solar and wind projects.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/green-energy-nyserda-renewable-subsidies-rate-payer-bailout-b807ccb3
“US [corporate] Bankruptcy Tracker: Courts See Busiest August on Record.
The month of August saw at least 23 big bankruptcy filings… Last week’s filings — those with at least $50 million of liabilities — included a Dallas-area hospital that issued muni bonds and Mallinckrodt, the drugmaker that went bankrupt just two years ago…”
“Rising US consumer credit delinquencies spark new subprime crisis fears.
“Americans are increasingly failing to make payments on their credit cards and auto loans, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The New York Fed reported that the rate of new credit card delinquencies reached 7.2% in the second quarter of 2023…”
“UK petrol station drive-offs at record high amid cost-of-living crisis.
“Petrol station crime in the UK has hit its highest level since records began – with an increase of 4.7 per cent in the number of fuel thefts, say campaigners. It comes as motorist were hit by one of the sharpest jumps in fuel prices in more than two decades last month, on top of a continuing cost-of-living crisis.”
“Councils in England in crisis as Birmingham ‘declares itself bankrupt’ [this is the largest local government government body in Europe].
“The council’s head of finance took the dramatic decision on Tuesday to issue a section 114 notice, indicating that it did not have the resources to balance its books. Woking, Croydon and Thurrock are among the other councils to have made similar announcements recently…”
“German government announces major budget cuts to avoid future ‘iceberg’.
“Germany’s budget for next year includes spending cuts in all areas except defence in anticipation of growing future debt, the government announced on Tuesday, but critics worry about extra-budgetary ‘special funds’ not counted in the official budget.”
“Mallorca town halls facing a liquidity crisis…
“Selva, Joan Rotger, speaks for many of the island’s mayors when he says that… “Practically all projects we have had under way for two years have required increased allocations.” Use of cash from budget surpluses is required to meet the higher costs. “It’s a matter of necessity. Without the surpluses we could face financial collapse.””
“Debt Crisis Threatens to Engulf China’s Surviving Developers…
“Out of the nation’s top 50 private-sector developers by dollar bond issuance, 34 have already suffered delinquencies on offshore debt, according to Bloomberg-compiled data as of Sept. 1. The remaining 16, including Country Garden Holdings Co., face a combined $1.48 billion of onshore and offshore public bond payments for either interest or principal in September.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/debt-crisis-threatens-engulf-china-220000239.html
“Why South Africa is back on Stage 6 load shedding – and when it might end…
“Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has attributed the current round of Stage 6 load shedding to ramped up planned maintenance overlapping with unplanned breakdowns at several power plants.”
“Nigerian unions strike again to protest soaring costs after subsidy removal.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress has begun a two-day “warning strike”, their second in more than a month, to protest against the growing cost of living caused by the government’s removal of petrol subsidies.”
“At least two killed in Guinea anti-junta protests on eve of coup anniversary.
“At least two people were killed in Guinea’s capital Conakry when armed security forces attacked the neighbourhoods of political activists on the eve of planned demonstrations against the junta that seized power in 2021, protest organisers said on Tuesday.”
“At least 53 members of Burkina Faso’s security forces have been killed during heavy clashes with rebel fighters in the country’s north, according to the army.
“Seventeen soldiers and 36 volunteers assisting the military were killed during an “attack” in Koumbri commune in Yatenga province on Monday, the army said in a statement on Tuesday.”
“Long-standing tensions between Morocco and Algeria have moved up a notch with a deadly confrontation at sea last week between the Algerian Coast Guard and several men on jet skis.
“Algeria’s Ministry of National Defence has acknowledged that its forces fired on a group of people on jet skis who strayed into Algerian waters from Morocco on Tuesday and that a body was later found. The shooting has provoked national anger in Morocco.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/4/morocco-protests-over-killed-jet-ski-tourists-in-algeria
“Tunisia’s bad economy hits coeliac sufferers with rice shortage.
“For Siwar Derbeli a national rice shortage is not just another inconvenient symptom of Tunisia’s stretched national finances but a source of hunger because the coeliac disease she suffers from means it is one of the few staples she can comfortably eat.”
“Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader.
“Hundreds of angry protesters in southern Syria smashed the statue of Syria’s late president on Monday as they they marked the 2015 assassination of a prominent anti-government Druze leader.”
“Pakistan in uproar as protests over soaring energy prices turn violent.
“Pakistan is in the midst of political and economic turmoil, with a record inflation rate of 36.4% and the prime minister, Imran Khan, ousted in April last year after a vote of no confidence. The country was also devastated by floods last year, which submerged much of the country.”
“Is the IMF setting Sri Lanka up for a second car crash?
“Sri Lanka is bankrupt and restructuring its debts. But there’s a high risk that this restructuring will not be thorough enough, leaving the country with a festering problem that will probably just lead to another default.”
https://www.ft.com/content/34f53d81-3cd9-4105-97e5-4fc40133162f
“UN food agency cuts rations to 2 million Afghans as funds dry up.
“The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) had to cut rations to another 2 million Afghans this month and is warning of a “catastrophic” winter if funding runs out with little food for remote communities in place, the agency’s country director said.”
“Sugar Jumps to 11-Year High as Top Trader Sees Shortages.
“Sugar has surged to the highest in more than a decade. Alvean, the world’s largest trader of the commodity, forecasts another year of shortages.”
“The total-return of the catastrophe bond market is now above 14% for the first eight months of 2023, meaning that the cat bond market’s investment performance remains on-track to set new all-time records this year…
[“Catastrophe bonds provide elements of disaster recovery for the insured risk and thus transfer weather and other catastrophe risk from the insured entity to financial investors willing to bear that risk.” – The Man Group]
https://www.artemis.bm/news/catastrophe-bond-market-total-return-surpasses-14-ytd/
“How the market is underestimating the impact of environmental risk on sovereign bonds…
“The risk in question is the failure of countries to adequately protect their natural capital, putting water, air and soil resources in jeopardy and impacting key sectors such as agriculture, a team of analysts led by Maggie O’Neal, Barclays’ global head of ESG research, wrote in the report published on Monday.”
“Invasive species costs global economy $423 billion per year – UN report.
“Fishing grounds choked by water hyacinths. Songbird eggs gobbled up by rats. Power plant pipes clogged by zebra mussels. And electrical lines downed by brown tree snakes. These are just a few examples of the environmental chaos sown by invasive species, whose spread around the world has seen economic damages quadruple every decade since 1970, scientists said on Monday.”
You can read the previous “Economic” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with a “Climate” thread.
If you found value in this content, please help me continue this work by becoming a patron of my work via Patreon. And if you are already a subscriber or have donated – thank you! It is an enormous help as the cost-of-living crisis ratchets up here in the UK.
More about the storm in the Mediterranean:
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/09/fire-to-flood-greeces-destructive-roller-coaster-ride/
https://indi.ca/what-losing-to-climate-change-looks-like/
“We are on the standard run and this leads to a dramatic decline in living standards for our descendants. They will literally descend the business end of the graph, and curse us for it. When we completely bottom out, we will reach a kind of involuntary steady state, with vastly diminished resources, industrial capacity, and human population. Resources that could have been used to cushion this collapse will have been forever blown putting precious lithium in dildos, flying footballers around in private jets, and assorted dumb shit that will be remembered only in stories that sound more and more mythical.”
— Indrajit Samarajiva
Indi wisely did not paint the disaster movie future that I expected, and would of course be wrong. Instead, he went for a more sanitized version that just hints at the specifics. I almost did it for him, but … nah.
Oh, fantastic! I can buy a bond that will pay out a 14% profit if no catastrophy hits Greece, or Spain, or Turkey!! Please, take my money right away!!!!! I’m all in.
Outlandish as that is, my go to post would be the Orsted article, as it bears out what I’ve been claiming for a decade: without the tax paying public throwing their money away on otherwise hopeless green strategies, to “reduce” greenhouse gases by burning more fossil fuels to implement them than they will ever save, the Corponations will not risk their own monies. But Risk is what the shareholders are paid a dividend for assuming. Ergo, it is the taxpayers that should be paid the dividends, NOT the shareholders. That, of course, will never happen.
Everything appears to be going bankrupt but we will build a 15 minute google city from the ashes of 5 degrees C above normal. I have not seen any insects in my neck of wood’s except some honey bees very few and wasps. Everything else is gone. I see more trees dying and people quote cliff mass over here which is annoying but he believes in fusion power too. We will see how long ai will last as the stuff they want needs more power and energy we don’t have. Another space race to moon to mine the minerals yeah we will be the laughing stock as a species in the universe.
Another little tidbit from Niger. It looks like the new government is pushing its advantage. I’m thinking this is very ballsy on their part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6EZibVMsIc
The actual price of yellowcake:
https://www.uranium.info/
Let’s all go into debt borrowing money from banks that create it out of thin air. Nothing like paying back debt with delusional money.
I’ve always thought overpopulation would lead to severe problems for the species & fractional reserve lending might make the ride to NTHE exceedingly rough.
Once again, how much physical global currency is in circulation & what is the total global debt. Someone is not going to be repaid.