Economy
Why the global economy may be just one more round of tariffs away from recession (Saxplayer00o1)
“We have been highlighting that there are signs of cracks appearing in the U.S. labor market,” Ahya wrote. “Just as in the rest of the world, the slowdown is spreading from the manufacturing and trade-related sectors to overall business investment and finally to the labor market.
Export Slump Pushes German Economy to the Brink of Recession (Saxplayer00o1)
GDP contracted 0.1% in second quarter, matching estimate
Japanification: investors fear malaise is spreading globally (Saxplayer00o1)
The primary symptom of spreading Japanification: the rise of negative-yielding debt, which has accelerated over the summer. There is now more than $16tn worth of bonds trading with sub-zero yields, or more than 30 per cent of the global total.
Curve inversion worsens as long-term rates fall, 30-year bond yields less than 2% (Saxplayer00o1)
The inversion of the 2-year/10-year yield curve is widely seen as an indication of an impending recession, and the curve has inverted on multiple occasions over the last two days of trading.
Japan estimates cast doubt over public pension sustainability (Saxplayer00o1)
Curbing bulging welfare spending is a vital step towards fixing the industrial world’s heaviest debt burden, which is currently more than twice the size of Japan’s $5 trillion economy.
Marin school district pension debt can top $24K per household (Saxplayer00o1)
Pension debt refers to the so-called “unfunded liability,” or obligations for future pension payouts that are not currently in hand in local coffers. Those payouts are guaranteed and so will eventually have to be paid by taxpayers in some form or another, such as fee increases, bumps in parcel or property taxes, sales taxes or rate hikes, said Nation, who represented Marin in the state Assembly from 2000 to 2006.
Pentagon in talks with Australia on rare earths plant: official (Thomas R.)
The Pentagon update came after the U.S. said earlier this year that it would look to Australia and Canada to develop rare earths reserves around the world to reduce the global reliance on China. It has also held talks with rare earths projects across Africa.
Lord said she has held several talks with Australian officials this year about whether such a plant could supply the Pentagon’s needs.
Scientists fight Trump EPA ‘secret science’ proposal to exclude certain research (Sparky1)
“Imagine the Food and Drug Administration being forbidden to approve new drugs unless the research justifying their use were subject to these same regulatory prohibitions. Drug approvals would likely grind to a halt. As would EPA regulations for air quality standards, hazardous materials exposures, pesticides exposures, drinking water concentrations, etc.,” Gamse said.
U.S.-China trade war is fueling the Amazon’s raging fires (Thomas R.)
Although the reasons behind this environmental calamity are complex, including local politics and industrial-scale plundering for profit, the U.S. also gave Brazil commercial incentives to raze parts of the Amazon when the Trump administration last year jacked up tariffs on Chinese imports. China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, subsequently stopped its purchases of American soybeans. U.S. farmers put their crop in storage, while China was forced to look elsewhere for 30 million to 40 million tons of seeds.
The Farmers’ Almanac is predicting a miserable winter 2020 (Thomas R.)
“The Northeast, including the densely populated corridor running from Washington to Boston, will experience colder-than-normal temperatures for much of the upcoming winter,” the forecast said. “Only the western third of the country will see near-normal winter temperatures, which means fewer shivers for them.”
Trump Scrambles To Win Back Angry Farmers (Michael S.)
One proposal is to increase the blending requirements for oil refiners next year in an effort to compensate ethanol producers. However, this plan faces some challenges. As Reuters reports, the market for RINs has become oversupplied due to the string of waivers that the EPA has issued. As a result, the policy change may not do enough to push up prices. RIN prices have fallen to around 15 cents each in recent days, down from 88.75 cents two years ago, according to Reuters. In other words, the ethanol market has been badly damaged and the Trump team might struggle to clean up the mess.
Gold & Silver
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The post Daily Digest 8/28 – Investors Fear Malaise Spreading Globally, Trump Scrambles To Win Back Angry Farmers appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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