Economy
Oil price rises above $80 for first time in three years – BBC
Oil prices climbed above $80 (£59) a barrel on Tuesday, hitting their highest level in three years as the pound slumped.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose to as much as $80.69 on the day, the most since October 2018. Prices have been rising for seven consecutive days on the back of the energy crisis in Europe. Analysts believe that oil prices will continue to rise amid surging demand and tight supplies.
Energy Crises In Europe And China Drive Energy Stocks Higher – Forbes
Futures are pointing to a higher open. News and announcements were light before the open which gave investors a chance to digest Tuesday’s selloff. The selloff was orderly which may suggest that the selloff wasn’t a taper tantrum but a “normal” September slump where money managers are rearranging their portfolios for the final quarter. Therefore, investors can look at the winners and losers to try and determine which sectors and industry groups could finish the year strong.
Struggling Evergrande to sell $1.5 bn stake in Chinese bank – Digital Journal
Embattled property developer Evergrande on Wednesday said it will sell a $1.5 billion stake in a regional Chinese bank to raise much-needed capital, as it struggles to make interest payments while being choked by debts and ratings downgrades.
The stake sale to a state-owned group is Evergrande’s first major asset disposal as it attempts to claw its way back from the brink of collapse.
Experts fear a chaotic implosion of the company, which is saddled with more than $300 billion in debts, could reverberate through China’s banking and property sectors, and possibly into the global economy.
First-time home buyers can’t keep up with ‘exhausting’ price growth – National Mortgage News
While record-setting price growth has boosted homeowner equity to historic levels, they’ve also made it nearly impossible for first-time buyers to save for a down payment.
As of June, the typical borrower needed 7.9 years to accumulate 20% down, compared to 7.1 years in January 2020, according to Tomo. This assumes a savings rate of 10% of income per month, which is high for most consumers.
Berliners just voted to seize housing from big corporate landlords – Quartz
Berlin voters sent a clear message to corporate landlords: public housing matters more than corporate shareholders. A city-wide referendum to expropriate rental properties belonging to large landlords and turn them into public housing passed with 56% of the vote on Sept. 26.
Fertilizer Prices Soar Near 2008 Highs on Supply Shocks, Concerns Sprout Over Sourcing Enough for 2022 U.S. Corn Acres – AgWeb
The fertilizer industry is swarmed with Black Swan events. From the impacts of Hurricane Ida to political and climate issues entangled in a cobweb of production slowdowns in Europe and China, the Black Swan events continue to stack up.
According to Josh Linville of StoneX Group, on Monday, the Chinese government effectively banned phosphate exports through June 2022. The news comes as China’s production was already throttled by climate emission concerns from production plants. The impact is already being seen with prices, as China accounts for almost one-third of the world phosphate trade.
Environment
The US infrastructure bill doesn’t go far enough to climate-proof the electric grid – Quartz
But the bill’s most important provision for the grid isn’t about money. It’s a tweak to an obscure law that should make it easier for developers to build long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines, a necessary ingredient for a grid with lots of renewable energy that has been stymied by jealous utilities. But it doesn’t go far enough, some experts say, to truly clear the path to one of Biden’s goals: a carbon-free grid by 2035.
The Renewable Revolution Could Save The World $26 Trillion – OilPrice.com
But a new op-ed from three professors from the University of Oxford, published by Bloomberg, argues that Nordhaus was mistaken, as he failed to account for some key economic principles including Moore’s law and Wright’s Law. Moore’s Law outlines that as technology improves, costs lower exponentially over time. This certainly has been the case for wind and solar, which are already outgrowing their government subsidies and becoming competitive with fossil fuels. Wright’s Law applies to a sort of manufacturing learning curve. The more we produce renewable energy, the better we get at it, and the more efficient and inexpensive it becomes.
Health
Harvard Business School Suspends Most In-Person M.B.A. Classes, Networking After Covid-19 Outbreak – WSJ
Harvard Business School has moved most of its M.B.A. classes online following a spate of breakthrough Covid-19 infections among its students. The move to remote instruction for all first-year courses and some second-year courses will run until at least Oct 3, the school said, and comes about a month after the start of classes.
A big new study from Oxford University confirms the bad news about long Covid – Quartz
The new study looked broadly at all patients with a Covid diagnosis—regardless of whether they would identify as suffering from long Covid—and whether they continued to suffer one or more symptoms in the subsequent six months. The study found a long tail for the illness in a large proportion of the population, while the use of a control group enabled the researchers to establish whether long Covid differed from the ongoing effects of other illness.
The post Daily Digest 9/29 — Oil Price Rises Above $80 for First Time in Three Years; Energy Crises in Europe and China Drive Energy Stocks Higher… appeared first on Peak Prosperity.
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