DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

There were two main elements to the blowup in so-called Liability Driven Investment (LDI) strategies for British pension funds over the end of the third quarter. And yet it's private credit - ranging from direct corporate lending vehicles to leveraged loans - where arguably least is known. The rising rate environment alone has made some wonder how resilient private credit strategies given they don't have to mark to market regularly. To cope with illiquidity, the survey showed investors increasingly pairing private credit allocations with cash or more liquid core fixed income instruments. The boom in private credit assets has been spectacular - but booms don't last forever and shocks like the ones we've seen in recent weeks are at least a shot across the bow.

At the International Monetary Fund's last count in the first quarter of this year, almost 5% of the world's foreign currency reserves were denominated in sterling - a total of $625 billion dollars worth of sterling and sterling assets on a crude calculation from the $12.55 trillion total. The UK has a reserve currency so it can always issue debt – it's just a question of the right price." But what if that reserve currency position is threatened and foreign central banks balk at holding so much sterling in their national savings stashes? Seven of the world's top 10 reserve holding central banks are in Asia or the Middle East. UBS chart on its 2022 survey of world reserve managersThe opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.

☆ U.S. Congress readies stopgap bill to avert shutdown, aid Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Richard Cowan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

President Joe Biden's Democrats, who control both chambers of Congress, are expected to avoid an embarrassing partial government shutdown just six weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. The bill, which would extend overall government funding through Dec. 16, was facing resistance because of an energy permitting reform measure. The spending provisions include $12.3 billion in new money to help Ukraine turn back Russia's invasion, House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro said in a statement. In addition, it authorizes Biden to direct the drawdown of up to $3.7 billion for the transfer to Ukraine of excess weapons from U.S. stocks. The last time Congress allowed funding to lapse was in December 2018, when Democrats balked at paying for then-President Donald Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall, leading to a record, 35-day impasse and partial government shutdown.

☆ The Fed is dragging the US into a recession to cool surging prices. Most Americans expect inflation to die down on its own.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Inflation expectations have been falling since the spring, signaling there's little chance of a 1980s-like price surge. Inflation expectations may seem like simple forecasts, but their effects on the economy can be dramatic. Anchored inflation expectations can put downward pressure on price growth as consumers reject large price hikes and businesses are pushed to compete with each other. Powell on Wednesday pointed to well-anchored inflation expectations as a boon, but noted the trend "is not grounds for complacency." "The longer the current bout of high inflation continues, the greater the chance that expectations of higher inflation will become entrenched," the chair said.

☆ Take no prisoners: In the Fed’s inflation fight, no one is spared
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Christine Romans | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Global central banks are jacking up interest rates with no end in sight until high inflation is vanquished. The Federal Reserve is aggressively fighting inflation by lifting its benchmark interest rate five times so far this year. There isn’t.”Higher interest rates make life more expensive for anyone who borrows money. The higher rates ding home affordability but also might be holding back home sales. Higher interest rates make financing a car — when you can find one — even more expensive.

☆ Pound tanking, massive tax cuts and talk of emergency hikes. Here's what's going on in the UK
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Jim O'Neill, former Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman and a former U.K. Treasury minister, said the pound's fall shouldn't be misinterpreted as dollar strength. The announcement Friday featured a volume of tax cuts not seen in Britain since 1972 and an unabashed return to the "trickle-down economics" promoted by the likes of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The radical policy moves set the U.K. at odds with most major global economies against a backdrop of sky-high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis. Ibrahim added that this would imply further suffering for U.K. financial markets due to the "unfavorable policy mix" over the near term. The British lender expects the government to clarify its plans to balance the books through "spending cuts and reform outcomes" ahead of the November budget statement, which Montagne suggested "should help to deflect immediate concerns relating to large unfunded tax cuts."

☆ There's overwhelming support for an age limit on the president and Congress. Here's why that won't happen anytime soon.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Some have proposed age limits for elected officials amid concerns about America's gerontocracy. The history of the contemporary movement for term limits largely dates back to the early 1990s, when dozens of states enacted term limits not just for their own legislatures but for their federal representatives in Washington. "Put it this way: I'm a little more interested in term limits than age limits," Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland told Insider. "There's a logic to term limits, because the principle of democracy is taking turns," Raskin, 59, said. "If there were to be term limits, the legislature certainly should have more terms than the executive," he offered.

☆ 'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini's forecast of a 'long and ugly' inflation-driven recession is wrong, according to Cathie Wood
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nouriel Roubini's view that inflation will cause a "long and ugly" recession is wrong, according to Cathie Wood. "Roubini and others forecasting intractable '70's-style inflation will be blindsided by outright deflation," Wood said. While the two might disagree on inflation vs. deflation, they agree that the economy will enter a recession. To that point, Wood noted recent data on gasoline demand as reason to believe deflation is imminent. Wood chalks it up to the fact that consumers do have the ability to balk at high prices and reduce their spending habits in response.

☆ The world is staring down a brutal winter of soaring energy prices, rolling blackouts, and freezing homes. But there's a clear solution to the crisis — if we aren't too scared to use it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Kartik Menon | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Confronted with energy shortfalls into the colder months and years of potential energy uncertainty, one solution has gained traction around the globe: nuclear energy. Many nations, including the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, and Japan, have begun or reconsidered massive sovereign investment into nuclear power. Reliable, low-cost, and carbon-free, nuclear energy allows these nations to arrest the economic decline from higher energy prices and make progress toward net-zero goals. Compared to other sources of energy, nuclear power is relatively safe — the number of deaths per terawatt hour produced is comparable to wind and solar energy. These are encouraging steps toward getting the West off of Russian energy and helping consumers weather the tough times ahead.

☆ 'Line balk' is one of the biggest obstacles facing popular chains like Starbucks and Chick-fil-A — here's what it is and how they're fighting it
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Mary Meisenzahl | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Starbucks and Chick-fil-A executives have said that long drive-thru lines keep away customers. Long drive-thru lines are "one of the number one reasons for not visiting Starbucks," Chief Marketing Office Brady Brewer told investors in Seattle at the company's investor day on September 13. Potential customers see the long line from the road and decide not to join, or leave from the end of the line before ordering, which is referred to as "line balk," at Starbucks, Brewer said. Chick-fil-A famously deals with the same problem, with its long lines regularly making headlines and frustrating local lawmakers and neighboring business owners. In 2021, exiting CEO Dan Cathy said how much business lines could be costing the chain.

☆ Bonus cap scrap would be dubious Brexit dividend
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A person points to the City of London financial district from a viewing platform in London, Britain, October 22, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKayLONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - UK finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng wants to make the City more competitive. That means UK banks and foreign ones operating in London might have to keep their compensation policies broadly the same to retain staff. Bringing the highly charged issue to the fore means Kwarteng might have less cover to push ahead with more meaningful changes, like getting rid of the bank levy. CONTEXT NEWSBritish finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng is seeking to scrap Britain’s cap on bankers’ bonuses, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 14.

☆ Joe Manchin Releases Bill to Speed Up Energy Projects as Lawmakers Balk
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-16 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) on Wednesday released the full details of his permitting-overhaul bill aimed at speeding up the approval process for energy-related projects across the country. The 91-page proposal would accelerate timelines for environmental reviews of major energy projects such as pipelines, transmission lines and wind farms. It would set a two-year target for the duration of the most detailed category of review required by the federal government’s National Environmental Policy Act.

Search resuls for: "balk"

12 mentions found