Don’t celebrate too much about the Dow reaching record highs, says a financial markets scholar.
There’s a lot of randomness in financial markets, and the significance of round-number milestones like last week's toppling of the 40,000 mark is mostly psychological.
As with all of her postings, everything Heather Cox Richardson says today deserves attention. She opens by noting that the Dow Jones closed above 40,000 for the first time in history. But "in comparison to the breathless coverage of the stock market during Trump’s administration, this milestone is getting very little coverage."
The Economic Damage due to climate change is much worse than thought!!!
The economic damage wrought by climate change is six times worse than previously thought, with global heating set to shrink wealth at a rate consistent with the level of financial losses of a continuing permanent war.
#France declared a state of emergency on the Pacific island of #NewCaledonia after clashes broke out between authorities and pro-independence protesters. At least four people have already been killed. Three of whom were Indigenous people, and the fourth was a French gendarme.
Protesters have been seen carrying heavy firearms, with reports of live rounds being fired at police.
Multiple buildings have been set on fire, and several supermarkets have been looted. White French residents have also formed armed groups to confront the Indigenous protesters.
Under the state of emergency, French authorities have imposed a curfew, banned #TikTok, closed schools, and placed restrictions on movement.
They have also deployed an additional 500 police officers, adding to the 1,800 police and gendarmes already on the island.
Protests erupted after French President Emmanuel #Macron introduced plans to reform New Caledonia’s electoral system, which would grant more French residents in the territory voting rights. Protesters believe this would unfavorably shift political representation in the country. The Pacific archipelago, home to the Indigenous #Kanak people, is rich in minerals and has been under French control since 1853.
For those interested in #economy of #Russia and international #sanctions, here’s the latest International Working Group on Russian Sanctions status report and recommendations:
Greg Jericho spells it out with graphics… the Australian standard of living has been falling since 2020 and will take years to recover (if at all). All of the noise made about wages fueling inflation is a lot of bull, there is no truth to it and no data to back it up. Don’t believe what most conservative economists tell you. Don’t believe a foolish press medium either. Wages need to move faster than inflation for us to be as well off as we were fourteen years ago (14 yrs… yes, that’s right). Neo-liberal economic policies are all about feeding the greedy at the top of the food chain, period.
https://www.europesays.com/1214655/ “If you don’t like paying taxes, make billionaires pay their fair share and you would never have to pay taxes again.” —Warren Buffett #Economy
The U.S. displaces China as Germany's biggest trading partner. Germany had been urging German companies to decouple from China.
"Combined exports and imports between Germany and the U.S. totaled 63 billion euros ($68 billion) between January and March of 2024, while trade with China came to just below 60 billion euros."