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Economy
HARD NUMBERS: NW natural gas prices hit record lows, Solar company sues border authorities, Turkey prices tank as holiday approaches, RFK Jr. takes aim at AMA
An allegedly-enslaved Chinese worker labors at a building materials factory in China's Xinjiang region, 11 December 2010. Canadian authorities have tried to crack down on the import of Chinese products manufactured with forced labor.
1.04: Natural gas prices in western Canada and the northwestern US are athistoric lows as local producers continue to ramp up production. At the latest reading, the benchmark cost for a million British thermal units of gas was $1.04. British Columbia producers have been expanding output ahead of the opening of a liquefied natural gas export facility on the B.C. coast next year.
5 million: A Canadian solar panel firmhas launched a lawsuit against border authorities over their wrongful detainment of $5 million worth of panels from China suspected of having been made with forced labor. In 2020, Canada adopted rules to stop the import of products made with slave labor, above all in China’s Xinjiang province, where Beijing operates forced labor camps. Since then, about 50 shipments have been intercepted — only one was proven to violate the rules.
6: As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches in the US, Americans can be grateful for this: prices for turkey, the centerpiece of the holiday spread, aredown 6% this year, in part because of ebbing demand for the bird. Still, Turkey prices are 19% higher than they were before the pandemic.
10,000: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom president-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the US Health and Human Services Department, isreportedly devising a plan to remove the American Medical Association from its decades-old role in setting prices for the more than 10,000 medical services reimbursed by Medicare, the US insurance scheme for the elderly. The AMA has longargued that doctors aren’t compensated fairly, but critics decry the fees that the AMA itself takes for setting the price codes.Trump's treasury tussle: The search for a Wall Street-friendly populist
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a copy of the Wall Street Journal while speaking at a Trump for President campaign rally at the Jacksonsville Landing in Jacksonville, Florida.
Donald Trump won the White House on a promise to turn around the US economy. Now, he’s struggling to appoint a lieutenant to tackle the job.
In contrast to his many hasty appointments to the rest of his cabinet, Trump has been hesitant to choose a treasury secretary. His uncertainty stems from his desire to find someone loyal to his populist economic agenda – unlike his first term treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who often opposed him – but who won’t spook tariff-wary Wall Street.
Wait, what does the treasury secretary do? The treasury secretary is the economy’s quarterback, responsible for overseeing the country’s international trade policy. They direct the domestic and global economic agenda, as well as tax and tariff policies.
Who are the contenders? Trump is reportedly considering former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh and Wall Street titan Marc Rowan, who emerged as possible frontrunners after financiers Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent no longer seemed like obvious choices amid rumors they may have lost a bit of their shine. Trump accused Lutnick, who has been leading his transition operation, of manipulating the process in his favor. Bessent may still be in the running, but after a knife fight with Lutnick last week, Trump has started looking elsewhere.
He is allegedly not considering his former trade adviser Robert Lighthizer, out of fear that his open embrace of tariffs would stall the momentum on Wall Street since his victory – an indication that Trump may sacrifice portions of his tariff plans if it means keeping the financial sector happy. However, Lighthizer may still hold another senior trade or economic role. Trump’s final decision is expected to be made after he meets with the candidates at Mar-a-Lago later this week.
Accompanied by tugs, the LNG tanker "Hellas Diana" transports a cargo of LNG to the "Deutsche Ostsee" energy terminal.
Danke, but no danke. The German government has reportedly ordered its ports to reject all cargoes of liquefied natural gas, aka LNG, coming from Russia, according to the Financial Times.
The move completes a striking turnaround for Germany, which for decades was the world’s largest importer of Russian gas. But since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, piped gas shipments have been cut by both sides. Germany now imports zero gas directly from Russia.
The US angle: Geopolitical considerations are afoot. While other countries in Europe still import small amounts of Russian LNG under long-term contracts, the EU broadly is looking to import more of the stuff from the growing American market.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyenraised this issue with Trump during her post-election phone call to him last week. The EU is likely hoping that increased purchases of American LNG could mollify Trump’s pledge to impose blanket tariffs of up to 20% on all US imports.
Hard Numbers: America’s poisoned wells, US guns in the Caribbean, China's port in Peru, Euro approaches Dollar
The Chinese-controlled megaport of Chancay, in Peru.
27: Is there something in the water in the US these days? Yes, something poisonous. Some 27% of the country’s population drinks water from aquifers that are contaminated with so-called “forever chemicals,” according to a new study by the United States Geological Survey. The contaminants seep into the ground from military bases, chemical facilities, plastic factories, and other industrial sources.
90: Island nations across the Caribbean are suffering from a surge in homicides, and they have one thing in common: US guns. Some 90% of the firearms used in killings in the region are bought in the United States and smuggled out, usually via Florida. Last year, more than 800 US-bought firearms were seized across the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad.
3.6 billion: On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Peruvian President Dina Boluartewill officially open the Port of Chancay, a Chinese-built megaport on the Peruvian coast. The $3.6 billion deepwater facility is a major bid by Beijing to advance China’s commercial interests in Latin America. Peru says that the port will boost its own exports to Asia, but critics warn that Chancay – which is legally controlled exclusively by the Chinese company Cosco – is a threat to Peru’s sovereignty.
1: Amid an ongoing slump, the Euro has fallen to its lowest point this year, just cents away from reaching a value of $1. Experts cite fears that European exporters could be hammered by the tariffs that US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened. For context, with the exception of a few weeks in late 2022, the European currency has not traded at or below parity with the greenback in two decades.
A woman cleans thick mud, in the aftermath of floods caused by heavy rains, in Sedavi, near Valencia, Spain, November 3, 2024.
210: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VIhad to cut short visits to flood-ravaged Valencia on Sunday after furious crowds “heckled and attacked” Sanchez and pelted Felipe with mud. Many locals feel authorities failed to heed warnings of torrential rains and act before floods tore out bridges and sent walls of water crashing through hillside communities, killing over 210 people.
34: Butter prices in Moscow have risen by 34% since the start of the year to 239.96 roubles (US$2.45), according to receipts reviewed by Reuters, as defense spending on Russia’s war with Ukraine drives up costs (official figures show a more modest but still painful 25.7% rise). Shoplifting has also soared, with some stores now placing the staple food in anti-theft containers. Talk about guns vs. butter!
35: Argentina’s central bank on Friday lowered its benchmark interest rate to 35% from 40%, its first cut in nearly six months as monthly inflation declined to 3.5% in September from 25.5% last December. While good news for consumers, economists say the move makes it harder for President Javier Milei to lift currency controls and won’t help his government negotiate a new deal with the IMF.
943,000: Marriage registrations in China dropped by nearly a million in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, totaling 4.747 million couples. Economic uncertainty and high prices are prompting many young Chinese not to tie the knot, undermining Beijing’s efforts to boost a shrinking population.
6: Cell phones, sake, and cycling don’t mix! Cyclists who text and ride in Japan could face six months in jail or a fine of 100,000 yen (US$655) under a new law, and drinking and riding could net a term of up to three years or a penalty of 500,000 yen (US$3,278).54.35: Pro-EU incumbent Maia Sandu won reelection in Moldova on Sunday with 54.35% of the vote, a resounding victory that gives Sandu a mandate in her pursuit of accession to the European Union. Russia attempted to sway the election by backing Sandu’s anti-EU opponent, but Moldovans in the diaspora seem to have played a key role in ensuring Sandu stayed in power.
Hard Numbers: Aramco invests, Japan frets, Perplexity gets popular — and sued, UK sentences man in deepfake case
June 16, 2023 - Paris, France: Saudi Arabia s crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman arrives at the Elysee palace for his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
25: When surveyed, only 25% of Japanese respondents said that AI makes them nervous — the lowest mark of any of the 32 countries that Ipsos polled recently. But the country has been very slow to adopt AI or lean fully into its research. Stanford’s count of the “foundation models” for generative AI found that 182 of them originated in the United States, while none originated in Japan. The country is open to AI, but its tech sector just isn’t diving in yet.
350 million: Perplexity is an ascendant AI search engine — it fielded 350 million user queries in September alone. That’s a big uptick considering users asked only 500 million questions in all of 2023. As it’s grown, the company has come under fire from news publishers. Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, sued Perplexity last week alleging copyright violations. In response, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said he won’t pay to license content from news publishers but is discussing a revenue-sharing agreement similar to how Spotify pays musical artists.
18: In a landmark court decision, a judge in the United Kingdom sentenced a 27-year-old man to 18 years in prison for using AI to create child sexual abuse material. The man pleaded guilty to using a US-based service called Daz 3D to transform real photos of children into explicit deepfakes in violation of British law.