Sunday, November 24

Author: Patti Mohr

Patti Mohr is a U.S.-based journalist. She writes about global diplomacy, economics, and infringements on individual freedom. Patti is the founder of the Global Economic Report. Her goal is to elevate journalistic principles and share the pursuit of truth in concert with others.
In the Midst of Pandemic, China Sets Economic Growth Target Aside
22May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Domestic Politics, Global Economics, Types of News: Brief

In the Midst of Pandemic, China Sets Economic Growth Target Aside

May 22, 2020--As Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered the government's work report at the start of China's 13th National People's Congress, one thing was notably missing: a target for economic growth. For decades, China's strength has come from a nearly single-pointed focus on increasing the size of its economy. Today, as its nation's leaders gather in the Great Hall of the People for their annual legislative session, the focus is on recovering from the ongoing blows of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The COVID-19 epidemic is the fastest spreading, most extensive, and most challenging public health emergency China has encountered since the founding of the People's Republic," Mr. Li said as he delivered his address to delegates. "At present, the epidemic has not yet come to an end, while th...
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18May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Finance, Investing, Types of News: Brief

State-Owned Investment Funds Seek Bargains in COVID-19 Economic Crisis

May 18, 2020-Even as governments and the private sector around the world face economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related shutdown of economies, some state-owned investment funds have been busy looking for bargains in the stock market. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund purchased $7.7 billion worth of stocks in the United States and Europe during the first three months of 2020. Purchases included a $827.8 million stake in BP, a $714 investment in Boeing, and purchases in Facebook, Bank of America, Citigroup, Walt Disney, Marriott, Pfizer and Starbucks, according to reporting by the Financial Times. And last month, it invested $500 million in the Los Angeles entertainment company Live Nation. The PIF is the tenth-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world....
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15May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Currency, Debt, National Budgets & Interest Rates, Domestic Politics, Types of News: Brief, United States

U.S. House Primed to Vote on Massive $3 Trillion Stimulus

May 15, 2020-The U.S. House is scheduled to vote today on a new supplemental spending bill for the current fiscal year. It's the fifth in a series of COVID-19 related stimulus bills, and it is massive in both physical size and its $3 trillion expense. Called the HEROS Act, the 1,815-page bill would extend unemployment benefits to furloughed workers for an additional six months, provide direct payments to businesses, give additional checks worth up to $1,200 for individuals, provide health care to unauthorized immigrants, financial support to farmers, renters and workers and $1 trillion for states and local governments. The Congressional Budget Office, which normally provides estimates for spending bills, has not published a report on the bill. Partisan Support Democrats are sp...
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U.S. Ramps Up Case Against China on Virus Outbreak, Cover-Up
7May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Globalization, Global Disintegration, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Bit

U.S. Ramps Up Case Against China on Virus Outbreak, Cover-Up

May 7, 2020—With the key question unresolved about how the COVID-19 virus emerged in Wuhan, China, diplomatic relations between China and the United States as well as other Western governments have ruptured, perhaps permanently. Funding Pulled The U.S. government stopped funding a line of research funding that fostered collaboration between U.S. scientists and those in Wuhan, China. The National Institutes of Health research project received $3.38 million over six years. It was a small part of its overall budget. (For perspective, in 2019, total NIH awards/grants were $28 billion.) But it was still a lot in terms of funding. The project proposed to understand the risk of bat coronavirus that poses "a significant threat to global health and food security." It came in the wake o...
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Amazon.com Executive Quits In Protest of Worker Firings
4May By Patti MohrNo Comments
Global Economics, Types of News: Brief

Amazon.com Executive Quits In Protest of Worker Firings

May 4, 2020-Despite surging sales, Amazon.com faces a critical time as its workers around the world raise safety concerns and as one of its top executives resigns due to "toxicity running through the company culture." Tim Bray left his position as a vice-president at Amazon Web Services May 1 in protest over the company's treatment of workers who complained about unsafe warehouse conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Bray said that although the decision to leave would cost him over a million dollars "not to mention the best job" he's ever had, he could no longer support power imbalances between workers and executives. In a blog post, Bray said Amazon.com executives fired two high-profile activists who had promoted a petition and organized a video call on behalf of warehouse work...
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COVID-19, From Bats to Humans: Examining the Wuhan Connection
17Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Communism, Dictatorship, Globalization, Global Disintegration, Organizations, IMF, WTO, G7, Types of News: Analysis

COVID-19, From Bats to Humans: Examining the Wuhan Connection

April 17, 2020--A great and tragic mystery of 2020 is the origin of the COVID-19 virus that is sweeping the world with sickness and death. Some researchers point to a seafood market in Wuhan. Others say it could have started in a Chinese lab in Wuhan. Most certainly, it came from bats. But how did it jump to humans? From Wuhan to the World To date, the COVID-19 virus that has infected over 2 million people worldwide and killed 149,000 people. Of the first 309 confirmed cases in China, 270 cases were confirmed in Wuhan. Of the first 41 patients hospitalized in Wuhan with the virus, 27 of them, 66 percent, had a connection to a food and wild animal market. Wholesale Food Market As early as December 2019, reports from China pointed to the connection to the Huanan Seafood Wholes...
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Global Economy to Shrink by 3 Percent in 2020, IMF Says
15Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Global Economics, Types of News: Brief

Global Economy to Shrink by 3 Percent in 2020, IMF Says

April 15, 2020--The global economy is headed towards to worst economic downturn since the Great Depression due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the world's lender of last resort. The International Monetary Fund now projects a contraction of 3 percent to the world economy. It's a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from the IMF's January 2020 estimate. The difference is due to the global pandemic and the measures taken around the world to contain it. "The magnitude and speed of collapsing activity that has followed is unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes," said Gita Gopinath, IMF's economic counselor and director the Research Department in a press briefing on April 14. "This makes the great lockdown the worst recession since the Great Depression, and far worse than t...
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Eurozone Ministers Agree to €500bn Rescue Package
10Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Europe, EU, Eurozone, Global Economics

Eurozone Ministers Agree to €500bn Rescue Package

April 10, 2020--Under increasing strain to hold their political and economic union together, Eurozone finance ministers agreed to a €500 billion economic rescue package for workers, businesses and governments. Eurogroup President Mário Centeno said the plan is meant to ensure Europe grows "together and not apart once the virus is behind us." The latest rescue package to deal with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis comes on top of monetary and fiscal stimulus measures worth trillions of Euros. Previous measures amount to 3 percent of GDP in fiscal measures and 16 percent of GDP in new monetary policies, according to the Eurogroup. Finance ministers from the 19 Eurozone countries agreed to the latest measure after a marathon 14-hour session. "Now we are building Europe...
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9Apr By Patti MohrNo Comments
Global Economics, Global Trade, Types of News: Brief

Global Economy Faces ‘Sharply Negative’ Outlook for 2020; Partial Recovery Possible for 2021

April 9, 2020-Despite fiscal stimulus of $8 trillion by governments around the world, the global economy may turn "sharply negative" this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, experts predict massive declines in global trade and employment. "Today we are confronted with a crisis like no other," IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Wednesday. "Covid-19 has disrupted our social and economic order at lightning speed and on a scale that we have not seen in living memory." The outlook is bleak for both advanced and developing economies. The IMF projects negative per capita income growth in over 170 countries this year and only a partial recovery under baseline assumptions for 2021. Georgieva emphasized that 2020 wil...
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Afghanistan Peace Unlikely, As U.S. Exits Trillion-Dollar War
6Mar By Patti MohrNo Comments
Geopolitics, Types of News: Analysis

Afghanistan Peace Unlikely, As U.S. Exits Trillion-Dollar War

March 6, 2020--In the days following the U.S.-Taliban agreement, violent attacks in Afghanistan show that an intense battle is underway for control of the country. On Saturday, U.S. representatives signed an agreement with and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, otherwise known as the Taliban, in Doha, Qatar. The deal promises to "bring peace to Afghanistan." But in the week that followed, attacks by Taliban forces and other gunmen shed blood of Afghan troops, government officials and civilians. On Wednesday, the Taliban conducted a wave of attacks across the country. And today, an attack by gunmen against the Afghan government killed at least 27 people and wounded 29 others. Talks between the Afghan government and Taliban are scheduled to start on Tuesday, March 10. Today, ...
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