After Worst Start in 50 Years, Some See More Pain Ahead for Stock Market

THE NEW YORK TIMES: At the halfway point of the year, it’s been a historically horrible time for stocks. Bonds are in bad shape, too.

The stock market is on track for its worst first half of the year since at least 1970. | Julia Nikhinson/Associated Press
Wall Street set records in the first half of the year, none of them good.

The economy is on the cusp of a recession, battered by high inflation and rising interest rates, which eats into paychecks, dents consumer confidence and leads to corporate cutbacks. As it has teetered, markets have tanked.

The stock market is on track for its worst first six months of the year since at least 1970. The S&P 500 index, the cornerstone of many stock portfolios and retirement accounts, peaked in early January and has fallen 19.9 percent over the past six months.

The sell-off has been remarkably broad, with every sector except energy down this year. Bellwethers including Apple, Disney, JPMorgan Chase and Target have all fallen more than the overall market.

And that’s only part of the horror story for investors and companies this year. » | Isabella Simonetti | Thursday, June 30, 2022

Die Bitcoin-Millionäre | ARTE Re: Reupload

Jun 30, 2022 Traumhafte Gewinne, ohne staatliche Kontrollen – das verheißen Bitcoins und andere Internetwährungen. Ihre Anhänger glauben an eine finanzielle Revolution. Trotz extrem schwankender Kurse und Warnungen vor einer gefährlichen Blase investieren sie weltweit Milliarden in das digitale Geld. Mit zu hohem Risiko?

Der Holländer Didi Taihuttu (42) hat für Bitcoins und andere digitale Währungen sein Leben und das seiner Familie auf den Kopf gestellt. Noch vor wenigen Jahren besaß der Unternehmer ein Haus und drei Autos. 2017 verkaufte er alles und investierte sein Vermögen in digitale Währungen. Die kalte Jahreszeit verbringt die Familie nun in Thailand. Didis Vermögen hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren um ein Vielfaches vermehrt. Als der Bitcoin 2018 zwischenzeitlich einbrach, investierte er noch mehr in die Kryptowährung – und profierte auch davon. Der Kurs erholte sich schnell und in der Folge stieg er immer weiter. Aber die Bitcoin-Familie will langfristig Gewinn machen und pflegt deshalb einen minimalistischen Lebensstil. Brechen die Kurse ein, könnten Didi und seine Familie von heute auf morgen bankrott sein.

Auch Robert Küfner und Till Wendler glauben an eine Revolution des Finanzwesens durch digitale Währungen. Und sie wollen ganz vorn mit dabei sein. In der Krypto-Hochburg Berlin haben die beiden Bitcoin-Millionäre das Start-up Advanced Blockchain AG gegründet. Die Pioniere beraten Unternehmen, wie sie die Technologie hinter den Bitcoins – die so genannte Blockchain – künftig nutzen können. Eine dezentrale Datenverarbeitung, die niemand manipulieren kann – mit dieser Idee sollen Finanzmarkt und Industrie umgekrempelt werden. Investoren und namhafte Firmen stehen bereits vor der Tür. Doch noch fehlt es den Jungunternehmern an Mitarbeitern mit dem richtigen Know-how. Auf der Suche nach Programmierern reist Till Wendler in die Ukraine. Die Jungunternehmer stehen extrem unter Druck. Wer im Markt der neuen Krypto-Technologie mitspielen will, muss schnell sein.

Reportage (Deutschland 2018, 30 Min)
Video auf YouTube verfügbar bis 31/07/2022

Crypto Crisis: How Digital Currencies Went from Boom to Collapse

THE GUARDIAN: Savers talk of devastating losses as assets such as bitcoin and ‘stablecoins’ like terra fell sharply

Falling bitcoin illustration: Guardian Design
Yuri Popovich had watched his neighbours’ houses burn down to the ground in Kyiv and he needed a safe place to put his money. So he did what millions of amateur investors have done in recent years: he turned to cryptocurrency.

“It was impossible and unsafe to store funds in the form of banknotes. There was a big risk of theft, we also had cases of looting. Therefore, I trusted a ‘stable and reliable’ cryptocurrency. Not for the purpose of speculating, but simply to save,” he says.

The digital asset that Popovich chose in April was terra, a “stablecoin” whose value was supposed to be pegged to the dollar.

It collapsed in May, sparking a rout in the cryptocurrency market whose victims include Popovich. He lost $10,000 (£8,200).

Popovich says his losses were “devastating”, although donations from sympathetic onlookers on social media have helped make up some of the shortfall. He says: “I stopped sleeping normally, lost 4kg, I often have headaches and anxiety.”

Popovich is one of many experiencing the deep chill of the current crypto winter, more than four years after the market’s cornerstone, bitcoin, marked the first digital freeze by tumbling from its then peak. » | Alex Hern and Dan Milmo | Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Cryptomonnaies : malgré la chute des cours, les jeunes veulent encore y croire

LE MONDE : Les moins de 30 ans sont nombreux à investir dans le bitcoin, l’ether et autres cryptoactifs. Si la chute des cours a douché les illusions de ceux qui ont perdu une partie de leurs économies, beaucoup veulent garder confiance dans ces technologies qu’ils jugent d’avenir.

A Hongkong, le 17 février 2022. KIN CHEUNG / AP
« J’ai été déçu, mais il fallait s’y attendre. » Début juin, stupéfait par l’effondrement des cours des cryptomonnaies, Anthony (les personnes citées dont le nom n’apparaît pas ont souhaité garder l’anonymat), étudiant en électronique-informatique, s’est résolu, la mort dans l’âme, à vendre celles qu’il détenait. « J’ai perdu la moitié de mon placement en l’espace de deux jours », soit 200 euros sur les 400 euros misés initialement, se désole le jeune homme de 20 ans. Et il n’est pas le seul.

Le bitcoin, dont le cours a chuté de 69 000 dollars (environ 65 000 euros) en novembre 2021 à près de 20 000 dollars, mi-juin, poursuit sa descente aux enfers, entraînant avec lui tout le marché des cryptoactifs, dont la valeur est passée sous la barre des 1 000 milliards de dollars. Les plates-formes où s’échangent ces pseudo-devises ont, elles aussi, plongé dans la tourmente : l’américain Coinbase a annoncé, le 14 juin, qu’il supprime 18 % de ses effectifs, Celsius, qui gérait des actifs valorisés à 12 milliards de dollars, mi-mai, a suspendu les retraits et transferts, tandis que CoinFLEX a déclaré, le 24 juin, avoir suspendu tous les retraits de fonds, citant des « conditions de marché extrêmes ». » | Par Maël Gally | lundi 27 juin 2022

Article réservé aux abonnés

It Feels Like Boris Johnson’s Britain Is Finally ‘Sinking Giggling Into the Sea’

Oli Scarff/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images
OPINION : GUEST ESSAY
THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — For Boris Johnson, Britain’s embattled and scandal-ridden prime minister, nowhere is safe.

On Thursday, that may become inescapably clear. Two local elections — one in a traditional Tory area in South Devon that the party has controlled almost continuously since 1885, the other in a postindustrial seat in North England that the Tories took from Labour for the first time in 90 years in 2019 — will deliver a decisive assessment of Mr. Johnson’s flailing popularity. As things stand, the Conservatives are set to lose both.

Mr. Johnson’s ability to win over such disparate people and places — affluent farmers and neglected manufacturers, the shires in the South and old Labour heartlands in the North — once ensured his position at the top of the Conservative Party. Yet now, as Britain hovers on the brink of economic recession, the constituencies that previously united around the prime minister appear to be rejecting him. For Mr. Johnson, his authority frayed by a recent no confidence vote, a double defeat would leave his tenure hanging by a thread.

But the Conservatives’ problems are much bigger than the prime minister. After 12 years in office, under three different leaders, the Conservatives have collectively set the stage for Britain’s woes. The balance sheet is dire: Wages haven’t risen in real terms since 2010, austerity has hollowed out local communities, and regional inequality has deepened. Britain’s protracted departure from the European Union, pursued by the Conservatives without a clear plan, has only made matters worse. » | Samuel Earle * | Wednesday, June 22, 2022

* Mr. Earle is a British journalist who writes about politics and culture.

Inflation in Turkey: Researcher Won’t Hide the Figures Erdogan Doesn’t Want to See

A man buys bread in the Ulus district of Ankara, Turkey on May 5, 2022. © Burhan Ozbilici, AP
FRANCE 24: In May the official Turkish statistics institute established the inflation rate at 73.5 percent, the highest in the country since 1998 – a figure ENAG, an independent group of researchers, immediately disputed. It puts the real rate at around 160.80 percent. The director of the organisation became the target of judicial inquiries and political pressure, and is losing his position at his university.

His hands deep in the pockets of his apron, sporting a large drooping grey moustache, Zeki looks wearily at the fruits and vegetables lying in full view in his shop in Moda, in the heart of the Kadikoy district in Istanbul on the Asian side of the city. "Look at these beautiful pink heirloom tomatoes," he says, pointing his chin in their direction. "They're coming straight from Antalya. Normally in this season everyone wants them. What a waste."

A year ago, Zeki was selling the tomatoes for eight Turkish liras (.45 euros) per kilogramme. Today, he can't sell them for less than 20 (1.10 euros), more than double last year's price. Economists say inflation is to blame, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan disagrees. He explained on June 6 that inflation doesn't exist in Turkey and that price increases are due to the growing cost of living. Denial » | Ludovic DE FOUCARD | Wednesday, June 22, 2022

UK Inflation Rises to 9.1%, Its Highest Rate in 40 Years

THE GUARDIAN: Headline CPI rate will add to cost of living crisis, fuelled by rises in food and transport costs

UK inflation has increased to 9.1%, its highest rate in 40 years amid record prices for petrol and the soaring cost of food.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics showed an increase in May from 9% in April, as measured by the consumer price index, in a reading that matched the forecasts of City economists. In a fresh high, the headline inflation rate has hit a level not seen since February 1982, piling pressure on households in the cost of living crisis.

Inflation is being fuelled by food and non-alcoholic drink prices, which are rising at the fastest annual rate since 2009, the ONS said, with the most dramatic increases seen in the cost of bread, cereals and meat.

Soaring prices for petrol and diesel also drove up inflation in May, adding to the pressure on motorists and business costs with a 32.8% jump motor fuels over the past year – the biggest annual increase on records dating back to 1989. » | Richard Partington and Rowena Mason | Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Tory ex-minister says plan to raise state pensions by 10% is ‘ludicrous’: Jim O’Neill scathing about decision to help pensioners while forcing real-terms pay cuts on public sector workers »

Elon Musk Says a US Recession Is ‘Inevitable’

THE GUARDIAN: Tesla CEO says slump is likely to come in near term, amid plan to lay off 10% of firm’s salaried staff

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, says a US recession is ‘more likely than not in the near term’.Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters
Elon Musk has warned that a US recession is “more likely than not” as the Tesla chief executive confirmed plans to cut 10% of salaried staff at the electric carmaker over the next three months.

The world’s richest man said a recession in the US was inevitable but would most probably come in the short term.

“A recession is inevitable at some point. As to whether there is a recession in the near term, that is more likely than not,” Musk said in an interview via videolink at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday.

Musk said Tesla was planning to reduce salaried staff numbers by 10%, confirming plans revealed in an internal email this month by Reuters. » | Dan Milmo and agency | Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Crypto Panic as Digital Assets Follow Share Prices in a Downward Spiral

THE OBSERVER: Last week bitcoin fell 31% and Celsius put a hold on withdrawals – and some fear the turmoil is far from over

Investors used to buy bitcoin as a hedge against inflation, but it has proved to be vulnerable to the wider economic downturn. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
The cryptocurrency market could do with some respite but its convention-breaking nature means there is no hiatus. Trading in digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum runs 24/7, unlike their conventional peers in equities on the New York and London stock exchanges, which at least get the weekend off.

So one torrid week tends to run into another for this most cutting-edge of markets. Bitcoin – the cryptocurrency cornerstone – fell below the key level of $20,000 on Saturday morning, meaning it has dropped 34% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko, which showed that ethereum, the other pillar of the market, had fallen 40% to $994 in the same period. There are fears bitcoin’s fall will trigger more sell-offs, leading to another tumultuous seven days for digital assets.

The entire crypto market fell below $1 trillion last week, a precipitous decline from its peak of $3tn in November last year. A number of factors drove the declines – a mix of crypto-specific events and wider macroeconomic issues – and some of them will continue to hang over the market this week as well. » | Dan Milmo, Global technology editor | Sunday, June 19, 2022

Kryptowährungen: Bitcoin bricht erneut ein und fällt unter 20 000 US-Dollar

NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG: Virtuelle Währungen wie Bitcoin und Co. haben einen schlechten Ruf. Seit Anfang Mai stürzen die Kurse regelrecht ab. Sie gelten als unbeständig und als Energiefresser. Doch sie haben gegenüber herkömmlichen Zahlungsmitteln auch Vorteile. Die wichtigsten Antworten zu Kryptowährungen.

Die neusten Entwicklungen

Der Bitcoin-Kurs bricht weiter ein und fällt auf unter 20 000 Dollar. Am Samstag (18. 6. ) brachen auch die Kurse vieler weiteren Digitalwerte weiter ein. Die Nummer zwei am Markt, Ether, sank unter die Schwelle von 1000 Dollar. Der Marktwert aller rund 19 900 Kryptoanlagen ging weiter zurück. Der Wert von einem Bitcoin fiel auf der Handelsplattform Bitfinex am Samstagvormittag bis auf 18 690 Dollar (17 791 Euro). Das waren etwa zehn Prozent weniger als am Tag zuvor. Der Preis für einen Ether sank bis auf 973 Dollar. Ein Bitcoin kostet damit so wenig wie zuletzt Ende 2020, der Ether-Kurs hatte zuletzt Anfang 2021 so niedrig gelegen. Das Marktvolumen aller derzeit existierenden Kryptowährungen fiel laut Coinmarketcap auf 832 Milliarden Dollar. Das ist weniger als ein Drittel des im November markierten Rekords von fast drei Billionen Dollar. » | Thomas Schürpf / Werner Grundlehner | Samstag, 18. Juni 2022

Bitcoin value slumps below $20,000 in cryptocurrencies turmoil: Digital asset slides to lowest level since November 2020 as rate rises increase pressure on markets »

The Coin That Could Wreck Crypto

THE NEW YORK TIMES: As cryptocurrencies have plunged, attention has focused on a potential point of vulnerability: the market’s reliance on a so-called stablecoin called Tether.

SAN FRANCISCO — Cryptocurrency prices are plummeting. A so-called stablecoin lost all its value in a matter of days. A newfangled crypto bank halted withdrawals. And investors have been plunged into financial ruin.

Now the crypto industry is grappling with an even grimmer prospect: The worst may be yet to come.

Concern is mounting over another potential vulnerability in the crypto market: Tether, a company whose namesake currency is a linchpin of crypto trading worldwide. Long one of the most scrutinized companies in the industry, Tether is facing heightened pressure from regulators, investors, economists and growing legions of skeptics, who argue it could be another domino to fall in an even bigger crash.

“Tether is really the lifeblood of the crypto ecosystem,” said Hilary Allen, a finance expert at American University. “If it imploded, then the entire facade falls down.” » | David Yaffe-Bellany | Friday, June 17, 2022

Stock Markets Plunge again as Flurry of Interest Rate Hikes Fuels Recession Fears

THE GUARDIAN: Investors wary as other central banks follow US Federal Reserve in raising borrowing costs

The global rout in stock markets, cryptocurrencies and other risky assets has gathered pace amid growing concern that out-of-control inflation, rising interest rates and slowing growth could combine to tip the world into recession.

Share prices fell in Asia on Friday at the beginning of what was likely to be another torrid day for investors spooked by the US Federal Reserve’s decision this week to raise interest rates by the largest margin for almost 30 years.

Other leading central banks such as the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank have followed suit – the latter in its first hike for 15 years – sending economists scrambling to revise their forecast for growth downwards.

Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management in Hong Kong said: “No central bankers worth their weight would put inflation-fighting credentials on the line and import higher energy inflation via a weaker currency. » | Martin Farrer | Friday, June 17, 2022

UK Interest Rates Raised to 1.25% by Bank of England

BBC: UK interest rates have risen further as the Bank of England attempts to stem the pace of soaring prices.

Rates have increased from 1% to 1.25%, the fifth consecutive rise, pushing them to the highest level in 13 years.

It comes as finances are being squeezed by the rising cost of living, driven by record fuel and energy prices.

Inflation - the rate at which prices rise - is currently at a 40-year high of 9%, and the Bank warned it could surpass 11% later this year.

The Bank said rising energy prices were expected to drive living costs even higher in October, but added it would "act forcefully" if necessary should inflation pressures persist. » | Dearbail Jordan, Business reporter, BBC News | Thursday, June 16, 2022

The Crypto Crash Continues.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Cryptocurrencies fell again on Wednesday, extending a rout that has dragged down digital currencies more steeply than many other markets. Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, traded at about $21,000 early on Wednesday, down 4 percent over the past 24 hours, 30 percent over the past week and 55 percent so far this year, according to CoinDesk.

Wall Street analysts have been keeping a close eye on cryptocurrencies to see if they might avoid the slowdown traditional assets have experienced. (The S&P 500 is in a bear market, down about 20 percent this year.) The pullback in the crypto market, however, illustrates the precariousness of the structure built around these risky and unregulated digital assets.

Stock prices of crypto companies have cratered, retail traders are fleeing and industry executives are predicting a prolonged slump that could put more companies in jeopardy, The New York Times’s David Yaffe-Bellany and Erin Griffith report.

“The tide has gone out in crypto, and we’re seeing that many of these businesses and platforms rested on shaky and unsustainable foundations,” said Lee Reiners, a former Federal Reserve official who teaches at Duke University Law School. “The music has stopped.” » | Eshe Nelson | Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Why the Fed Can Keep Rrates ‘Pretty Aggressively’ in the Short Term: Economist

Zach Griffiths, Wells Fargo Senior Macro Strategist, and Jeanette Garretty, Robertson Stephens Wealth Management Chief Economist, join Yahoo Finance Live to break down consumer positions amid rising inflation and the latest Fed interest rate hike and the significance of the latest unemployment rate reading.

Weak Pound Puts the Squeeze on Holiday Spending

BBC: The pound's weakness against the dollar and the euro spells bad news for British holidaymakers this summer.

Fears over the UK economy are weighing on markets, causing sterling to sink below $1.20 on Tuesday, its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, before partly recovering on Wednesday.

Versus the euro, the pound is hovering near thirteen-month lows.

As a result many Brits traveling abroad in the next few weeks will find their spending money won't stretch as far.

"The pound remains a very vulnerable currency," said Jane Foley, head of foreign exchange strategy at the Dutch bank Rabobank.

"A lot of this is related to fears about growth," she continued, noting that political uncertainty and a potential trade conflict with the European Union were likely to add to investors' concerns about the UK's economic outlook. » | Noor Nanji, Business reporter, BBC News | Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates by 0.75 of a Percentage Point.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on Wednesday, its biggest move since 1994, as the central bank ramps up its efforts to tackle the fastest inflation in four decades.

The big rate increase, which markets had expected, underlined that Fed officials are serious about crushing price increases even if it comes at a cost to the economy.

Officials predicted that the unemployment rate will increase to 3.7 percent this year and to 4.1 percent by 2024, and that growth will slow notably as policymakers push borrowing costs sharply higher and choke off economic demand. » | Jeanna Smialek | Wednesday, June 15, 2022

‘The Music Has Stopped’: Crypto Firms Quake as Prices Fall

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Crypto companies are laying off staff, freezing withdrawals and trying to stem losses, raising questions about the health of the ecosystem.

Employees of Coinbase in Times Square last year for its initial public offering. On Tuesday, the company said that it was laying off 18 percent of its workers. | Gabby Jones for The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — No one wanted to miss out on the cryptocurrency mania.

Over the last two years, as the prices of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies surged, crypto start-ups proliferated. Companies that market digital coins to investors flooded the airwaves with TV commercials, newfangled lending operations offered sky-high interest rates on crypto deposits and exchanges like Coinbase that allow investors to trade digital assets went on hiring sprees.

A global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars rose up practically overnight. Now it is crashing down. After weeks of plummeting cryptocurrency prices, Coinbase said on Tuesday that it was cutting 18 percent of its employees, after layoffs at other crypto companies like Gemini, BlockFi and Crypto.com. High-profile start-ups like Terraform Labs have imploded, wiping away years of investments. On Sunday, an experimental crypto bank, Celsius, abruptly halted withdrawals.

The pullback in the crypto ecosystem illustrates the precariousness of the structure built around these risky and unregulated digital assets. The total value of the cryptocurrency market has dropped by about 65 percent since autumn, and analysts predict the sell-off will continue. Stock prices of crypto companies have cratered, retail traders are fleeing and industry executives are predicting a prolonged slump that could put more companies in jeopardy. » | David Yaffe-Bellany and Erin Griffith | Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Global Stock Sell-Off Continues as Economic Concerns Mount

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The losses in China, Japan and Australia followed weakness in the United States, where stocks closed in bear market territory.

The sell-off in stocks continued across the Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday as fears mounted of a recession in the United States and a slowdown in the global economy.

Japan’s Nikkei index fell 1.7 percent in afternoon trading, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.5 percent. In Australia, the key stock index tumbled about 4 percent, to its lowest levels in two years.

The market declines followed weakness in the United States, where stocks lost 3.9 percent on Monday to close in bear market territory. After reaching a record high in January, the S&P 500 has fallen more than 20 percent, the seventh bear market in the last 50 years. » | Daisuke Wakabayashi | Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Bear Market Sends Grim Signal of Economic Fears »

The Fed May Discuss the Biggest Interest Rate Increase Since 1994 »

‘Investors Should Expect a Terminal Fed Funds Rate Markedly Higher,’ Fed Expert Says

Jun 13, 2022

Wall St. Tumbles as Global Sell-off Accelerates.

Screenshot: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: U.S. stocks opened in bear market territory on Monday, a 20 percent decline from their peak in January, a sign of growing pessimism about the outlook for the economy.

Markets around the world tumbled, as higher-than-expected inflation and lower-than-expected economic growth upend the outlook for interest rates and corporate profits. Stocks in Asia and Europe fell, investors dumped government bonds, oil prices slipped and cryptocurrencies crashed.

The S&P 500 fell 2.5 percent at the open of trading, as a wave of selling continued. The S&P 500 briefly dipped into bear market territory last month, before recovering to close just above it. The markets have been jittery since, with the S&P 500 last week recording its worst weekly loss since January.

The benchmark U.S. stock index is now “within one bad day’s move of a bear market, and equity futures suggest that we haven’t seen all the negative sentiment expressed yet,” analysts at ING wrote in a note to investors on Monday morning. The S&P 500 has fallen in nine of the past 10 weeks.

A report on Friday showed a surge in inflation in the United States, which rattled markets, as investors worried that the Federal Reserve may have to raise interest rates higher and faster than expected to rein in rising prices, a move that could hit the U.S. economy.

Global investors sold stocks, bonds and other assets, as inflation is running high in many countries, supply chains remain snarled and forecasts for economic growth are being downgraded. » | Alexandra Stevenson and Jason Karaian | Monday, June 13, 2022

What you should know about bear markets: There have been several instances of near-bear markets in recent decades, but it’s rare for them to hit the threshold »

Wall Street chute, inquiète de l’inflation et de la perspective d’une hausse des taux : La Bourse de New York est entrée dans un marché baissier, avec un recul supérieur à 20 % pour le S&P 500 et de 30 % pour le Nasdaq depuis le début de l’année. Lundi, en début de matinée, les deux indices perdaient respectivement 4,15 % et 3,6 %. »

Angst vor schneller steigenden Leitzinsen – Dax fällt auf weniger als 13.500 Punkte: Nachdem die Inflation in Amerika sogar noch einmal gestiegen ist auf deutlich mehr als 8 Prozent, rückt die mächtigste Notenbank der Welt wieder ins Visier der Börse: Straffen die Währungshüter mehr als gedacht? Die Anleger reagieren schon. »

Bitcoin Falls below $25,000, Celsius and Binance Pause Withdrawals

Jun 13, 2022 • Yahoo Finance Live anchors Julie Hyman, Brad Smith and Brian Sozzi discuss bitcoin trading below $25,000 and some crypto companies pausing withdrawals in response.

Der Bitcoin-Kurs fällt und fällt: Der Kryptomarkt taumelt: Grund ist auch ein amerikanisches Unternehmen, das in Deutschland beworben wurde. Betroffen sind zahlreiche Digitalwährungen. »

Bitcoin drops 18 percent to lowest price since 2020: The cryptocurrency market melted down again on Monday, as the price of Bitcoin plummeted to its lowest point since 2020, wiping away years of investments »

The Observer View on Britain’s Dire Economic Outlook

THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: The true cost of Brexit is becoming painfully clearer by the day

The OECD has predicted that the UK economy will not grow at all next year. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
Britain’s growth prospects are the gloomiest of all developed nations. The OECD predicted last week that the UK economy would not grow at all next year, the worst outlook for any OECD nation. This follows warnings in April from the IMF that the UK will experience the worst growth out of the G7 nations in 2023. After a decade of stagnant wages, it seems Britons need to resign themselves to the fact that the buoyant growth of the 2000s is but a distant memory.

Every country has suffered the shock of the pandemic, followed by the spike in oil and wheat prices triggered by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. But other developed economies have proved more resilient, enjoying export-driven recoveries in the wake of Covid. Here in Britain, the economic malaise left exposed by the 2008 financial crisis is long term and structural.

This crisis was supposed to prompt a big economic rethink: a reckoning with Britain’s addiction to growth fuelled by rising levels of consumer debt enabled by rising house prices. The then shadow chancellor George Osborne pledged to rebalance the economy away from debt-driven growth to more productive development, driven by business investment and exports, underpinned with an expansion of the UK’s manufacturing base and a reduction in the huge regional inequalities between the south-east and the rest of the country. » | Editorial | Sunday, June 12, 2022

As Energy Prices Soar, the Bitcoin Miners May Find They Have Struck Fool’s Gold

THE OBSERVER: The rising price of electricity and the plunging value of the cryptocurrency could burst the speculative bubble for today’s prospectors

In the bad old days, prospecting for gold was a grisly business involving hysterical crowds, pickaxes, digging, the wearing of appalling hats, standing in rivers panning for nuggets, “staking” claims and so on. The California gold rush of 1848-55, for example, brought 300,000 hopefuls to the Sierra Nevada and northern California and involved the massacre of thousands of Indigenous people.

In our day, the new gold is bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, and prospecting for it has become a genteel armchair activity, although it is called “mining”, for old times’ sake. What it actually involves is using computers to perform unfathomably complicated calculations to create cryptographic “hashes” – codes that are, in practical terms, uncrackable. » | John Naughton | Saturday, June 11, 2022

Russia's Economy: Is It Crumbling or Standing Strong? | DW News

un 10, 2022 • Sanctions against Russia are already having an effect. Prices are already rising, companies are closing and unemployment is rising. Especially in Russian aviation. What is the impact Russia's war against Ukraine is having on the country's industry?

Cryptocurrency Crash Causes Trillions of Dollars’ Worth of Damage | 60 Minutes Australia

It's the oldest saying in the book: What goes up must come down. In the volatile world of cryptocurrency, that's proving to be a brutal truth. Crypto's market value has halved since its peak late last year, haemorrhaging an eye watering $2.2 trillion. And it's not just crypto geeks whose dreams have been shattered, but also ordinary mum and dad investors sucked in by the hype the currency had gone mainstream. However, while many millionaires have become overnight paupers, cryptocurrency's true believers say don't worry, the good times will return. The question is: Who's brave enough to believe them?

Österreich: Wie die Teuerung Familen trifft

DER STANDARD: Wenn Liliana an der Supermarktkasse steht, dann muss sie erst einmal kräftig schlucken. Erdäpfel sind um 18 Prozent teurer als noch vor einem Jahr, Tomaten um 44 Prozent. Aber auch Teebutter, Brot, Öl – die Inflation ist am Esstisch angekommen. Dazu kommen die gestiegenen Kosten für Sprit und Energie. Während die Inflationsrate im April des Vorjahrs rund zwei Prozent betrug, lag sie nach Schätzungen der Statistik Austria diesen Mai schon bei acht Prozent. Das ist der höchste Wert seit September 1975.

Für Liliana, Mutter von zwei Kindern, ist die finanzielle Belastung enorm: „Ich kaufe nur noch beim Diskonter oder Produkte mit starkem Preisnachlass. Ich weiß nicht, wo ich noch sparen soll?“

Sie gehört zu den Familien, die schon bislang ihr gesamtes Einkommen ausgeben mussten, um die monatlichen Fixkosten zu decken. Nun müssen sie auf weniger hochwertige Produkte umsteigen, sich verschulden. Besserverdiener dagegen können ihren Lebensstandard meist beibehalten.

DER STANDARD hat mit vier Familien gesprochen und sie gefragt, wo sie die Teuerung spüren, wie sie den Gürtel enger schnallen und was sie sich noch leisten. Auskunft gaben ein junges Paar, eine Familie mit einem fünfjährigen Sohn, eine Alleinerziehende mit zwei Kindern und eine vierköpfige Familie. » | Freitag, 3. Juni 2022

Elon Musk Has 'a Super Bad Feeling' about the Economy - or Rather Tesla? | DW News

Jun 3, 2022 • Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, wrote in an email to executives of the electric carmaker announcing a 10% reduction in staff and a worldwide pause on hiring, Reuters reported on Friday. The reported email comes on the heels of Musk facing backlash over a message to staff demanding they return to the office. It also comes amid a tumultuous and gloomy global economic outlook amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.

What did Musk reportedly say?

In the email carried the subject line "pause all hiring worldwide" and was sent late on Thursday. Musk wrote that he has a "super bad feeling" about the economy, but did not elaborate. Neither Tesla nor Musk immediately commented on the Reuters report. Tesla shares were down 3.4% in premarket trading following the report. Earlier in the week, Musk made headlines for another email to staff announcing a 40-hour in office requirement for all employees. "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," he wrote in that email.