Hurricanes blast the Gulf. European car stocks take a beating. Walter Benjamin's children's books & medium-range missiles are back.
Great links, images and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
Stéphane Mandelbaum - Francis Bacon
Hurricanes impact oil and gas production
About 24% of crude oil production and 18% of natural gas output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was shut in response to Hurricane Helene, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said on Friday. Oil and natural gas production losses fell for the second consecutive day after reaching a peak of 511,000 barrels on Wednesday. Energy producers had shut in 427,000 barrels per day of oil production and nearly 343 million cubic feet of natural gas from Gulf waters, the bureau said. Nine oil and gas platforms had been evacuated as of Friday, about 2.4% of the Gulf of Mexico total, the offshore regulator said, citing reports from producers. The hurricane caused U.S. offshore oil and gas producers to lose 1.66 million barrels of oil and 1.23 billion cubic feet of gas due to shut-ins that began on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally of BSEE daily estimates. Oil and gas producers began shutting in offshore production on Tuesday, as Helene moved through the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Source: Reuters
And there is the threat of more to come not from the Atlantic but from the Central American Gyre
Source: Tallahassee Democrat
The steady upward march of US consumer spending is one of the most basic parameters of the global economy. And yet, decomposed into components, it reveals three quite divergent dynamics between durable goods, non-durable goods and services.
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Signs of life in the African Eurobond market
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The debt market may be reopening but the terms on which African countries are borrowing are not what they were in the 2010s.
Source: CGDEV
Entertaining if impressionistic econ youtube this: Louis Gave on China and global macro
Under impact of China-EV development, European car makers continue to take a severe beating with new profit warnings from VW and Stellantis.
Why does this sector matter so much? Remember the Draghi report! The auto industry drives R&D in the European economy.
Exhibition Walkthrough: Stéphane Mandelbaum. Source: FreeShows
Imagine if Walter Benjamin was your dad
American medium-range missiles are coming back to Europe
On July 10th America and Germany announced that from 2026 a trio of American medium-range missiles—all non-nuclear—would be deployed to Germany. It is the latest manifestation of the Zeitenwende (turning point) in German security policy. But it is also part of a wider resurgence of European interest in “deep-strike” capabilities, fuelled by the lessons of the war in Ukraine. That has implications for European defence industries, the military balance between NATO and Russia and the dynamics of escalation in any future war.
America plans to put three missiles in Germany. One is the 500km-plus range SM-6 ballistic missile, currently used as a ship-based anti-air weapon. The second is the 1,600km-plus range Tomahawk cruise missile, largely fired today from ships. The third and most capable is the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, also known as Dark Eagle, thought to travel a whopping 3,000km-plus. All far outstrip the longest-range land-based missile in Europe today, the 300km-range ATACMS ballistic missile.
They will not be the only such missiles in Europe. In April Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, called on allies to build Europe a deep-strike capability of its own. On July 12th France, Germany, Italy and Poland signed a letter of intent to build a cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000km. Many countries already operate similar missiles launched from planes and ships. Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland are buying 1,000km-range JASSM-ER missiles for their F-35 jets; the Dutch navy is also buying Tomahawks for its ships and subs.
This is not the first time America has stationed missiles in Europe. In the 1980s NATO’s decision to deploy medium-range nuclear-capable missiles in European countries prompted huge demonstrations. But those “Euromissiles” were meant as bargaining chips to secure the removal of Soviet ones—a gambit which succeeded with the INF Treaty in 1987. Today’s deployments are for the long haul.
Source: Economist
Auden was remembered at the weekend.
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Stéphane Mandelbaum Der Goebbels. c. 1979
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