News - July 2-30, 2021
Finance and Investment News
News: The real economy is not a side event in the global decarbonization effort
Faustine Delasalle and Anthony Robert Hobley, World Economic Forum, July 30, 2021
"The real economy needs to be at the centre of climate action, with the harder-to-abate sectors key to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change."
News: SK Inc. Backs New Food Alternatives to Help Create a More Sustainable Global Food Chain
PRESS RELEASE PR Newswire, Yahoo Finance, July 28, 2021
"SK Inc., the strategic investment arm of South Korea's SK group, announced today it has invested almost $100 million globally in new food companies as part of its broader commitment to sustainability."
News: ESG opportunities and challenges for the financial sector in the Netherlands
Lisanne Baks, Suzanne Kroner-Rosmalen, IFLR, July 27, 2021
"The EU has been building a sustainable finance framework to support the flow of private finance towards sustainable economic activities, and make the transition to a carbon neutral economy by 2050 possible."
Analysis: Regulators turn spotlight on company sustainability ratings
Huw Jones & Simon Jessop Reuters, July 26, 2021
"Organisations that rate companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are now themselves facing scrutiny, as regulators look to improve consistency and transparency in an industry that influences trillions of dollars of investments."
News: Why ‘Doing Good’ With Sustainable Investing Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Doing Well
Phillip Braun, Forbes, July 23, 2021
"Sustainable investing is increasingly popular among retail and institutional investors around the world. According to one recent industry study, sustainable investing accounted for $17.1 trillion of professionally managed assets in 2020 — and the growth continues"
News: A Force For Good: Impact Investing And The Power Of Communications In Asia
Lars Voedisch & Forbes Agency Council, Forbes, July 22, 2021
"The onslaught of Covid-19 has caused significant distress and disruption globally, with nations going into lockdowns and businesses and healthcare systems upended by the pandemic. But we can see a silver lining amid the havoc: Despite a universally challenging 2020, Covid-19 has put a spotlight on the need to dispel inequality while creating greater consciousness on impact."
News: Advisors look to manage investor biases as stock markets shift
Brenda Bouw, The Globe and Mail, July 21, 2021
"The surging stock market valuations experienced during 2021 are creating a new set of concerns for financial advisors as some investors are getting overconfident in their ability to keep racking up double-digit returns."
News: Space tourism could be $800bn market as Jeff Bezos takes off in Blue Origin rocket
Oscar Williams-Grut, Yahoo Finance, July 20, 2021
"Where are you going for your next holiday? How about the moon?."
News: Dow Falls 600 Points, Oil Drops as Delta Variant Sends Investors Into Bonds
Joe Wallac and Frances Yoon, The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2021
"U.S. stocks, oil prices and government bond yields slid Monday amid anxiety that the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant would hold back the global economy."
Analysis: JPMorgan hoards cash as Dimon expects rates to rise
David Henry, Reuters, July 15, 2021
"Jamie Dimon's optimism about the economy is costing JPMorgan Chase & Co money, the bank's latest financials show."
News: Is The New Normal Going To Be Enough?
Felicia Jackson, Forbes, July 14, 2021
"Investors, governments and corporations are calling for climate action, committing to Net Zero and there are calls to recognise the seismic impact of the pandemic. Many say the result is a new normal for investment and corporate behaviour."
News: Sustainable Investment: Jersey's New Anti-greenwashing Disclosure Requirements
Mondaq, July 12, 2021
"The Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC) has published new disclosure requirements relating to sustainable investment. The requirements aim to address the risk of greenwashing (funds being mislabelled as having a sustainable objective) and will apply to certified funds, certain fund services businesses, Jersey private funds and investment advisers."
News: UK backs Impact Investment Taskforce as road to pandemic recovery
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and James Duddridge MP, July 9, 2021
"New industry-led Taskforce to increase private investment in aid of global recovery from the pandemic."
News: ECB to flex its financial muscle in climate change fight
Balazs Koranyi, Mark John, Reuters, July 8, 2021
"The European Central Bank will take greater account of climate change in its core policy decisions, in the latest move by one of the world's biggest central banks to curb carbon emissions."
News: Global action plan to enable a post-pandemic recovery “urgently needed”, warns ICC
International Chamber of Commerce, July 7, 2021
"ICC has issued a warning that the world’s richest economies risk imposing major costs to the global economy absent of a step-change in their approach to managing the Covid-19 pandemic."
News: EU harnesses finance to make continent ‘climate neutral’ by 2050
Source: Reuters, Aljazeera, July 6, 2021
"The European Union plans to funnel hundreds of billions of euros annually into sustainable investments."
News: How ‘Climate Investment Traps’ Create A Vicious Cycle For African Nations
David Vetter, Forbes, July 5, 2021
"The high cost of accessing sustainable investment is preventing developing countries from decarbonizing their economies, but levelling the finance playing field could help accelerate poorer nations’ climate readiness by a decade, new research has shown."
News: Draft EU plan outlines regulatory roadmap for green finance
Matthew Allen, Swissinfo, July 2, 2021
"Climate change is forcing financiers to change the way they think and act. This could have a big impact on their balance sheets - and potentially their very survival."
Cryptocurrency News
News: Nonprofits Get a New Type of Donation: Cryptocurrency
Paul Sullivan, The New York Times, July 30, 2021
"The University of Pennsylvania recently announced a $5 million gift to Wharton, its business school. The donation was not one of its largest, but the university announced the gift with the type of fanfare it usually lavishes on gifts many times its size."
News: Crypto Price Prediction: Bitcoin Could Be Left In The Dust By Ethereum In 2021
Billy Bambrough, Forbes, July 28, 2021
"Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have staged a remarkable recovery over the last week, reinvigorating a tired crypto market."
News: Tesla's Bitcoin Investment Fell $1 Billion Last Quarter Amid Crypto Market Crash
Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes, July 27, 2021
"One day after posting blowout second-quarter earnings, electric carmaker Tesla revealed in a public filing Tuesday that the value of its bitcoin holdings plummeted more than $1 billion last quarter from $2.5 billion at the end of March as the nascent crypto market reeled from a roughly 40% crash, wiping out virtually all the gains Tesla made on its initial $1.5 billion investment but resulting in only modest losses so far."
News: Bitcoin Jumps to a Six-Week High
Elaine Yu & Caitlin Ostroff, The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2021
"The price of bitcoin jumped to a six-week high Monday, with some investors attributing the rally to short positions being liquidated and speculation that Amazon.com Inc. may be venturing into digital currencies."
News: Bitcoin price: Has Bitcoin recovered from latest crypto crash? Latest cryptocurrency news and prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and more
Liv McMahon, The Scotsman, July 23, 2021
"The dip affecting all major coins in the cryptocurrency market earlier this week (July 20) saw Bitcoin prices fall dramatically for the second time in a month as Covid-19 fears gripped markets worldwide and worsened the impact of a global crackdown on crypto."
News: Bitcoin Is Failing Its First Inflation Test as Selloff Deepens
Paul Vigna, The Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2021
"Bitcoin’s steep selloff is undercutting the argument made by the digital currency’s proponents that it’s an inflation hedge."
News: EU Proposes Law to 'Ensure Full Traceability' of Crypto Transfers, Ban Anonymous Wallets
Kevin Helms, Bitcoin News, July 21, 2021
"The European Commission has proposed legislation to “ensure full traceability of crypto-asset transfers, such as bitcoin,” in order to prevent and detect “their possible use for money laundering or terrorism financing.” Moreover, “anonymous crypto asset wallets will be prohibited."
News: Why Yellen, Powell Cast a Wary Eye on Stablecoins
Olga Kharif, The Washington Post, July 20, 2021
"Bitcoin is exciting: its price swoops and dives. Such volatility has made regulators around the world look closely at Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a value that bounces around."
News: Bitcoin Slides Toward $30,000 | New Crypto Funding Record
Nina Bambysheva and Crypto Confidential, Forbes, July 19, 2021
"Not a great week for bitcoin as it’s squeezing into a tight consolidation range in the low-$30,000s."
News: Dogecoin prices still down after China cryptocurrency crackdown - who is Jackson Palmer and why did he slam crypto?
Liv McMahon, The Scotsman, July 15, 2021
"After China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining saw major drops in Dogecoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum and crypto prices across the board in late June, Dogecoin has struggled to return to its previous heights of success."
News: The instability in stablecoins unnerving regulators
Mike Dolan, Reuters, July 14, 2021
"Regulators are getting anxious about how mushrooming ‘stablecoins’ - mostly dollar-pegged crypto tokens - could sow instability in wider financial markets more directly than already hyper-volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin."
News: How To Buy Cryptocurrency
Kat Tretina, John Schmidt, Forbes, July 12, 2021
"If you’re new to the world of crypto, figuring out how to buy Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies can be confusing at first. Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to learn the ropes. You can start investing in cryptocurrency by following these five easy steps."
News: US lawmaker Elizabeth Warren warns of crypto risks, presses SEC on oversight authority
Reuters, BusinessToday.In, July 9, 2021
"U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Thursday warned of the growing risks posed to consumers and financial markets by the "highly opaque and volatile" cryptocurrency market and blasted its lack of regulation as unsustainable."
News: Crypto Price Warning: Goldman Sachs Issues Surprise Future Of Bitcoin And Ethereum Prediction
Billy Bambrough, Forbes, July 8, 2021
"The explosion in bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices has catapulted digital assets into orbit this year, with the crypto market's performance demanding Wall Street's attention."
News: The future of bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and NFTs, according to 30+ experts
Mark Sullivan, Fast Company, July 7, 2021
"We asked venture capitalists, security experts, futurists, startup founders, and others for their thoughts on the likely trajectory of cryptocurrencies in the post-pandemic world."
News: Germany's New Cryptocurrency Law Welcomes US$415 Billion Bitcoin Investments
Apoorva Komarraju, Analytics Insight July 6, 2021
"In a massive move forward for cryptocurrency, Germany has passed a new law called the Fund Location Act that implies all specialized investment funds can invest up to 20% of their US$ 2 trillion assets in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin."
News: The crypto market experiences a mix of red and green in latest updates
The Cryptocurrency Post, Afroz Ahmad, July 5, 2021
"The cryptocurrency market has grown to become a trillion dollar market. More and more people show interest in exploring the opportunities driven by this concept. However, the uncertainty hovering over the volatile crypto market has resulted in a rather stagnant growth of the overall market."
News: Latest Ethereum price and analysis (ETH to USD)
Oliver Knight Yahoo Finance, July 2, 2021
"Ethereum has stuttered in its pursuit of surging above the $2,300 level of resistance, subsequently falling back to the $2,000 level of support following a gruelling 11.64% sell-off over the past 48 hours."
Housing News
News: Homes Are Infrastructure: GREAHT Leap for Affordable Housing
Deron Lovaas, NRDC, July 30, 2021
"As the nation attempts to move out of the pandemic towards economic recovery, a crisis we’ve faced for years is coming into focus again: Housing affordability.”
News: Home prices, rents will continue to rise with short supply of houses on market, analysis finds
Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin, The Washington Post, July 28, 2021
"In a typical year, the spring housing market is hotter than the other parts of the year, meaning more homes are bought and sold during the period of mid-January (when the spring home-buying market begins) through June, but not by much.”
News: Something big is about to happen in the housing market
Lance Lambert, Forbes July 27, 2021
"A crash in the housing market seemed inevitable during the early weeks of the COVID-19 recession.”
News: High housing costs and COVID fears lead to rise in multi-generational living
Tyler Dawson, National Post, July 26, 2021
"The COVID-19 pandemic and skyrocketing housing prices in the Toronto area have led to increased interest in a form of living that, over the decades, has waxed and waned in popularity: multi-generational living.”
News: Burned by Hot Housing Market, Some Buyers Back Off
Steven Kurutz, The New York Times, July 23, 2021
"Tired of sky high prices and losing out in bidding wars, some buyers are giving up and putting their house hunt on hold.”
News: Existing home sales bounce back in June, as home prices continue to rise
Amanda Fung, Yahoo Finance, July 22, 2021
"Home sales activity bounced back in June after a four-month decline as home prices continue to hit new highs.”
News: If the housing market is so hot, why are homebuilders feeling down?
Alexis Christoforous, Yahoo Finance, July 21, 2021
"U.S. homebuilding blew past expectations, jumping 6.3% in June, but permits for future home construction fell sharply for the third consecutive month as confidence among builders sank to the lowest level in nearly a year.”
News: U.S. Investors Seek Bargains in U.K. Home-Building Industry
Ruth Bloomfield, The Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2021
"U.K. home prices are surging as the country’s economy reopens from the pandemic, and U.S. investors are getting in on the action by snapping up home-building companies at bargain prices.”
News: Underbuilding has led to ‘acute shortage’ of housing and ‘affordability crisis,’ study says
Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin, The Washington Post, July 19, 2021
"The National Association of Realtors recently released a study calling for a dire, “once-in-a-generation” response to a housing shortage.”
News: Canadian house prices and home sales hit records in March — but have fallen every month since
Pete Evans, CBC News, July 15, 2021
"The price of the average Canadian home that sold in June was $679,000, an increase of 25 per cent in the past year. While sales have risen sharply, too, both figures were lower last month than in the month before."
News: UK house prices rise by 10% amid stamp duty holiday rush
Hilary Osborne, The Guardian, July 14, 2021
"UK house prices rose by 10% in the year to May, the fastest rate since before the 2008 financial crisis, as buyers scrambled to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday in some parts of the country."
News: The Housing Threat
Malcolm Scott, Bloomberg, July 12, 2021
""When the coronavirus shuttered many parts of the global economy last year, major central banks had little choice but to jump in and cut interest rates to near zero and go on an unprecedented asset-buying spree to prevent the economic and health crisis from becoming a financial one."
News: Ottawa housing market showed signs of stabilizing in June: real estate board
Craig Lord, Global News, July 8, 2021
"Ottawa’s long-hot housing market showed the early signs of cooling in June as the supply of new homes up for sale reached highs not seen since 2017."
News: Plenty of room for house prices in Canada to rise as interest rates stay low
Don Pittis, CBC News July 7, 2021
"The end of the real estate boom has been called before, but people keep buying."
News: 'Number one' casualty of rising interest rates will be Canada's housing market
Larysa Harapyn, Financial Post, July 6, 2021
"Benjamin Tal, CIBC's deputy chief economist, on how interest rate hikes will affect the Canadian economy."
News: Green light for Scotland's largest net zero housing project in Edinburgh
BBC, July 5, 2021
"Plans to create Scotland's largest net zero housing development in Edinburgh have been granted approval by planners."
News: The housing challenge facing central banks
The Editorial Board, Financial Times, July 2, 2021
"House prices are rising across the world at a hair-raising pace: in the US at their fastest rate for three decades while the UK has experienced the quickest growth rate for 17 years."