Risks Archives - Zxcoachoutlet

Restoring California’s Forests to Reduce Wildfire Risks Will Take Time, Billions of Dollars and a Broad Commitment | Best States

October 13, 2020

By Roger Bales and Martha Conklin

Many of California’s 33 million acres of forests face widespread threats stemming from past management choices. Today the U.S. Forest Service estimates that of the 20 million acres it manages in California, 6-9 million acres need to be restored.

Forest restoration basically means removing the less fire-resistant smaller trees and returning to a forest with larger trees that are widely spaced. These stewardship projects require partnerships across the many interests who benefit from healthy forests, to help bring innovative financing to this huge challenge.

The California Wildfires in Photos

We are engineers who work on many natural resource challenges, including forest management. We’re encouraged to see California and other western states striving to use forest management to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire.

But there are major bottlenecks. They include scarce resources and limited engagement between forest managers and many local, regional and state

Hidden Home Risks That Send Insurance Through the Roof

October 8, 2020

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When house hunting, the price of homeowners insurance probably isn’t top of mind. But homes with hidden risks can make getting coverage difficult, expensive or both. Learning how to identify them could save you a bundle.

This could be a particularly important concern for first-time homebuyers and those moving from cities to suburban or rural areas who may not be aware of common hazards, says Jennifer Naughton, risk consulting officer for North America for Chubb, an insurance company.

Three out of 10 city dwellers told a Chubb survey in early August that they were considering moving out of the city because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Meanwhile, the number of first-time homebuyers in the first half of 2020 rose 4% compared to a year earlier as lower interest rates made mortgages more affordable, according to Genworth Mortgage Insurance.

Where’s the nearest fire hydrant?

MBA BY THE BAY: See how an

Fed policy makers cite risks to US economy if Congress fails to provide more aid

October 7, 2020

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Federal Reserve officials expressed concern at their most recent meeting that the US economic recovery could falter if Congress fails to approve another round of pandemic relief.

Minutes of the meeting showed that officials believe the economy was growing faster than expected. But they based their forecasts on expectations that Democrats and Republicans would resolve their differences and provide more economic aid, including expanded unemployment benefits and help for small businesses.

The minutes said that “most forecasters were assuming that an additional pandemic-related fiscal package would be approved this year, and noted that, absent a new package, growth could decelerate at a faster-than-expected pace in the fourth quarter.”

The prospects for a new package being passed before the Nov. 3 elections, however, have significantly diminished with President Trump’s decision to end negotiations with Democrats. Trump has instead proposed that Democrats approve individual rescue items, such as money for ailing airlines

New Stimulus Hopes Fade While Economic Risks Grow

October 7, 2020

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Fed officials, in their minutes, noted that “a number of participants judged that the absence of further fiscal support would exacerbate economic hardships in minority and lower-income communities.”

“The gains that have been built up over time are fragile,” said Raghuram G. Rajan, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund who is now a professor at the University of Chicago. “You have a whole bunch of people who’ve struggled their way into a semblance of normalcy by 2019, and then you have this massive crisis. If we don’t try to protect those gains, it will take a longer time, a really long time to come back.”

Businesses are also in need of more help, particularly industries that have yet to return to full capacity as the virus persists. Major airlines began laying off workers this month after Congress failed to extend an earlier aid package. A hospitality-industry lobbying

Global Recession Risks | Seeking Alpha

October 6, 2020

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The global economy is experiencing its deepest recession since 1946. We project that world real GDP will decline by 4.8% in 2020, a far worse outcome than the 1.7% contraction in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.

As countries remove restrictions on activities, the global economy is recovering. However, new outbreaks of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus and the likelihood that a vaccine will not be widely available before mid-2021 make any assessment of the economic outlook challenging. Several forces are likely to impede the post-crisis recovery, including the financial stresses of households and businesses, crowd avoidance, eventual withdrawal of fiscal stimulus, and losses in capital formation.

The United States has experienced the highest number of COVID-19 cases. After a deep recession in March and April, a robust recovery began in May. With infection rates remaining high and fiscal support diminishing, economic growth is now slowing.

Bank of England’s Haskel keeps door open to negative rates, sees risks to growth

October 5, 2020

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By David Milliken and Andy Bruce

LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Bank of England rate-setter Jonathan Haskel said on Monday he saw downside risks to the economy, and also some possible benefits from cutting interest rates below zero, though it was too soon to reach a firm conclusion on this.

The BoE, which cut interest rates to a record-low 0.1% in March, is now looking at whether it is technically feasible to cut its main interest rate below zero, something that has already been done in Japan and the euro zone.

The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, and one of its deputy governors, Dave Ramsden, have expressed doubts about whether this would be helpful, but one external policymaker, Silvana Tenreyro, has been more supportive.

Haskel, like Tenreyro, said evidence from the European Central Bank suggested that cutting interest rates below zero could boost lending, and that banks

Low interest rates benefit some but carry risks for the ecconomy

October 3, 2020

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That’s not easy when the safe investments that pension funds usually rely on are paying less than 1 percent, a consequence of low interest rates.

CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension plan, fell short of its goal in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Now, along with embracing riskier investments like private equity, Bienvenue is gambling on making low rates work for him, by borrowing billions of dollars in hopes of juicing the pension plan’s returns.

“We have to take more risk in some places,” he said. “…Systemically low interest rates, the net effect makes the challenge more difficult.”

CalPERS’ shift is just one example of how an era of persistently low interest rates has rippled across the economy, altering incentives while benefiting some groups and hurting others.

Consumers have snapped up 0% percent auto loans and mortgages at sub-3 percent rates. That’s helped the economy by driving sales

Financial Stability Oversight Council Warns Of Risks From Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac

September 30, 2020

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Last week, the Financial Stability Oversight Council formally acknowledged that Fannie
FNMA
Mae and Freddie Mac, the two housing finance giants that imploded in 2008, pose a risk to the financial system and even to the broader economy. The announcement is much more than a revelation of the world’s worst kept secret because the council consists of all the major U.S. financial regulators and has the power to designate financial firms for extra stringent regulations.

The significance was not lost on Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), who commended the council for “its historic acknowledgement.”

The council’s announcement is historic because federal officials regularly pretended that the two GSEs were perfectly safe for decades prior to Fannie and Freddie’s 2008 implosion. This fiction allowed the GSEs to grow unencumbered by many of the costs faced by similar firms, parlaying their special relationship with the

Nigeria’s pioneering gas flaring plan risks going down in flames

September 30, 2020

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By Libby George

UGHELLI, Delta State, Nigeria (Reuters) – Jonah Gbemre often has no electricity, but he says his home is permanently lit at night by the flames of waste gas being “flared” near his home town in Nigeria’s Delta State.

Like Gbemre, nearly half of Nigerians have no stable power supply, yet government attempts to harness gas belching from its oil fields to generate urgently-needed electricity or revenue have stalled.

And experts say that without progress towards its 2030 target of virtually eliminating flaring, which releases carbon dioxide along with polluting methane and soot, Nigeria cannot meet its pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

Graphic – Gas Flaring and Nigeria’s CO2 Emissions: https://graphics.reuters.com/NIGERIA-OIL/GASFLARING/xklvyqmljvg/chart.png

“This flare site makes the nights like days,” said 42-year-old Gbemre, his eyes both bloodshot and milky, something he said his doctor attributes to the burning of the waste gas.

Reuters could not establish

Russia: Too Many Risks Now

September 30, 2020

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Source: Goodfon

Instrument

The VanEck Vectors Russia ETF (BATS:RSX) is a fund that offers exposure to equities from Russia, which include publicly-traded companies that are incorporated in Russia or that are incorporated outside of Russia but have at least 50% of their revenues/related assets in Russia.

Source: VanEck

Economic recovery has slowed down

According to the latest official data, in August, the Russian retail turnover slowed down to 2.7% YoY. But I am not inclined to think that acceleration ended here. It’s just that in the last month of the summer, the population increased their travel spending.

In August, the growth rate of industrial production in Russia fell to 7.2% YoY. This is slightly less than in the previous month:

But judging by the structure of this index, only the mining industry demonstrates a recovery trend:

Another indicator that I constantly monitor is the dynamics of construction in Russia. This

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