Major U.S. banks reported higher profits in 2024’s final quarter, thanks to equity markets leaping 23.3 percent through the year, a rebound in mergers and acquisitions, and greater demand for banks to underwrite bond issues, Reuters reported.
ECONOMIC UPDATE — MARKET OVERVIEW
Yesterday Donald Trump was, again, inaugurated President of the United States. And as we have forecast with one our Top Trends for 2025, at this point in time, no one really knows how the Trump Card will be played.
A GRAND DECEPTION AND A FUNDAMENTAL LIE
Quick review. In finance and economics there exists only two fundamental truths, which when implemented are beneficial to We the People of the world.
CONFIRMED: GERMANY IS IN DRAGFLATION
The German economy contracted by 0.2 percent last year after shrinking by 0.3 percent in 2023, the Federal Statistics Office (FSO) said, while inflation in December was at 2.8 percent.
TECHNOCRACY BRIEFS: ARE PETS IN PLACE OF KIDS AND AI LOVERS A PART OF THAT AGE OF ABUNDANCE?
A new Age of Abundance is upon us, don’t you know. In just 10 years, a new Forbes article says, goods will be so cheap many people won’t work.
TRUMP ENDS BIDEN SANCTIONS ON VIOLENT WEST BANK ISRAELI SETTLERS AS THEY RAMP UP MORE WAR
U.S. President Donald Trump wasted no time to lift sanctions that were imposed by the Biden administration on a group of West Bank settlers after violence in the territory “reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region.”
VOTERS WANT TRUMP TO DO WHAT HE PROMISED
A newly released poll found that American voters want Donald Trump to implement the policies that he spoke about during his campaign—from immigration to the economy—but there is also some concern that a few of his goals may be too extreme.
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: HARD ROAD AHEAD FOR WESTERN CAR COMPANIES
Automakers in the U.S. and Europe will close plants this year as they deal with stiffer emissions targets, probable tariffs on imported parts and exported vehicles, and overcapacity in their production infrastructures in the face of price competition from lower-cost countries, primarily China, research and business consulting firm Gartner said in a new report.
TOP TREND 2023, SELF-SUFFICIENT ECONOMIES: APPLE IPHONE NO LONGER CHINA’S BEST-SELLING SMARTPHONE
Apple’s iconic iPhone is no longer China’s top-selling smartphone. It has fallen to third place as phones made by Vivo and particularly Huawei have overtaken it.
PENSION FUNDS TAKE A FLYER ON CRYPTO
Pension funds in Australia and the U.K. are dabbling in cryptocurrency stocks and derivatives, and employee pension systems in the U.S. also are going long on the digital currencies.
The Israel War
GAZA DEATH TOLL
At least 47,035 Palestinians were killed and another 111,091 were injured during Israel’s 15-month campaign of genocide in Gaza.
TRUMP ENDS BIDEN SANCTIONS ON VIOLENT WEST BANK ISRAELI SETTLERS AS THEY RAMP UP MORE WAR
U.S. President Donald Trump wasted no time to lift sanctions that were imposed by the Biden administration on a group of West Bank settlers after violence in the territory “reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region.”
TRUMP AND BIDEN EACH TAKE CREDIT FOR GAZA CEASEFIRE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced late Thursday that a deal was signed between his team in Qatar and Hamas to end fighting inside the destroyed enclave after a reported pressure campaign by the incoming Donald Trump administration in the U.S… or was it a late win for U.S. President Joe Biden?
AI
U.S. BLACKLISTS CHINA’S “OPENAI”
The U.S. government has listed Zhipu, China’s most prominent developer of large language AI models, among the Chinese companies U.S. firms are forbidden to do business with. Several of Zhipu’s affiliated companies also made the list.
A THIRD OF COMPANIES’ AI PROJECTS WILL BE SCRAPPED THIS YEAR, GARTNER SAYS
At least 30 percent of companies’ AI implementations will be abandoned this year after being tested, due to unexpectedly high costs, inadequate preparation to handle related risks, or fuzzy ideas of what the purpose of AI’s use or expected outcomes were to be, according to consulting and research firm Gartner.
OPENAI RELEASES ITS LATEST “REASONING” MODEL FOR PUBLIC TESTING
OpenAI has quickly followed its o1 “reasoning” AI, released in September, with the o3 and o3-mini versions that can “do increasingly complex tasks that require a lot of reasoning,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a live-streamed announcement.
Hi-Tech Science
SURGEONS FULLY INTEGRATE BIONIC LIMB INTO WOMAN’S BODY
In Sweden, surgeons have fully connected a woman’s artificial forearm and hand with both her skeletal and nervous system, allowing her to move her hand and digits almost as easily as the real thing.
REDESIGNING THE PASSENGER JET
JetZero, a California startup, has revived a century-old aerodynamic concept to redesign the passenger jet.
CHINA TO BUILD GIANT SOLAR FARM—IN SPACE
China has announced plans to build a solar array a kilometer wide—more than a half-mile—in geostationary orbit around the Earth that will beam energy back to ground as microwaves.
