ECONOMICS

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) continued its decline in December, dropping 0.1% MoM (slightly better than the -0.3% MoM expectations). That is the smallest MoM decline since March 2022.

• The biggest positive contributor to the leading index was stock prices (again) at +0.20

• The biggest negative contributor was ISM New Orders at -0.18

This is the 21st straight MoM decline in the LEI (and 22st month of 24) –  just barely shorter than (more…)

At the start of this year, a new global minimum corporate tax of 15 percent on multinational corporations went live across some European and Asian countries.

The following years will likely see more nations – including some that have been known as tax havens – join the initiative spearheaded by the OECD and the G20.

It is seeking to collect billions of dollars every year on company profits that have so far been taxed at often much lower levels and to rein in what (more…)

The topic of China's ownership of US farmlands is starting to boil over.

Six months after we reported that a "Bipartisan Bill Aims To Block Chinese Purchase Of US Farmland", more are starting to pay attention yet as even Bloomberg notes that America "is seeing more and more of its most fertile land snapped up by China and other foreign buyers" the big problem remains: it’s difficult to know just how much farmland China has bought due to problem with how the US (more…)