US: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Speech

Jerome Powell isn't sounding too dovish, once again saying the economy is performing well and is in a "good place." The Federal Reserve chair described today's employment report for August, where payroll growth slowed, as consistent with a strong labor market. Powell also said the consumer sector remains strong but that manufacturing is moving sideways to down. And the chair did cite risks to the outlook, including slowing global growth and low inflation. He said trade uncertainty is hampering business investment which has been a focal point for the Fed this year and was cited as a major factor in its July decision to cut rates for the first time this cycle. Whether the Fed cuts rates again at the FOMC later this month is less than certain, though Powell did say that the Fed is watching risks carefully and will act as appropriate. On the question of a possible recession, Powell said the Fed is not expecting nor forecasting one.

Digital Economy Report 2019

The rapid spread of digital technologies is transforming many economic and social activities. However, widening digital divides threaten to leave developing countries, and especially least developed countries, even further behind. A smart embrace of new technologies, enhanced partnerships and greater intellectual leadership are needed to redefine digital development strategies and the future contours of globalization.

This first edition of the Digital Economy Report – previously known as the Information Economy Report − examines the implications of the emerging digital economy for developing countries in terms of value creation and capture. It highlights the two main drivers of value creation in the digital era − digital data and platformization – and explores how current trends of wealth concentration could be replaced by trajectories leading to more equitable sharing of the gains from digitalization.

A and China leading the world

The report highlighted the dominance of the two superpowers, saying that the US and China accounted for “75 percent of all patents related to blockchain technologies, 50 percent of global spending on the “Internet of Things” (IoT), and more than 75 percent of the world market for public cloud computing.”

Not only that, but the two nations hold 90 percent of the market capitalization value of the world’s 70 largest digital platform companies. This is due to the major internet companies, like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook heralding from the US and Tencent as well as Alibaba from China. 

The aggressive expansion of these companies is no doubt a deciding factor in the dominance of the US and China. In terms of digital currencies, Facebook is the most notable in its currency move. Most of these companies have looked towards blockchain too, like Alibaba and Baidu. 

Bitcoin Trading at Record Inverse Correlation With Yuan

Bloomberg has reported that the 30-day inverse correlation between Bitcoin and the yuan has reached a record low, implying that the trade war has forced Chinese investors to adopt BTC.

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