All posts tagged: market

An Emerging Market Crisis In Oil-Poor Asia?

An Emerging Market Crisis In Oil-Poor Asia?

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Satyajit Das via NewIndiaExpress, Reliable availability of cheap energy is, as the Iran war highlights, essential to modern economies and societies, at least for the foreseeable future. Shocks divide the world into the oil haves and oil have-nots. Alongside higher energy prices, shortages of petrochemical derived chemicals will affect agriculture, mining, plastics, textiles, semi-conductors and construction. Given that even if the conflict was to end with a lasting agreement it would take months or years for restoration of normality, the effects are likely to be severe. Europe, already affected by their decision to cut-off Russian gas supplies, and Japan, are affected. But the major consequences will be felt across oil poor South and East Asia.   The extent of the damage depends on pre-existing vulnerabilities, including insufficient currency reserves, poor public finances, trade imbalances, high debt levels, especially foreign currency denominated borrowings, reliance on overseas capital, narrow industrial bases, and poor contingency plans. The Table below sets out some key vital statistics Notes: all figures are mainly for 2025 For energy importers, supply …

Despite a competitive market, finding a summer job is highly beneficial for teens : NPR

Despite a competitive market, finding a summer job is highly beneficial for teens : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

A lifeguard overlooks an outdoor swimming pool. Etienne Laurent/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Etienne Laurent/Getty Images Teenagers hoping to hold the whistle as a lifeguard or camp counselor, or just work any job this summer are having a hard time getting hired. “They now have more competition. There may be fewer jobs available,” says Brad Hershbein, an economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. “They kind of get stuck with the short straw.” Many factors are contributing to the competition for entry-level jobs: AI, inflation, tariffs, even those oil tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf. But all signs are pointing to 2026 being the worst job market for teens in decades. “So many people are increasingly desperate to find a job, any job, especially if they have college loans,” Hershbein says. “That makes it that much harder for someone younger to be able to compete.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 219,000 fewer teens working this May compared to last May. Their participation in the labor force has been sliding since a …

Prediction market firms face growing scrutiny as Congress weighs rules

Prediction market firms face growing scrutiny as Congress weighs rules

Published by Sam Flores

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., talks with reporters outside a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images The leader of the congressional committee that oversees how the House functions says he is working on legislation to not only ban current lawmakers from making prediction markets bets on elections and politics but that he wants to expand that to former federal lawmakers and candidates for those offices. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisc., who chairs the House Administration Committee, told reporters this week he doesn’t see an issue in lawmakers betting on non-political events, like the outcome of sports games. But betting on elections and policies — topics where they could have access to insider information — would be banned on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. “There’s an avenue to make sure, now that these new and kind of novel markets are available to consumers writ large, that we put that in the rules explicitly,” he told reporters in an interview. …

European publishers seek £552m+ from Google claiming ad market abuse

European publishers seek £552m+ from Google claiming ad market abuse

Published by Sam Flores

Google Ad Manager. Picture: Shutterstock/IB Photography More than 20 European news publishers are taking legal action against Google seeking damages of £550m for adtech monopoly abuses. The case comes off the back of the European Commission handing Google a fine of €2.95bn (£2.55bn) last year for abusing its dominant position in online advertising technology. The European Commission said that any people or company affected by anti-competitive behaviour outlined by this case could seek damages, which would be considered separately to the fine imposed on Google. The publishers involved in the case argue they should collectively be awarded damages of more than €640m (£552m) due to the impact Google’s actions had on them. They believe they would have earned significantly higher advertising revenues and paid lower fees for adtech services if not for the fact Google had created a less competitive market. Publishers are taking part from the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. The case is being funded by Prague-based litigation funder LitFin, which will cover the costs even if …

Thailand Launches Bangkok International Content Market

Thailand Launches Bangkok International Content Market

Published by Daniella Wilson

Thailand is ready to sell its stories to the world. The country’s Creative Economy Agency is set to launch the Bangkok International Content Market 2026 — billed as Thailand’s first international marketplace for film, series and animation — running July 20-22 at Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. The market is the centerpiece of Thailand Content Market 2026, a joint effort by the agency, known as CEA, and the Department of International Trade Promotion to draw international buyers and position the country as what officials are calling a “content hub of Asia.” Pitched as a business-to-business and co-production platform, BICM2026 is targeting participation from more than 80 investors and streaming services from around the world.  The launch comes as Thailand presses to convert its screen sector’s rising international profile into an export business, part of a government soft-power drive branded Content Thailand. Streaming investment is a significant part of the picture: Netflix has said it spent some $200 million on Thai content between 2021 and 2024, and the country’s Y-series — Thai boys’ love dramas …

George Santos rejects trading claims amid expanding prediction market concerns

George Santos rejects trading claims amid expanding prediction market concerns

Published by skeptic

Former Rep. George Santos is disputing allegations that he improperly benefited from prediction-market trading as federal authorities reportedly examine activity connected to his account on Kalshi. In a June 3 post on X, Santos said he learned through media reports that the Department of Justice could be looking into the matter. He said his attorneys had already contacted federal officials for clarification and that he would cooperate with any requests for information. To the 100’s of reporters calling me through the night. Stop! My legal team and I were made aware by a report from NPR yesterday that the DOJ might be looking into me. So now my legal team is in contact with the DOJ to see what is going on. I will comment further when… — George Santos (@Georgesantos) June 3, 2026 “The bases of the accusation is preposterous and I look forward to supplying any information asked of me to any agency that inquires,” Santos wrote. Reports from NPR, the Associated Press and other outlets say investigators are reviewing trades tied to …

Quantum Computing Is Having Its Public Market Moment

Quantum Computing Is Having Its Public Market Moment

Published by skeptic

Quantinuum lost nearly $200 million last year, saw revenue drop the first quarter of 2026, and says its technology may never work–yet investors are clamoring to buy the stock. The quantum computer maker boosted the price and number of shares it will issue on the New York Stock Exchange ahead of its public debut on Thursday, indicating higher-than-anticipated demand. Quantum computers are a nascent technology that promise to solve problems current machines can’t, unlocking commercial advantages in areas from drug discovery to defense. A multitude of startups, as well as tech giants like IBM and Google, are racing to build a quantum computer powerful enough to realize these benefits. It’s expensive work. Lately, a number of firms have taken advantage of sky-high tech valuations and gone public to raise the necessary funds, as investors scramble to be part of the gold rush. The number of publicly traded quantum computer companies in the US has doubled since the start of the year. Government support for the technology may have somewhat reassured some investors. In May, the …

The graduate job market is grim right now – but the data says university is still worth it

The graduate job market is grim right now – but the data says university is still worth it

Published by skeptic

Spend ten minutes talking to a soon-to-be graduate about their job search and you might come away convinced that a university degree has become a confidence trick. The class of 2025 spent the better part of a year sending hundreds of applications for a handful of replies. The class of 2026 is now graduating into the same market and reporting similar experiences. Employers have warned of falls in entry-level hiring. The recent British Social Attitudes survey has found that a third of people surveyed thought that a degree “just isn’t worth the amount of time and money”. The numbers do nothing to soften the picture. Youth unemployment among 16-to-24-year-olds reached 16.2% in the first quarter of 2026, the highest in more than a decade. Graduate hiring fell 8% from 2024 to 2025, the weakest year since the pandemic. Employers are fielding an average of 140 applications for every vacancy, according to the Institute of Student Employers’ 2025 student recruitment survey. The recent independent review for the Department for Work and Pensions counted nearly a million …

AI Has Ruined the Job Market

AI Has Ruined the Job Market

Published by Sam Flores

A few years ago, Ken Schumacher was working for a technology company. Part of his job involved assessing potential hires: hopping on a Zoom call, giving an applicant an engineering test (kind of like a crossword puzzle with code instead of words), and going on “mute for an hour” as the applicant struggled through it. Except many of the candidates weren’t struggling. The firm’s exercises were getting posted on sites such as Glassdoor. “All these savvy 23-year-olds would, of course, practice the problem three times, come to me, and crush it,” Schumacher told me. “Now the bigger problem is everyone’s using AI to write their resume.” They’re also using AI-powered chatbots and teleprompters to help them get to the next round. It’s become “really, really hard for anyone to figure out who’s real and who’s fake,” Schumacher said. (This turned out to be its own market opportunity—he now runs a start-up using AI to detect AI cheating by job candidates.) The problem might be particularly acute in software engineering. But the same dystopian phenomenon is …