Just last weekend, this newsletter focused on the challenges and opportunities facing India's economy. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spending billions of dollars to make his country the next global economic powerhouse. Billions alone won't be enough, Bloomberg reporters Kai Schultz and Vrishti Beniwal wrote. Modi will need to get red tape and corruption under control. Now, a scathing short-seller report has taken aim at the country's most prominent business. The Adani Group has shed $108 billion in market value since Hindenburg Research accused it of stock manipulation and accounting fraud in a Jan. 24 report. But it was only when the tycoon scrapped a $2.4 billion share sale this week that the potential for lasting impact became clear. Adani's 413-page rebuttal failed to reassure investors. Once ranked No. 2 among the world's wealthiest, Gautam Adani has tumbled to No. 21 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Adani is ingrained in India's economy. It's a logistics business. It controls ports and terminals. It's an energy company. Yet Hindenburg's report has raised bigger questions about India's credibility as a global growth engine and a destination for international investors. Gambling revenue in Macau surged in January as tourists returned during the Lunar New Year. Photographer: Eduardo Leal/Bloomberg Meanwhile, China's reopening is set to provide a welcome boost to global growth, offsetting weakness in Europe and a potential recession in the US. Copper prices have already jumped above $9,000 a ton and Chinese oil consumption is forecast to hit a record this year. Macau's gambling revenue jumped 82.5% in January. China's reopening could even shorten a predicted UK recession as high-spending tourists return. There's a catch though: A boost to inflation from all that activity comes at exactly the same moment the Federal Reserve and other central banks are racing to bring prices under control. A neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona. Photographer: John Wollwerth / Alamy In Phoenix, there's something interesting happening in the housing market: The everyday homebuyers are beating out those supposedly experienced Wall Street and Silicon Valley iBuyers. Last year, institutional buyers in the Phoenix area represented a bigger share of home purchases than in any other major US market. They bought and sold residential properties like securities, leveraging technology and sophisticated algorithms. But as prices become more volatile, the tables have turned. This week on the podcast, an Anti-Defamation League study found a sharp rise in the number of people who say they've encountered white supremacist ideology while playing online video games. The persistent presence of individual gamers and groups spreading hate in gaming communities has led to calls for the industry to do more to stop it. The question is, how? Subscribe and listen on iHeart, Apple and Spotify. |
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