Global ETF News Older than One Year
World Bank-From low to high inflation: Implications for emerging market and developing economies
April 7, 2022--1 Introduction
Global inflation has risen over the past year from less than 2% to over 6%, the highest level since 2008. The pickup has been broad-based, across nine-tenths of countries. Inflation is now running well above central bank inflation targets in almost all advanced economies and most inflation-targeting emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs).
The recent commodity price surge triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine will raise inflation further in 2022. This persistence of above-target inflation creates a historic monetary policy challenge. Price stability, generally defined as a low and stable rate of inflation, is a key aspect of the credibility of monetary policy, and of macroeconomic stability. Low and stable inflation, sustained over time, has generally been associated with robust and stable output growth and employment. In contrast, both very low and very high inflation have been associated with severe macroeconomic problems (Mishkin 2000, 2008, Schmidt 2021, Fell et al. 2021).
Source: cepr.org
Gold ETP inflows hit record high of $11.3bn in March
April 6, 2022--Investors dump European equity funds as fallout from the Ukraine war rocks markets
Purchases of gold exchange traded products hit an all-time record in March, while investors pulled record amounts from domestically listed European equity funds as the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine ripped through markets.
Global net inflows into gold ETPs rose fivefold month-on-month to $11.3bn in March, according to data from BlackRock, eclipsing the previous peak of $9.4bn in July 2020. The surge in buying helped push the gold price to within a whisker of its all-time high in early March, although it has since eased back.
Source: ft.com
Silver Hues: Building Age-Ready Cities
April 5, 2022--Highlights
The global population is growing older, and the world is getting more urban, which will require cities and towns to meet changing demands.
To prepare, cities need to become "age-ready", and the report suggest that they could start by focusing on these six areas: universal design, housing solutions, multigenerational spaces, physical mobility, accessible technology, and efficient spatial forms.
Creating age-ready cities allows older persons to continue to contribute economically and permits citizens of all ages and abilities to lead full, productive, and dignified lives.
The world is aging and becoming increasingly urban. For the first time, there are more older persons than children under five, and unprecedented challenges, from extreme weather events to continued conflict and violence are driving more people to cities for livelihoods, to be closer to family, have access to essential services and simply to enjoy their golden years.
view the World Bank report-Silver Hues: Building Age-Ready Cities
Source: worldbank.org
71% of executives say the metaverse will be good for business. Here’s why
April 5, 2022--The metaverse will be positive for business, according to most respondents to an Accenture survey.
It will be "breakthrough" or "transformational", 42% say.
This reimagining of the internet is one of four tech trends identified by Accenture.
The metaverse will be worth more than $1 trillion in annual revenues, according to JP Morgan.
Many companies are already embracing it, including Disney, Gucci and Warner Bros.
The metaverse: while some of us are still coming to terms with the idea that we're likely to spend increasing amounts of time in a 3D version of the internet, companies are already scrambling to define the space, carve out their niche, and even snap up virtual real estate.
Source: weforum.org
UN climate report: It's 'now or never' to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees
April 4, 2022--A new flagship UN report on climate change out Monday indicating that harmful carbon emissions from 2010-2019 have never been higher in human history, is proof that the world is on a "fast track" to disaster, Antonio Guterres has warned, with scientists arguing that it's 'now or never' to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Reacting to the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Secretary-General insisted that unless governments everywhere reassess their energy policies, the world will be uninhabitable.
His comments reflected the IPCC's insistence that all countries must reduce their fossil fuel use substantially, extend access to electricity, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen.
Unless action is taken soon, some major cities will be under water, Mr. Guterres said in a video message, which also forecast "unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals".
view the IPCC Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
Source: news.un.org
An ESG Lens on Blockchain and Public Equities-Looking at ESG in Crypto, Blockchain, and Public Equities Thematic Research Report
April 1, 2022--Investors can face risks related to noncompliance with respect to tightening regulations targeting the crypto market. This market also faces challenges related to the energy intensity of crypto mining which can have a large carbon footprint, depending on the sources of energy used in mining.
On the other hand, the efficiency of crypto blockchains may have positive social impacts, such as reducing the costs of transactions for people sending remittances. Moreover, some cryptos function without relying on mining operations by using a proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
Beyond the volatile crypto market, blockchain has several features that lend well to commercial applications. Blockchain can help improve the transparency, speed and efficiency of data transfers and monetary transactions. Businesses in multiple industries are using blockchain tools to enhance payment platforms and secure supply chain management systems.
Source: sustainalytics.com
IMF Working paper-Policy Sequencing Towards Carbon Pricing -Empirical Evidence From G20 Economies and Other Major Emitters
April 1, 2022--Summary:
Carbon pricing is considered the most efficient policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but it has also been conjectured that other policies need to be implemented first to remove certain economic and political barriers to stringent climate policy.
Here, we examine empirical evidence on the the sequence of policy adoption and climate policy portfolios of G20 economies and other major emitters that eventually implemented a national carbon price. We find that all countries adopted carbon pricing late in their instrument sequence after the adoption of (almost) all other instrument types.
Furthermore, we find that countries that adopted carbon pricing in a given year had significantly larger climate policy portfolios than those that did not. In the last part of the paper, we examine heterogeneity among countries that eventually adopted a carbon price. We find large variation in the size of policy portfolios of adopters of carbon pricing, with more recent adopters appearing to have introduced carbon pricing with smaller portfolios. Furthermore, countries that adopted carbon pricing with larger policy portfolios tended to implement a higher carbon price. Overall, our results thus suggest that policy sequencing played an important role in climate policy, specifically the adoption of carbon pricing, over the last 20 years.
Source: IMF
Disclosure, Dapps and DeFi
March 27, 2022--Abstract
Disclosure in decentralized finance is an area where founders' and regulators' interests can overlap in important ways. Market participants need to differentiate their dapps to compete and grow-just as regulators have long demanded transparency in order for people to know what they're buying. But adapting disclosure frameworks popularized in the 1930s to today's digital marketplace requires bridging decades of technological evolution and fundamentally alien assumptions about market infrastructure.
This white paper contributes to that work. It observes that DeFi presents novel policy questions for disclosure because much of the material information required to participate in an informed way is already available to technologically sophisticated actors on blockchains. This feature is relevant when contemplating how and for whom a disclosure system for DeFi should be modeled. Securities law, with its focus on institutional actors, calls for voluminous and often technical disclosures designed to be filed with authorities; by contrast, consumer protection frameworks rely on targeted, retail-friendly disclosures meant to be digested by everyday shoppers and end users.
Source: papers.ssrn.com
Crypto Carbon: Can Blockchain Networks Fix Carbon Offsets?
March 27, 2022--A budding movement within the crypto industry says it can keep carbon out of the atmosphere by locking it on a blockchain. Can it succeed?
Cryptocurrency has become a boogeyman in conservation circles, but a growing corner of the industry is claiming to have a solution to the climate crisis: crypto carbon credits.
In the coming years, companies from Procter & Gamble (PG) to Nestlé (NSRGY) are vowing to go "carbon neutral," a feel-good moniker signaling they will prevent as much carbon from entering the atmosphere elsewhere as they emit.
One of the ways these companies aim to achieve their emission goals is by purchasing carbon credits - certificates representing carbon dioxide that's been kept out of the atmosphere by some act of conservation or removal.
Source: coindesk.com
IOSCO explains how Decentralised Finance is cloning Financial Markets
March 24, 2022--IOSCO has today published a detailed report setting out how decentralised finance ("DeFi") is quickly evolving to mirror conventional financial markets.
Ashley Alder, IOSCO Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, said: "DeFi is a novel and fast-growing area of financial services, and thisreport outlines key areas of concern for IOSCO." The IOSCO report offers a comprehensive review of the fast-evolving DeFi market, its new products, services and principal participants. It identifies some products and services which are novel to DeFi. But most of the new services which are emerging replicate more traditional financial services and activities, but with weaker regulation and increased risks for investors.
Source: IOSCO
