Crypto Bear Market Wipes Out Almost Entire 2025 Value Increase

Source: cnbc

The race to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has entered a decisive phase, with five candidates now on the shortlist, according to Erste Group analysts.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have named Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, and Rick Rieder, head of fixed income at BlackRock, as contenders for the post.

"Bessent plans to conduct a second round of interviews with these individuals this month before presenting a shortened list of nominees to the president before Thanksgiving," Erste analyst Maurice Jiszda said.

Trump has indicated he could announce his choice before the end of the year, an earlier-than-usual timeline that would allow a "chair-in-waiting to influence investor expectations about the future path of interest rates," Erste noted.

However, such an early move could also create tension with current policymakers, "potentially putting Powell's successor in the uncomfortable position of publicly challenging his future colleagues."

According to Erste, the new Fed chair will likely also fill the board seat currently held by Governor Miran, whose term ends in January, allowing the appointee to participate in March and April rate meetings ahead of assuming the top role in May.

Jiszda highlighted Waller's "academic rigor" and support for "preventive monetary easing," Bowman's "regulatory experience" and focus on the labor market, and Warsh's calls for a more flexible, contemporary monetary policy.

Hassett, the analyst noted, is a "staunch ally of Trump" and "vocal advocate of significantly lower interest rates," while Rieder is "highly regarded in financial circles."

Source: Investing

In the gritty German industrial city of Bochum, a family-run car dealership once counted small affordable vehicles as its bread and butter, but it has adapted to deepening inequalities by no longer selling factory-fresh hatchbacks and wagons at all.

Sticker prices on new models have risen faster than wages in recent years, adding to other cost-of-living increases on everything from housing to food and energy. The combination has squeezed spending power and put new vehicles out of reach for Auto Feix's working-class clientele in Bochum, once the home of a thriving budget-car factory.

"Customers simply have less money in their pockets," said Kerstin Feix, managing director of the nearly century-old company. "For many, a brand-new car is no longer affordable."

The situation has gotten worse since the introduction of stricter rules on automakers in recent years and means a new car now costs about 43 weeks of wages for an average German, compared with 32 in 1995, according to Bloomberg calculations.

New-car sales in Europe's largest economy remain below pre-pandemic levels, with electric models — central to the European Union's climate strategy — proving too costly for most buyers. As automakers retreat from the budget segment, the trends deepen a sense of exclusion for working families and represent a rupture from the era when the Volkswagen, or people's car, was a source of national pride.

"The automobile remains bound up with the idea of freedom and autonomy," said Oliver Nachtwey, professor of social structure analysis at the University of Basel and an expert on rising inequality in Germany. "For older generations and for people in smaller towns, car ownership still signifies independence — the ability to leave, to move, to live on your own terms."

Discontent over declining living standards isn't limited to Germany and sparked the yellow-vest protests in France in 2018 and demonstrations over housing shortages in Spain this year.

As inflation shot up in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, Auto Feix expanded repair bays to help keep cars running longer and switched sales completely to second-hand models. The cars are usually less than a year old, which means the initial depreciation has taken place and they can be sold for thousands less. Years of economic stagnation and growing anxiety over job security offers little chance of reverting to new cars.

"The price is the most important thing," said Feix, who's been selling cars in Germany's Rust Belt for three decades. "People are well aware they can't afford what they used to."

Auto Feix's flagship store is located near a now-defunct car factory that once churned out the Opel Kadett. The model was an icon of Germany's postwar expansion and, like the VW Beetle, offered mobility, comfort and status for the growing middle class. After closing in 2014, the site's conversion into a logistics hub is emblematic of a widening shift away from stable manufacturing jobs toward more precarious service work.

Dwindling buying power has contributed to the demise of entry-level models across Europe. The VW Up, Opel Adam, Ford Fiesta and Citroën C1 have all been pulled in recent years. With such options gone, more demand has shifted to the used market, but those cars have also become more expensive, with prices rising 88% on average in Germany over the past decade.

"Car manufacturers are no longer as focused on volume as they once were," said David Di Girolamo, global head of professional services at auto data firm JATO. "They're now prioritizing models that deliver higher margins and more efficient production. The volume-driven approach that dominated before the pandemic just hasn't come back."

The shrinking affordable car market is not just a demand issue. Autos have also become more expensive to build due to higher raw material costs and supply-chain constraints on rare earths and chips.

A thorn in the side for the industry has also been tighter rules on safety and emissions. Compared with 2015, today's cars have to include automatic braking, lane-keeping assistance and driver-fatigue detection, equipment once reserved for upscale models.

With sales sluggish, carmakers need to sell high-margin models to help finance technologies for electric and self-driving vehicles. Entry-level models that have survived are noticeably more expensive. In Italy, the Fiat Panda — for decades the face of affordable mobility — sold for around €9,000 in 2010. The updated version starts at €15,950, a nearly 80% increase in 15 years.

While policymakers praise the rules for making European cars among the safest in the world, manufacturers say the regulations are hampering their competitiveness and have called on authorities to ease off.

EU rules are "imposing a pace, which is not what the customer wants, not what the customer needs, not what the customer can afford," Antonio Filosa, the chief executive officer of Stellantis NV — the parent of the Opel, Fiat and Citroën brands — said at a French auto industry event this week. "We need to change, we need to change big."

The issue of affordability is critical for Europe's automakers as they battle to compete with Chinese rivals in electric cars. The VW ID.3 — originally positioned as the Beetle of the electric-car era — starts at €33,330, or 65% more than the Polo hatchback. By contrast, the electric-powered Dolphin Surf from China's BYD Co. costs as little as €22,990 in Germany.

Struggles to buy a vehicle lays bare how economic pressures are fraying the social fabric in Germany, the inventor of the automobile. The mood is reflected in national surveys showing households turning gloomier as incomes weaken.

Anxiety about Germany's marquis industry is in turn having political fallout. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his conservative allies are pushing the EU to soften a ban on the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles from 2035 to defend the auto industry — a reaction to pressure from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is leading in some polls.

The German government has also introduced new EV incentives for lower-income households, but many renters don't have home charging and so remain reliant on costly public stations, which risks deepening inequality in the shift to electric cars.

Once anchors of postwar success, Germany's industrial heartlands have become incubators of discontent. Skepticism toward green policies and their impact on jobs feed into broader frustration with Berlin's ruling coalition and play into the AfD's promises of reviving combustion traditions.

"The auto industry is building electric cars for richer people and families are being left behind," said Christian Loose, an AfD lawmaker from Bochum, pointing to the shuttered Opel plant. "Policemen, nurses, anyone who needs a car — these are important clientele for us."

The auto industry has tried to make a case that electrification and affordability can coexist. At Europe's biggest auto show this year, Volkswagen unveiled the ID. Polo, with a base price below €25,000. Sister-brand Škoda followed with its Epiq crossover at roughly the same level and more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) of range.

Yet even these models may be out of reach for many buyers. About one in five Germans is at risk of poverty or social exlcusion, according to the country's statistics office, a share that's been edging higher after years of economic stagnation.

In Bochum, Feix says she hears frustration turning into quiet anger as customers complain about feeling written off. Despite the headwinds, she remains pragmatic and sees selling slightly older combustion cars as a good strategy for her and her customers.

"We can save them a few thousand euros," Feix said. "They get the car they want and they can still afford it."

Source: Bloomberg Europe

Source: cnbc

Source: Bloomberg

Canada's job market made a solid gain in October, reversing past declines and beating expectations, and its unemployment rate fell, data showed on Friday.

The economy added a net of 66,600 jobs in October following a 60,400 job gains in the prior month, Statistics Canada said, helping offset most of the job losses recorded in July and August.

All of the gains in October were in part-time workers category where employment rose by 85,000 people.

Full-time employment dropped by 18,500 people, StatsCan said, adding all the gain was concentrated in the private sector, a first rise since June.

The unemployment rate, which has hovered around a nine-year high outside of the pandemic, fell to 6.9% in October from 7.1% in September, it said.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a jobless rate of 7.1% and had estimated that the economy would lose 2,500 jobs in October.

Canada's economic growth potential has withered as a slew of sectoral tariffs has led to job losses in steel and automotive sectors while choking hiring in other related sectors.

This has been particularly pronounced in prospects for jobs for the youth, where unemployment rate had peaked to a 15-year high in September.

But October marked a sharp u-turn for youth employment. Unemployment among the youth, or those aged 15 years to 24 years, slid to 14.1% last month from 14.7% in the prior month.

This was the first decline in the youth unemployment rate since February, the statistics agency noted.

Employment among the core-aged group - 25 to 54 years - which accounts for a two-thirds share of the labor force, showed a healthy increase of 38,800 jobs.

Employment numbers are usually highly volatile and are prone to sizable changes.

Among the industry groups that contributed most to the job gains were wholesale and retail, transportation and warehousing, StatsCan said.

Canada's employment is primarily divided between the services sector and the goods sector, with four out of every five people working in the services sector.

Retail and wholesale, a part of the services sector, is the biggest employer in the country with almost 15% of the workforce employed in this industry. This sector saw a job gain of 40,700 people.

The average hourly wage of permanent employees - a gauge closely tracked by the Bank of Canada to ascertain inflationary trends - showed a spike and grew by 4.0% in October from 3.6% in September.

Source: Reuters