IMEN report on the BLS employment report
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the employment situation report for July. Instead of rising moderately as expected, employment fell by 23,000.
Iraq and Turkey Agree on a New Oil Export Route
Iraq and Turkey signed a one-year agreement to raise crude exports through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to at least 750,000 barrels per day. The corridor offers an alternative to southern terminals dependent on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, although it cannot replace Iraq’s prewar export capacity. Geopolitical disruption is redirecting infrastructure toward redundancy and overland routes.
World Economic Forum – Building Skills Is Not Enough for Young People
World Economic Forum | Jobs and the future of work | July 27, 2026
Training alone does not create durable employment when young people lack finance, mentorship, customers and functioning institutions. The article proposes five connected elements – skills, appropriate finance, mentoring, market access and enabling economic conditions – as an integrated pathway. Its structural message is especially relevant for women and workers in fragile economies, where isolated programs often stop before firms can scale.
Among the large euro area member states, all recorded fairly solid gains: Germany, France and Italy each at 0.2 percent, and Spain a strong 0.7 percent.
U.S. Economy Grows at a Sluggish 1.5% in the Second Quarter
U.S. growth and inflation | July 30, 2026
Real GDP expanded at a 1.5% annualized rate in the second quarter, down from 2.1%, as imports weighed on the headline. The domestic picture was firmer: consumer spending rose at a 3.2% pace, underlying private demand grew 3.9% and non-residential investment advanced 8.4%, supported by AI spending. June PCE inflation slowed to 3.7% year on year and core PCE to 3.3%, still well above the Federal Reserve’s target.
IMEN Letter: Central banks, geopolitics, AI uncertainty, and much more…
“In the past week, we saw three major central bank decisions, four large companies reporting, the first estimate of US second-quarter growth, and a coordinated currency intervention.”
Bank of England Holds Bank Rate at 3.75%
United Kingdom monetary policy | July 30, 2026
The Monetary Policy Committee voted 6–3 to keep Bank Rate at 3.75%, the fifth hold of 2026. A larger-than-expected decline in inflation created room to assess the renewed Iran-related energy shock, but the split vote showed that policymakers remain divided over the balance between weak demand and renewed price pressure. The decision reinforces the global shift from synchronized easing toward more conditional, shock-sensitive policy.
Federal Reserve — FOMC Keeps the Federal Funds Target Range Unchanged
Federal Reserve | FOMC statement | July 29, 2026
The FOMC maintained the federal funds target range at 3.50–3.75% by a 9–3 vote. Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari and Lorie Logan preferred a 25-basis-point increase, while the statement described activity as solid and inflation as elevated relative to the 2% goal, partly because of energy supply shocks. The split vote makes inflation credibility, long-term yields and data dependence central to the next meeting.
Reuters — South Korea Stock Rout Breaks Records as SK Hynix Earnings Disappoint
Reuters | Asian equity markets | July 29, 2026
Iraq and Turkey Agree on a New Oil Export Route
Associated Press | Energy infrastructure and trade routes
Iraq and Turkey signed a one-year agreement to raise crude exports through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to at least 750,000 barrels per day. The corridor offers an alternative to southern terminals dependent on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, although it cannot replace Iraq’s prewar export capacity. The deal shows how geopolitical disruption is redirecting infrastructure investment toward redundancy and overland routes.
World Economic Forum — Climate Resilience Can Help Cities and Businesses Grow
World Economic Forum | Urban resilience analysis | July 28, 2026
Climate resilience is becoming a location factor for capital, supply chains and skilled workers. Research covering 1,500 cities finds that protective infrastructure, water systems, cooling, liveability and public-private finance can improve business attractiveness; 45% of surveyed CEOs are considering supply-chain reconfiguration. Adaptation spending increasingly functions as competitiveness policy.
Branko Milanovic on What Comes After Globalization
Bloomberg Odd Lots (Joe Weisenthal, Tracy Alloway) | Podcast, ~61 min | 27 July 2026
Milanovic supplies the missing label for the current era. Globalisation has visibly fallen out of favour, but naming what replaces it has proved harder; his term is “national market liberalism” — market mechanisms retained, but organised around national rather than global objectives. The conversation draws on his new book on the United States, China and the remaking of the world economic order, and pairs directly with the two VoxEU columns above (items 13 and 14) on what institutional form a fragmented order might take.
IEA — Affordable Electricity Is Essential for the EU’s Electrification Goals
International Energy Agency | Commentary | July 23, 2026
The IEA finds that coordinated action on low-cost generation, grids, flexibility, nuclear lifetime extensions and energy taxation could materially lower EU electricity prices by 2030. Without such measures, consumer prices could be more than 40% higher than today in its counterfactual. The structural point is that electrification depends as much on system design and tax incentives as on adding renewable capacity.
VoxEU — Resilience Is a Network Property: Europe’s Integration Test for 2050
CEPR / VoxEU | Policy column | July 23, 2026
The column argues that resilience depends on the depth, diversity and quality of economic connections rather than the number of links severed in pursuit of self-sufficiency. For Europe, the implication is deeper capital markets, diversified supply chains and differentiated integration with strategic neighbors. Derisking should mean rewiring concentrated exposure, not retreating into costly autarky.