What’s going on here?

Japanese developers started looking to settle down in the US of A.

What does this mean?

Japan’s economy shrank at its fastest pace in two years last quarter. That makes business tougher, especially for companies that usually flourish or flounder in tandem with the economy, like construction firms. Meanwhile, though, the US housing market has only been getting stronger, despite high mortgage rates threatening to turn owners into renters. So it makes sense that Japanese home builders Sumitomo Forestry, Daiwa House, and Sekisui House are eyeing up stateside homebuilders to make the most of that lucrative market. They won’t be limited to small fry, either: the trio are each worth between $5 and $20 billion.

Why should I care?

For markets: Good value comes for those who wait.

Japan’s currency is at one of its lowest points in over a decade. That means if you’re converting from yen, each US dollar is more expensive – and the same is true for US acquisitions. But patience is a virtue: Japanese companies can borrow yen for cheap now, then wait for US interest rates to come down as inflation settles, which would weaken the dollar. At that point, those forward-thinking businesses can snap up firms for better value – especially if the Bank of Japan raises Japanese interest rates and bolsters the struggling yen.

The bigger picture: Offices, not golf courses.

Businesses in Japan aren’t just contending with a shrinking economy: the population is whittling down too, so the country’s trying to squeeze all the life it can out of its many aging citizens. The government has pushed back the retirement age for specific roles, while breaking down other jobs into smaller, more manageable tasks. Plus, it’s loosening up immigration rules to attract a younger, more sprightly workforce from abroad. Watch out, soon-to-be retirees: Japan’s plans, if they work out, could reinvent how the world deals with age.

What’s going on here

Bitcoin’s price blazed past $42,000 for the first time in twenty months.

What does this mean?

Time heals all wounds in crypto: Binance and FTX’s fallouts may have damaged the industry’s reputation at the time, but the end of the criminal cases has attracted investors back to the digital realm. At the same time, rumors that the Federal Reserve might lower interest rates have got folk back into riskier assets, while safety-seekers have been using crypto to hedge against the risk of currencies losing value. But something extra special is afoot: bitcoin’s famous “halving” will happen next year, which halves the reward for mining and slows the rate at which new coins are created, attracting investors who anticipate higher prices around the event. Add that all together, and bitcoin has rallied by over 150% this year alone.

Why should I care?

For markets: Crypto’s biggest fan.

Bitcoin’s no stranger to falling as fast as it climbed. But this rally is underpinned by more than a Reddit thread: traditional investors are warming to crypto now that the industry’s cast out infamously problematic leaders and seems to be moving toward innovation-friendly regulation. That includes institutions, too. MicroStrategy – known as the biggest publicly traded corporate investor in bitcoin – recently topped up its stash by $593 million to own a commendable $6.5 billion in bitcoin alone.

The bigger picture: This isn’t family dinner conversation.

Bitcoin and ether are still both below their record highs from during the pandemic: $69,000 and $4,868 respectively. There’s no ignoring crypto’s volatility, after all. Any unexpected interest rate adjustments, say, could squash the currencies’ momentum. Legendary investor Charlie Munger certainly wasn’t sold, calling bitcoin “noxious poison” and warning that digital assets were “partly fraud and partly delusion”. All that said, if there’s a Venn diagram for potential payoffs, hedging against traditional currencies, and protecting against geopolitical risks, crypto’s arguably bang in the middle.