The Dilemma Facing Middle Powers

India’s Middle-Power Dilemma
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-will-struggle-to-join-middle-powers-alliance-due-to-foreign-policy-mindset-by-ajay-shah-2026-02
Many hope that India will participate in a coalition of middle powers to uphold a rule-based international order. But it will take time for the country’s foreign-policy establishment to move away from “strategic autonomy” as a guiding principle, and recent US behavior has confirmed skeptics’ arguments that the West is unreliable. 

India’s Middle-Power Strategy Won It a Reprieve from Trump’s Sky-High Tariffs
https://www.wsj.com/world/india/indias-middle-power-strategy-won-it-a-reprieve-from-trumps-sky-high-tariffs-31c23668
New Delhi powered ahead with trade deals that strengthened its hand in negotiations with the U.S.

Euro Area Expands

Bulgarians Adopt the Euro with a Whisper of Melancholy but Few Tears
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/world/europe/bulgaria-euro-lev-european-union.html 

Trump and the Housing Market

Voters Say Housing Prices Are Too High. Trump Wants Them Higher.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/business/trump-housing-prices-affordability-real-estate.html

Do More Deportations Mean Lower Housing Costs?
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/do-more-deportations-mean-lower-housing-costs-948a382d
The Trump administration says its crackdown on immigration is reducing housing prices. Economists say other factors such as oversupply matter more. 

The Collapse of Software Stocks

AI Threatens a Wall Street Cash Cow: Financial, Legal Data
https://www.wsj.com/finance/stocks/ai-threatens-a-wall-street-cash-cow-financial-and-legal-data-6782657e
Stock market losses highlighted the expanding threat of AI-driven disruption for financial services and the sector’s white-collar professionals.
 
The AI Stock Market Rout
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ai-stock-market-software-companies-selloff-02bef5d0
A new Anthropic tool causes a selloff in software and other business-to-business service companies.

‘Get Me Out’: Traders Dump Software Stocks as AI Fears Take Hold
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/traders-dump-software-stocks-ai-115502147.html/
Wall Street has been skeptical about software stocks for a while, but sentiment has gone from bearish to doomsday lately with traders gripped by fears about the destruction to be wrought by artificial intelligence.
“We call it the ‘SaaSpocalypse,’ an apocalypse for software-as-a-service stocks,” said Jeffrey Favuzza, who works on the equity trading desk at Jefferies. “Trading is very much ‘get me out’ style selling.” 

Why software stocks are getting pummeled

https://www.economist.com/business/2026/02/01/why-software-stocks-are-getting-pummelled

Are investors overestimating the risk from AI?

 

Related:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-03/legal-software-stocks-plunge-as-anthropic-releases-new-ai-tool

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/wall-street-has-fallen-out-of-love-with-software-stocks-b050b457

Forecasting Blues

The Global Economy’s Warning Signals Are Broken
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/business/economy/global-economy-forecasts.html
From markets to spending to debt, usually reliable indicators that forecast where the economy is headed are proving deeply fallible. 

The Ultimate Recycling

A Solution for Crowded Cemeteries: Turn Loved Ones into Gardening Soil
https://www.wsj.com/business/funeral-burial-cremation-cemetery-8f24bc17   

US-India Trade Ties

Trump and India Call Off Their Trade War, but the Terms of Peace Are Murky
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/business/us-india-trade-tariffs.html
Officials and business leaders sighed with relief at lower tariffs, as they wait to see what the rest of it means.