The Day at a Glance | July 9 2021

The Top

*Joe Biden will sign an executive order to promote competition in the US economy.

*The Central Bank of China cut bank reserve requirements in 0.5% amidst concerns of growth.

*G-20 Finance Ministers back a minimum global corporate tax; they called for resolving pending issues prior to October`s meeting.

*Inflation for producers became more moderate at 8.8% annual in June.

Economic environment

President Joe Biden will sign an executive order this afternoon. The executive order is designed to promote competition among industries in the United States through greater regulation. The White House will order federal regulating agencies to show more scrutiny towards tech companies, especially when it comes to the use of consumer information and company mergers. This is a response to the fact that companies like Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon and Apple have extraordinary access to consumer information, which gives them greater market power over their competitors. Among other measures, the executive order will seek to re-establish regulations on net neutrality (suspended by Trump), increase efforts to reduce medicine prices, monitor mergers between companies and banks, and will promote actions against railroad monopolies or alliances in the transportation industry that have caused higher prices among these services at a national level. Even though it will take months to carry out what President Biden is proposing, the executive order is expected to have an important impact on several of the country`s industries.