These Are The World's Highest-Grossing Companies

Walmart is the top-selling company in the world, turning over around $573 billion in annual revenue.

This is according to the Statista company database Company DB. The company in second place, e-commerce giant Amazon, is a whopping $100 billion behind that with a revenue of around $470 billion.

Two Chinese companies are also included in the list.

The State Grid Cooperation of China, which is in the business of electricity generation, transmission and distribution, and China Petroleum, a state-owned oil and gas enterprise.

Two more fossil fuel companies, state-owned Saudi Aramco from Saudi Arabia and British-owned Shell, also make the Top 10.

Apple and Volkswagen are the only two consumer goods companies that appear on the list. A third retailer – and a second one from the traditional brick-and-mortar field – appears in rank six: U.S. drug store chain CVS.

This means that Amazon remains the only seller dedicated exclusively to e-commerce on the list for now.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/these-are-worlds-highest-grossing-companies

https://www.statista.com/companydb/about

It's "Embarrassing" - Aussie Govt Probes Central Bank's Terrible Track-Record

In a stunning admission in this age of delusion, the Australian government has launched a probe into the central bank's dismal forecasting and policy track record.

As The FT reports, the review comes after the institution was heavily criticized for delaying interest-rate hikes despite soaring, and persistent, inflation.

The RBA came under fierce criticism after it was forced into a U-turn three months ago when soaring inflation shredded its dovish policy stance.

Australia’s treasurer Jim Chalmers said the review would consider the performance of the central bank, its board composition and its inflation targeting strategy.

“We face a complex and changing economic environment, and now is the right time to ensure we’ve got the world’s best, the most effective central bank,” Chalmers told Australia’s public broadcaster ABC on Wednesday.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/its-embarrassing-aussie-govt-probes-central-banks-terrible-track-record

US Fighter Jets Now Under Consideration For Ukraine: Air Force Chief

For weeks there have been rumors and widespread reports that the United States is close to starting a formal training program for Ukrainian pilots in order to better combat superior Russian aerial forces. But amid the weapons bonanza being offered and shipped from Washington to Kiev, it was also reported that fighter jets were never on the table - not even from allies.

This is particularly so after in March a proposal for Poland to send its own MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, which Ukrainian pilots are already trained on, fell through in a bizarre and somewhat diplomatically embarrassing way, given Warsaw prematurely claimed the White House had agreed to replace its donated MiGs with F-16 jets. The Biden administration then rejected that any agreement was made, and the whole fighter jets for Ukraine initiative appeared shelved. But now fresh words from Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall have revived speculation the Biden administration is intensely mulling jet transfers.

"Despite previous reports to the contrary, the United States is indeed considering sending fighter jets to Ukraine and training their pilots how to fly them, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says," reports Newsmax based on his revealing words before the Aspen Security Forum this week.

He stressed that while the "right now problem" remains ground-based fighting particularly in the East, creating an urgent need for more artillery and heavy gun systems, Ukraine's military will soon need better aerial assets to stave off Russia's assault.

"We'll be open to discussions with them about what their requirements are and how we might be able to satisfy them," Kendall said, before saying it remains "largely up to Ukraine" to decide what type of aircraft would meet its needs.

"There are a number of international opportunities that are possible there," he said. "Older US systems are a possibility" - he added while raising the possibility of A-10s, which have been in process of an off-and-on retirement under the Pentagon

Currently, the draft National Defense Authorization Act just passed in the House authorizes up to $100 million to establish a Ukrainian pilot program to train on American aircraft (F-16s in particular), which is the biggest indicator yet the Biden administration could be poised to pull the trigger.

Top US Air Force command seems to be on the same page on the issue, as Politico reports of separate statements this week:

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown hinted that the U.S. or one one of its allies may soon send fighter jets to Ukraine.

"There's U.S. [fighter jets], there's Gripen out of Sweden, there's the Eurofighter or the Rafale. So there's a number of different platforms that could go to Ukraine,” he said…The Ukrainians are unlikely to get MiGs, he continued, because it’ll be hard to get parts from Russia. "It'll be something non-Russian, I could probably tell you that. What I can't do is tell you what it's going to be," he concluded.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-fighter-jets-now-under-consideration-ukraine-air-force-chief