Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 05 March 2015
Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
U.S.
Best U.S. Stocks Rally Since 2014 Fueled by Optimism in Economy (Bloomberg) The story of 2016: six weeks down followed by 3 weeks up. This week the S&P 500 jumped 2.7% over five days, bringing its run during the past three weeks to 7.3%.
Top 15 Red Flags Triggering an IRS Tax Audit (The Street, MSN News) Slide show illustrates potential audit flags.
Cruz Serves Up Spoilers on Contested Convention and Rubio’s Florida Hopes (Bloomberg) The Texas senator flatly rejected the idea of a contested convention on Friday at CPAC, warning that it would lead to a “manifest revolt.”
US Presidential Election 2016: Establishment Republicans turn on Donald Trump in effort to sway voters (City A.M.) Republicans to Trump: Eight things I hate about you.
UK
FTSE finishes the week higher on commodities (City A.M.) London’s stocks are being driven higher, led by commodities,just like New York.
Rush for Irish passports brought on by Brexit fears (The Guardian) Desire to remain an EU citizen after a possible leave vote is cited by many British-born applicants as the motivating factor for those who are eligible for Irish citizenship (and therefore EU citizenship) to obtain Irish passports just in case Brexit is approved in the June referendum.
Having a job costs you more than £3,000 a year (City A.M.) Having a job costs UK workers £91 billion ($132 billion) a year as the price of food, phone bills and childcare rises – but commuting has actually become cheaper. It’s one of life’s great paradoxes: you go to work every day, only to be charged a hefty portion of your salary just for the privilege of being there. Now research by Santander has worked out exactly how much UK workers are paying just to have a job: £3,405 each – 16% of the average full-time worker’s net income. The costs are 6% higher than a year ago , rising at three times the rate of wages.
Germany
German Note Swings Show Investor Angst on Extent of ECB Stimulus (Bloomberg) European government bond traders counting on the European Central Bank to boost stimulus pushed German two-year note yields to a record low this week. Even so, the volatility on the securities suggests investors are divided about how much easing is coming. Germany’s two-year yields fell the most since Jan. 29 on Thursday, only to climb by the most since December the following day.
Spain
Spain election: Socialists’ coalition bid rejected again (BBC News) Spain’s Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez has failed for the second time in a week to form a government after his proposal was defeated by parliament. In a 219-131 vote, MPs rejected Mr Sanchez’s proposed coalition cabinet with the centre-right Ciudadanos party. If MPs fail to choose a government by 2 May, a new ‘snap’ election will be held in June. Spain has been governed by a caretaker cabinet of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy following December’s inconclusive elections. The influence of the two traditional parties – the Socialists (PSOE) and Mr Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) – has been diluted by the rise of the anti-austerity Podemos movement and Ciudadanos.
Syria
Notes on the Syrian exodus: ‘Epic in scale, inconceivable until you witness it’ (The Guardian) Booker prize winner Richard Flanagan visits Lebanon, Greece and Serbia to report on the plight of the 5 million Syrians fleeing their country. ‘Forced to choose between life and death,’ he writes, ‘they choose life‘.
China
U.S. aircraft carrier patrols South China Sea as Beijing keeps watch (CNN) A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group is operating in the South China Sea, with the Chinese Navy apparently keeping close watch. The Navy’s Seventh Fleet said in a press release Friday that the USS John S. Stennis, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, as well as the guided-missile destroyers USS Chung-Hoon and USS Stockdale, the guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay and the supply ship USNS Rainier had been operating in the eastern part of the South China Sea since March 1 after passing through the Luzon Strait between the Philippines and Taiwan.
China Eases Fiscal Stance to Meet Slower Growth Target for 2016 (Bloomberg) China has increased its fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP in an effort to stimulate its slowing economy. The country has pledged to accelerate restructuring of its bloated state-owned industries and dispose of unproductive state assets. The growth target for 2016 is 6.5% to 7%. One analyst quoted in the article indicates that there are other problems tio be addressed:
“There’s a lot of bad lending going on.”
Brazil
Brazil’s Silva denounces detention in corruption probe (Associated Press) Brazilian police questioned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for about four hours in an investigation into a sprawling corruption case involving state-run oil company Petrobras that has ensnared some of the country’s top lawmakers and wealthiest businessmen. The once-immensely popular president, who governed from 2003 to 2010, angrily denounced the Friday morning raid on his home by police to detain him as part of a campaign to sully his image, that of his party and that of his hand-picked successor, President Dilma Rousseff.
