Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 20 December 2018
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, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side for social media buttons.
​Global
- Chinese banks drag Shanghai lower; Japan slips more than 2.5 percent (CNBC) Stocks in Asia were broadly lower on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the fourth time in 2018. The mainland Chinese markets were mixed on the day. The U.S. dollar index was lower at 96.656 after seeing a high of 97.041 earlier in the session. U.S. light crude oil fell $1.61 a barrel(3.3%) to a low of $46.56 and was trading around $46.70 by 0845 GMT. North Sea Brent was down $1.60, or 2.8%, at $55.64 a barrel. Spot gold rose 0.5% to $1,249.46 per ounce at 0900 GMT, after declining the most since Nov. 27 in the previous session.
- Trump’s International Ratings Remain Low, Especially Among Key Allies (Pew Research Center) America’s global image plummeted following the election of President Donald Trump, amid widespread opposition to his administration’s policies and a widely shared lack of confidence in his leadership. Now, as the second anniversary of Trump’s election approaches, a new 25-nation Pew Research Center survey finds that Trump’s international image remains poor, while ratings for the United States are much lower than during Barack Obama’s presidency.
U.S.
- Senate approves funding bill, preventing partial government shutdown (The Hill) The Senate approved a seven-week funding bill on Wednesday, preventing a partial government shutdown that was expected to begin on Saturday. Senators passed the legislation by voice vote, which represented the final item on the Senate’s to-do list as they wrap up their work for the year this week. It still needs to pass the House, which returned to Washington on Wednesday night, and be signed by President Trump.
- Fox News host: ‘We’d be up in arms’ if Obama did what Trump has done with funding border wall (The Hill) Fox News host Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery on Wednesday claimed “we’d all be up in arms” if former President Obama did what President Trumphas done with funding his proposed U.S. – Mexico border wall. Kennedy said:
Kennedy’s comments came as she discussed Trump’s proposal to have the military work on the wall. “That’s not the way the government works. You can’t just take $1 billion from this program, $1 billion from over here, and then put it toward your pet project.”
- Democrats to block end-of-year judges package (The Hill) Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (NY), under pressure from groups on the left, will not agree to a customary year-end package of judicial nominees, according to a Senate Democratic aide. Schumer and his Democratic colleagues are in no mood to agree to a year-end deal after a federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Affordable Care Act last week, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
- President Approval Rating Remains Below 40% (Gallup) Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president and reports the weekly average every Monday.
- Bank employee calls police on black man trying to cash a check from his new job (New York Daily News) An employee at an Ohio bank called the police on a black man who’d just started a new job and was trying to cash his check. Paul McCowns, 30, told NBC affiliate Cleveland News 19 that bank tellers at Huntington Bank in Brooklyn refused to honor the $1,082 check he’d just received from his new gig with an electric company, even after he provided two forms of I.D. and a fingerprint.
- Volatility Is Not Normal (Twitter)
UK
- “No-deal” preparations are under way on both sides.
- British Prime Minister Theresa May tried unsuccessfully to get Europe to amend parts of the Brexit deal.
- British politicians set to vote in mid-January on whether to approve or reject the deal.
Syria
- White House struggles to defend Trump’s Syria withdrawal plan (CNBC) See also next two articles.
- The White House on Wednesday struggled both to rationalize and to defend President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that morning that the United States would withdraw its troops from Syria because, as Trump wrote in a tweet, “we have defeated ISIS in Syria.”
- Among those who learned about Trump’s decision from reading news reports were top congressional leaders in both parties and senior military brass. In a more traditional administration, these two groups would have almost certainly been consulted ahead of such a momentous military announcement.
- For Trump, however, the news changed a day of potentially negative stories about him into a day dominated by a new crisis and new questions.
- In Syria retreat, Trump rebuffs top advisers (Reuters) President Donald Trump overrode his top national security aides, blindsided U.S. ground commanders, and stunned lawmakers with his order for U.S. troops to leave Syria, a decision that upends American policy in the Middle East.
- France says Islamic State not wiped from map, troops to remain in Syria (CNBC)
- French diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday U.S. President Trump’s decision to withdraw all its 2,000 troops from the region had taken Paris by surprise. U.S. officials justified the decision by saying Islamic State had been entirely defeated.
- France is especially sensitive to the Islamic State threat after several major attacks on its soil in recent years. Hundreds of French nationals have joined the group in Syria.
- Turkey says Syrian Kurdish militants will be buried in ditches: Anadolu (Reuters) Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Kurdish militants east of the Euphrates in Syria “will be buried in their ditches when the time comes“, after President Donald Trump said he had begun what will be a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria.
Japan
- Global economic growth worries sink Japanese stocks into bear pit (Financial Times) Japanese stocks sank into a bear market on Thursday as investors were rattled by concerns over global economic growth following statements from the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan. The Fed raised interest rates on Wednesday for the fourth time in 2018, but forecast fewer increases for next year, signalling that economic growth could run out of steam. US stocks dropped, with the S&P falling by as much as 2.3%, paving the way for a slump in Japanese and Asian equities more broadly.
The Topix benchmark slumped by 2.6 per cent, marking its lowest level since April 2017 and pushing the index into bear market territory, down by more than 20 per cent from its January high. Technology stocks were the worst affected, with the sector down by more than 4 per cent, with only utility stocks posting gains.
North Korea
- North Korea state media says denuclearization includes ‘eliminating U.S. nuclear threat’ (Reuters) North Korea’s commitment to the “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” also includes “completely eliminating the U.S. nuclear threat to Korea,” North Korean state media said on Thursday.
South Korea
- South Korea seeks smaller military drills with U.S. amid North Korea talks (Reuters) South Korea wants to hold smaller joint military drills with the United States next year, the defense ministry said on Thursday, scaling back larger exercises as part of an effort to boost nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.
China
- China says ‘resolutely opposes’ new U.S. law on Tibet (Reuters) China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it “resolutely opposes” a new U.S. law on Tibet, saying Tibet is an internal affair and that Beijing allows no foreign interference. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act. The law seeks to promote access to Tibet for U.S. diplomats and other officials, journalists, and other citizens by denying U.S. entry for Chinese officials deemed responsible for restricting access to Tibet.
- Top finance execs are losing confidence in China’s economy, survey shows (CNBC)
- Growing trade risks have soured sentiment among senior finance officers at companies operating in China, according to a Deloitte survey.
- “There has been a sharp shift in sentiment,” says the consultancy’s William Chou.
- Deloitte queried chief financial officers and other top officials at a mix of multinational, Chinese and Hong Kong companies for the biannual China CFO Survey.
- 2018 Was Meant to be Xi Jinping’s Year. Then China’s Belt and Road Unravelled. (South China Morning Post) The Belt and Road has failed. It has become the object of relentless criticism, if not ridicule: across the globe, projects have been attacked as overvalued and disconnected to the developmental needs of host countries. Indeed, they are mired in corruption, incompetence and skewed to China’s strategic interests.
.
Australia
- Lunatic RBA takes corruption directly to bank CEOs (MacroBusiness) Hat tip tom Steve Keen. The author of this article is irate that the Austalian Central Bank (RBA) is conspiring with banks to promote risky lending. He concludes:
Finally, let me observe that Australia’s political-housing swamp is now so perverse that the government and RBA are publicly endorsing illegal, predatory mortgages, as well as actively targeting a decline in Australian living standards, while the chastened banks, legal system and ordinary people are on the side of morally and economically sustainable lending and economic growth.
Canada
- China says Canadian citizen being punished for working illegally (Reuters) China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that a Canadian national is undergoing “administrative punishment” for working illegally, after Canada’s government said a third Canadian citizen had been detained in China.
.
