Early Headlines: Grexit May Be Near, World Bank President Endorses AIIB, Some Euro Junk Bonds now Under 2% and More

Early Bird Headlines 08 April 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.

Global

• IMF says governments need to do more to stimulate economic growth (The Guardian) IMF said policy reforms and investment are the only means of raising growth to pre-crisis levels. Otherwise the world’s major economies risk a long period of low growth.
• World Bank chief endorses rival AIIB (Financial Times) The World Bank’s US-appointed president has vowed to find “innovative” ways to work with a new Chinese-led Asian infrastructure bank.

U.S.

• Ferguson voters make history and increase turnout (USA Today) The racially troubled municipality turned out 29% of the voters, up from 12% a year ago, and elected blacks to 50% of the city council seats.
• South Carolina police charged after black man shot dead (BBC News) Video appears to show police officer shooting and killing an unarmed fleeing man.
  

EU

• Powerful Reasons American Investors Should Be Bullish On European Stock Markets (Trang Ho, Forbes) Trang Ho contributes to GEI. The European Central Bank is doing what’s right for America – especially for those invested in European stock markets.
• Eurozone corporate borrowing costs fall below 1% (Financial Times) Some junk bonds yield less than 2%.
  

UK

• ‘Grexit’ threat forces regulators to make damage limitation plans (The Times) Britain’s financial regulators are working on contingency plans to prepare for the possibility that Greece could exit the euro.
• State of the nation: inequality rising shows we’re not ‘all in this together’ (The Conversation)
  

Greece

• Spectre of Grexit back as cash runs out (Financial Times) Even if Greece is able to pay back a €450m loan to the International Monetary Fund on Thursday, it will struggle to make the big repayments due over the next few weeks unless it strikes a deal with its eurozone partners. And those partners want the stone to bleed.
• Playing Poker With Putin: Greece’s Gamble (Bloomberg) What are the risks and benefits of a closer relationship between Greece and Russia?
  

Syria

• Chlorine attacks continue in Syria with no prospect of Assad being brought to account (The Conversation)
  

Russia

• Duma paves way for dissident lawmaker to face fraud charges (Financial Times) The only MP to vote against the Crimea annexation and a long-time Putin critic finds that having those positions doesn’t pay.
  

Canada

• Canada’s glaciers to shrink by more than two-thirds by 2100, study finds (Al Jazeera) Report on scenarios for Canadian Rockies shows climate change is real and consequences are serious, scientists say.
  

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