Early Headlines: China’s Green Economy, Market Needs More U.S. Treasuries, End of Lake Nicaragua 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.

U.S.

• A global wake-up call for the U.S.? (Laurence Summers, The Washington Post) Summers sees the success of China wooing American allies to participate in AIIB as the turning point for U.S. loss of dominance in global finance.
• Dimon Says Once-in-3-Billion-Year Treasury Move Warning Shot (Bloomberg) JP Morgan chief says there are not enough securities (meaning we need more government debt in financial markets to provide for stable exchanges). What the world needs now …
  

EU

• QE, ‘European style’: Be bold but parsimonious (VoxEU) A critique of the ECB action which is critical of the process for putting money in the wrong places.
  

Greece

• Why we’ve been discussing the Greek bail-out in the wrong way (The Conversation)
• Tsipras Returns to Reality After Meetings with Putin (Bloomberg)
  

Yemen

• As battle for Aden rages, Yemen is set for a messy and violent future (The Conversation)

Ukraine

• ‘Summary killings’ of Ukraine soldiers in east – Amnesty (BBC News) Amnesty International says it has evidence pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine summarily killed four Ukrainian soldiers in their captivity.
  

China

• China’s ‘Green GDP’ dream could become a reality (China Spectator) Slower growth may offer a perfect opportunity for China to move to an environmentally sustainable growth.
• Chinese banks reduce credit to steel mills (Melbourne Herald Sun) According to the Economic Observer, an independent online newspaper in China, Chinese banks are reducing their exposure to the country’s debt laden steel sector, withdrawing credit from struggling steel mills.
• Beijing reduces it external debt liability (China Spectator) Data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange reveals that China has reduced its external debt liability from 9.4% of GDP to 8.64% in 2014. China’s total foreign liability is just under $900 billion, considerably smaller than the country’s foreign exchange reserves. 80% of Chinese foreign debt is denominated in US dollars.

Nicaragua

• Bracing for a Sea Change (Al Jazeera) Lake Nicaragua is the second largest lake in Latin America. Locals have nicknamed it mar dulce, or “sweet sea,” as the freshwater lake is so large it stretches to the horizon. Besides supplying a source of income for fishing communities like San Miguelito, the lake is an important reservoir for drinking water and irrigation. And Nicaragua and China plan to build a giant Carribean-to-Pacific canal through 66 miles of the lake.

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