Early Bird Headlines 24 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.
- U.S. drone strike killed al-Qaeda hostages, including American (The Washington Post) A CIA drone strike in January that was aimed at a suspected gathering of al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan accidentally killed two hostages. U.S. officials said they didn’t realize until weeks later that two civilians had died in the attack – kidnapped aid workers Warren Weinstein of Maryland and Giovanni Lo Porto of Italy – despite assurances from the CIA at the time of the operation that no noncombatants were present. A downcast President Obama announced the event with apologies. Econintersect: Here is another example of how U.S. intelligence can be lacking, well, intelligence.
- Supreme Court drops clue about PPACA’s future (LifeHealthPro) What happens when the strict letter of the law would produce a disastrous result? Thursday the SCOTUS resolved a case involving a failure to meet a deadline by an injured worker in filing in a case where the delay was due to incorrect court operation and failure of the employer (in this case the government) to provide requested and required information. The court decided that the filing deadline should not apply in such a case because it would produce an unjust result. This article suggests the same logic could be applied to the PPACA which specifies that health insurance premium subsidies cannot be paid unless insurance is issued through a state-run exchange. The logic of the argument could be that to disqualify Americans from 38 states that elected not to establish exchanges would produce a disastrous and unjust result.
- Hot times at Yellowstone: huge magma chamber found deeply buried (Reuters) A second and much larger magma chamber has been discovered 12-28 miles below the surface. It contains enough magma to fill the Grand Canyon more than 11 times. The previously identified smaller magma chamber lies from 3.7-10 miles below the surface. The probability of a volcanic eruption has not increased with the new discovery. But the potential magnitude of any such eruption has just been increased significantly.
- Four Things Missing From Obama’s First-Ever Energy Review (Kent Moors, Oil&Energy Investor) Kent Moors has contributed to GEI. An energy revolution is coming and Obama missed key elements.
- Nasdaq sets closing record (Reuters) The NASDAQ Composite closed at an all-time high on Thursday, surpassing the 2000 record set just before the dotcom crash. The new record close of 5,056.06 eclipsed the old record of 5,048.62, 10 March 2000.
EU
- Mediterranean migrants crisis: EU triples funding (BBC News) European leaders are to triple funding for search-and-rescue operations aimed at migrant boats in the Mediterranean following crisis talks in Brussels. The EU will also look at ways to capture and destroy smugglers’ boats and deploy immigration officers to non-EU countries. Several nations have pledged to add ships and other resources to patrol the Mediterranean.
Greece
- Greeks Are Trapped in Financial Vise (Bloomberg) Frustrated after fruitless calls on Tsipras to tackle his country’s problems, creditors can only withhold the support that would allow him to shield Greeks from financial reality while keeping the country in the currency. Econintersect: As we suggested yesterday there no longer seems to be any interest in negotiating with the Greek government, but the actions seem consistent with pushing for regime change in Athens. The big question: What will happen if the Greek government calls for a new election and the current government gets reelected with a mandate margin?
Russia
- Russian defense ministry says U.S. troops in east Ukraine: Interfax (Reuters) A war of words with each countries accusing the other of violating the cease-fire agreement.
Pakistan
- China’s economic march into Pakistan (China Spectator) Beijing’s proposed economic ‘Silk Road’ corridor into Pakistan will help stabilize a normally volatile region.
China
- If China Sees Capital Outflows Now, What Happens in Crisis? (Bloomberg) GDP is still growing at 7% rate and the stock market is booming, so why is money leaving China? This is like the roof leaking when the sun is shining. What will happen when it rains?
- Profits at China’s SOEs fall 8% in Q1 (China Spectator) More signals of weakening growth in China.
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