Early Headlines: Finland and Greece Recessions, Russia is Buying Dollars, Ireland Solar Farms, China Slashing Use of Coal and More

Early Bird Headlines 16 May 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.

• Oil CEO Wanted University Quake Scientists Dismissed: Dean’s E-Mail (Bloomberg) The billionaire CEO of Continental Resources told a dean at the University of Oklahoma that he wanted earthquake researchers dismissed.
• Amtrak train may have been struck by something, conductor tells NTSB (CNN) An assistant conductor said she overheard radio transmissions made Tuesday by Amtrak engineer Brandon Bostian and the engineer of a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) train discussing both trains possibly being struck by object(s) just before the crash. The engineer has no recollection of those final 1-2 minutes.
• Clintons earned at least $30 million since beginning of 2014 (Reuters) More than $25 million was for delivering about 100 speeches.
  
• Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Sentenced to Death (Bloomberg)
  

Canada

• The Canadian Economy Might Not Be Able To Ride America’s Coat Tails This Time (Bloomberg) Emanuella Enenajor, Canada and U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,says a pick-up in U.S. growth won’t be a panacea for Canada as it has been in the past. A historic relationship is breaking down – 15 years ago the Canadian economy had a 50% correlation to the U.S. but recently it is below 30%.

EU

• EU growth surprises hide clear pattern (Reuters) The EU seems overall to be in a recovery which is “real but slow“.
  

UK

• Bank of England governor calls for early Brexit referendum (The Irish Times) Mark Carney says that clarity about the UK’s position is in everyone’s interest.
  

Finland

• Finland, Once a Eurozone Point of Pride, Is Now Faltering (The New York Times) The former “Nordic Tiger” has recorded its second consecutive quarter of GDP decline and so has entered a nominal recession. Finland’s economy now is performing below the level of “weak sisters” Spain and Italy.

Greece

• Greece offers privatisation concession as Germany stays tough (The Irish Times) Greece has asked three firms to submit bids for a majority stake in its largest port, Piraeus.
• Depositors Flee Greece as Recession Rolls In (Bloomberg View) After a brief oeriod of positive GDP grwoth Greece is plunging back into recession – and money can’t wait to get “out of Dodge”.

Ireland

• First Irish solar farms due next year, says firm (The Irish Times) Amarenco plans to build the first of a planned 30 solar farms in Ireland in 2016. When the plan is completed (no date given) the farms will cover between 700 and 800 acres.

Russia

• Bank of Russia Buys $181 Million to Start Rebuilding Reserves (Bloomberg) The bank plans to buy $100 million to $200 million daily to replenish its international reserves after a year of supporting the ruble with almost $90 billion of purchases.
• Russia’s crisis is over, but the pain of recession is just starting (Fortune) A lower standard of living will exist for some time to come.

India

• For Modi’s year-old government, storm brewing in rural India (Reuters) A decline in exports has depressed domestic farmgate prices and unseasonal rain damaged winter crops such as wheat, potato, chickpea and rapeseed. Farmers have little money now to buy seeds for the summer sowing, and meteorologists have predicted the annual June-October monsoon will be below par, which means the next crop may also fail. Modi is being blamed for not doing enough to mitigate the problems.

China

• How China Inc.’s Debt Fix Is Piling Risk on Individual Investors (Bloomberg) Amid one of the country’s periodic equity bull markets, companies are selling record amounts of new shares, much of it to individual investors, some of whom are borrowing to fund their purchases. While that’s helping companies cut debt levels from record highs, it’s also exposing households to the risk of a reversal in the world’s most-volatile major stock market.
• China is on track for the biggest reduction in coal use ever recorded (Quartz) Coal is being replaced by accelerating implementation of renewables and continued growth of oil and natural gas.
  

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