Early Headlines: Developing Economies’ Trade is Contracting, America’s Refugee Migration Problem, IMF Mistake with Greece, Prostitution in Great Britain and More

Early Bird Headlines 14 June 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

• After years of boosting global growth, developing economies now a major drag on world economy (Financial Times) Only China’s exports are still expanding, all else is contracting, many down at annualized rates of 10% or more,with biggest declines from Russia, India and Brazil. Econintersect: Can China keep expanding exports if all other developing market trade contracts? Is this the end of globalization?
• Lost Voices of the World’s Refugees (The New York Times) Around the world, at least 50 million people either have been displaced inside their countries or have fled to foreign lands. Some, like Palestinians, have lived as refugees for generations; some, like Syrians and Ukrainians, are fleeing more recent conflicts; some, like the Rohingya of Myanmar, run from systematic persecution.

U.S.

• Puerto Rico’s economy matters in the 2016 presidential race (CNN) Puerto Rico’s economy is heading for a nosedive, and the territory is likely to default this year. In the territory, U.S. citizens cannot vote for president but they can participate in presidential primaries and national party conventions. So candidates can be expected to court Puerto Rican primary votes. And some Puerto Ricans can actually vote for president – more than 5 million Puerto Ricans (Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens) living in the states can register and vote like any other citizen. A candidate who has a convincing plan for straightening out Puerto Rico’s problems could gain enough from that demographic to swing some usually close states (like Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio).
• Prison labor helps U.S. solar company manufacture at home (Reuters) One of the largest companies to manufacture solar panels in the United States, Suniva Inc, a Georgia-based solar cell and panel maker that is backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, uses a surprising resource to keep costs low and compete against producers from China: prison labor.
  

EU

• DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans (The New York Times) Three migrations (45,000 years ago, 8,000 years ago and 4,500 years ago) brought the disparate DNA sources for modern Europeans. Econintersect: Of course these are just the main groups. There are undoubtedly other smaller migrations that integrated into the continents genome over the ages. And some are not even homo sapiens: 2-3% of European and Asian DNA today is derived from Neanderthal origins, for example.

UK

• British spies ‘moved after Snowden files read’ (BBC News) UK intelligence agents have been moved because Russia and China have access to classified information which reveals how they operate, a senior government source has told the BBC. According to the Sunday Times, Moscow and Beijing have deciphered documents stolen by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
• Prostitution ban won’t hit England, ‘too many politicians’ visit sex workers (RT) Hat tip to Marvin Clark. Paying for sex became illegal in Northern Ireland under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act 2015 last week. This has left prostitutes in fear of “danger and poverty.” In an in-depth interview with RT, one sex worker challenged the idea of the law spreading to England, claiming “too many” influential people visit prostitutes.

Greece

• The IMF’s big Greek mistake (Breugel) Hat tip to Constantin Gurdgiev. Instead of demanding repayment from Greece and further austerity, the IMF should recognize its responsibility for the country’s predicament and forgive much of the debt.
  

Russia

• Russia claims right to deploy nukes in Crimea (Al Jazeera) The claim, which echoes past language from Kremlin officials, seen as a way of asserting Russian control over peninsula.
  

Afghanistan

• Afghan police killed in Taliban raids in Helmand (BBC News) The Taliban said they had killed as many as 25 officers and seized a large number of heavy weapons.Officials said that Taliban fighters overran police checkpoints around remote Musa Qala in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, killing at least 20 officers.

Mexico

• Mexico Is Now Detaining More Central Americans Than The U.S. (Huffington Post) The crisis of Central Americans fleeing to Mexico and the U.S. hasn’t ended, despite smaller numbers of migrants making it across the U.S. border. It’s just that more people are being apprehended in Mexico than in the U.S.
  

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