Early Bird Headlines 06 July 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.
- Women’s World Cup: Lloyd’s hat-trick leads U.S. to third title (CNN) Four first half goals leads U.S. to 5-2 win over Japan, avenging Japans victory in the 2011 final. Records were set: Total goals was a new record for a final and Lloyd’s hat trick was the first ever.
- Runner loses Peachtree 10k after celebrating too early (USA Today, MSN News) Hours after American Ben Payne and British Olympian Scott Overall crossed the finish line in Atlanta, organizers declared Overall to be the winner.
Click to watch surprise finish.
p style=”text-align: left;”>EU
EUR/USD Interactive Chart (Investing.com) The predicted (by some) devastation of the euro by events in Greece has not yet been realized. As of 11:12 pm EST Sunday 05 July, the euro has recovered approximately half its initial hit of 1% against the U.S. dollar, incurred with the first official announcement of a “No” victory in Greece. Click on the chart below for a live update of EUR/USD daily chart from Investing.com.
Click for latest update at Investing.com.
Germany
- Greece’s eurozone future in doubt after decisive No victory (Financial Times) Econintersect: The emperor is angry. From this article:
… there was a scathing response from Berlin, which has refused to contemplate debt relief until Greece commits to and implements reforms. Sigmar Gabriel, deputy German chancellor, said Mr Tsipras had “torn down the last bridges on which Greece and Europe could have moved towards a compromise“.
“With the rejection of the rules of the eurozone … negotiations about a programme worth billions are barely conceivable,” he told Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the eurogroup committee of his counterparts, warned: “This result is very regrettable for the future of Greece. For recovery of the Greek economy, difficult measures and reforms are inevitable. We will now wait for the initiatives of the Greek authorities.”
Greece
- Printing the Drachma: The Messy Future of a Post-Euro Greece (Bloomberg) Introducing a new currency is no small feat. Recent cases — East Germany’s adoption of the Deutschmark, the Czech-Slovak divorce of 1993, and the creation of the euro itself — benefited from years of careful planning and broad popular support. If Greece were to abandon the euro, it would have neither.
- Our NO is a majestic, big YES to a democratic, rational Europe! (Yanis Varoufakis) The Greek Finance minister pulls no punches in stating what he thinks has been accomplished:
- spread the word that the Greek ‘bailouts’ were exercises whose purpose was intentionally to transfer private losses onto the shoulders of the weakest Greeks, before being transferred to other European taxpayers
- articulated, for the first time in the Eurogroup, an economic argument to which there was no credible response
- put forward moderate, technically feasible proposals that would remove the need for further ‘bailouts’
- confined the troika to its Brussels’ lair
- internationalised Greece’s humanitarian crisis and its roots in intentionally recessionary policies
- spread hope beyond Greece’s borders that democracy can breathe within a monetary union hitherto dominated by fear.
- Greeks Await Uncertain Future After Referendum (The Wall Street Journal) Greeks are preparing for an uncertain future after voting in a referendum on whether it should accept the demands of the country’s international creditors. Mark Kelly hears what Greeks think the future holds. One man says: “I don’t know who to believe anymore.” Click video below.
Iran
- Iran and world powers edge towards nuclear deal (Financial Times) Although the 30 June deadline has passed, negotiators from Iran and six world powers edged towards a nuclear deal on Sunday as both sides mounted a final diplomatic push to seal what could be a transformative agreement. Econintersect: Okay, they are close, but will there be a cigar?
China
- Commodities fall saves China’s blushes (Financial Times) China’s economy would have grown at less than 6% in the first quarter of the year were it not for the collapse in global commodity prices which boosted net exports by more than 1%.
- China’s low rates sound death knell for copper carry trade (Financial Times) A new paper shows that inventory of copper in Shanghai grew from 4% of global stock in 2009 to 38% in 2014. That was helped by the difference in interest rates between China and the rest of the world which averaged 358 basis points from January 2009 to March 2015. For every 1 basis point increase in the onshore-offshore interest rate differential, copper carry trade positions increased by an estimated $1.5 million, according to the paper. For details: Carry Trade Dynamics Under Capital Controls: The Case of China (Michell Zhang and Christopher Balding, Social Sciences Research Network)
Australia
- Selling the farm (Macro Business) Referring to one of the two television program excerpts available with the article:
The segment raises particular concern that the Chinese are vertically integrating the whole food production process in Australia: purchasing our farms as well as the whole distribution and logistics production line. When combined with the recently signed FTA, which will allow China to import temporary labour to work on its farms, there is the real prospect that Australians will be cut-out completely from the whole food export business, and in turn cut-out from the economic benefits.
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