Early Headlines: Tsipras Caves, Greek Parliament Votes Friday, “Tsipras Destroys Greece”, Trump in the Lead, Chinese Stocks Rocket Higher and More

Early Bird Headlines 10 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.

Global

• Study links Prozac, Paxil use with birth defects (Reuters) A sweeping government study of thousands of women has found links between the older antidepressants Prozac and Paxil and birth defects, but has cleared other popular treatments in the class, including Celexa, Lexapro and Pfizer’s Zoloft, which is the subject of a major lawsuit over birth defect claims.
• Water: A Global Crisis (Asian Century Institute) The world water crisis is both severe and entirely avoidable. However, inadequate attention has been paid to the rapid deterioration of water quality, which is further reducing a significant stock of water that can no longer be used without expensive and sophisticated treatment. The global crisis is a result of improper water resource management.
  

U.S.

• Less than one-third of Republicans support gay marriage ruling (Reuters) Social conservatives may gain an advantage in GOP primaries on the gay marriage issue but then face a disadvantage in the general election since a majority of Americans support the SCOTUS decision.
• S.C. governor signs bill to remove Confederate flag from Capitol grounds (CNN) A long struggle over a polarizing symbol in South Carolina will end at 10 a.m. Friday. That’s when the Confederate battle flag, a fixture on statehouse grounds for half a century, will be lowered. The measure was approved in the state legislature by a margin greater than 4:1.
• Student Loans May Be Driving the Tuition Explosion (Bloomberg) The surging cost of U.S. college tuition has an unlikely culprit: the generosity of the government’s student-aid program, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said. Econintersect: We disagree with “unlikely“.
• The GOP frontrunner: Donald Trump? (YouGov.com) This week’s Economist/YouGov Poll of registered Republicans:

Greece

• Greece Seeks $59.2 Billion Bailout as Tsipras Bows to Demands (Bloomberg) In an 11th-hour bid to stay in the euro, the government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered to meet most of the demands made by creditors in exchange for a bailout of 53.5 billion euros ($59.4 billion). The proposal submitted to European institutions late Thursday almost mirrored the one from creditors on June 26, which was rejected by voters in a July 5 referendum. Econintersect: Tsipras caved. He has gone against his campaign promises for the January election that brought him to office. He has gone against the 62% vote rejecting what he is accepting. It is now clear why Yanis Varoufakis resigned was fired Monday morning. Tsipras should resign immediately! A man elected prime minister of a country should not remain in office when he turns that country into a colony and its citizens into serfs. See next article.
• Tsipras has just destroyed Greece (David Llewellyn Smith, Macro Business) Smith has posted a copy of what he says is the proposal presented by Greece to the Troika Institution. Here is his summary:

This is basically the same proposal as that was just rejected by the Greek people in the referendum. There are some headlines floating around about proposed debt restructuring as well but I can’t find them.

This makes absolutely no sense. The Tsipras Government has just:

renegotiated itself into the same position it was in two months ago;

set massively false expectations with the Greek public;

destroyed the Greek banking system, and

destroyed what was left of Greek political capital in EU.

• Greece sets parliament vote on reform commitments to EU (Reuters) The Greek government will seek a parliamentary vote on Friday to endorse immediate reform commitments it is offering euro zone creditors in a race to win a new loan and avert bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro zone. A Greek official said lawmakers would be asked to authorize the leftist government to negotiate a list of so-called “prior actions” it must take before aid funds are disbursed, a key step to convince skeptical lenders of its serious intent.

Syria

• Syrian army says it’s closing in on Islamic State in Palmyra (Reuters) The Syrian army said on Thursday it was closing in on Islamic State militants in control of Palmyra, in a major offensive to recapture the city of Roman ruins from the jihadists. A newsflash on state television quoted a Syrian army source as saying its forces were in the vicinity of the city.

China

• Chinese shares rally as momentum spreads (BBC News) Chinese shares continued to rally on Friday, gaining momentum from Thursday’s rebound as government measures to support the volatile market start to have an impact. The Shanghai Composite was up 4.8% to 3,887.68 in early trade after ending the previous session higher nearly 6%. At the moment Wednesday and Thursday advances have recovered nearly 30% of the losses since early June
• China’s Stock Crash Highlights Need for Financial Reforms (Editorial) (The New York Times) The NYT does not approve of government actions in China in response to the stock market crash:

Chinese officials have said they want to modernize the country’s economy and give markets a “decisive role” in allocating resources. At the same time, they are deeply worried that stock market tumbles will cause growth to slow down drastically or lead to a broader financial crisis. But trying to rescue the market when prices plummet isn’t likely to work when what is needed is a more resilient and mature financial system.

Japan

• Exclusive: Japan interested in joining NATO missile consortium (Reuters) Japan is interested in joining a NATO missile building consortium that would give Tokyo its first taste of a multinational defense project, a move the U.S. Navy is encouraging because it could pave the way for Japan to lead similar partnerships in Asia, sources said. The 12-country NATO consortium oversees development and shares the costs of the SeaSparrow missile, an advanced ship-borne weapon designed to destroy anti-ship sea-skimming missiles and attack aircraft. The missile is made by U.S. weapons firms Raytheon (NYSE:RTN) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD).

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