Written by John Lounsbury
Early Bird Headlines 05 October 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
Half of World’s Coal Output Is Unprofitable, Moody’s Says (Bloomberg) Half of the world’s coal isn’t worth digging out of the ground at current prices, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
Tech giants warned of second revolution over next decade (City A.M.) The world’s biggest companies face a rising threat over the next decade, as new technologies and innovations open the way for agile start-ups and entrepreneurs to steal market share. The digital economy is set to become a £3.2 trillion ($4.9 trillion) market by 2025, according to research from consultancy Ovum, a 29% climb on today’s figure. The rise in tech spending will come as part of what Ovum has dubbed “the second tech revolution” that it expects to unfold over the next decade as firms in a wide range of industries rush to utilise greater connectivity and technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and 3D printing.
World Bank: Extreme poverty ‘to fall below 10%’ (BBC News) The World Bank has said that for the first time less than 10% of the world’s population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015. The bank said it was using a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25. It forecasts the proportion of the world’s population in this category to fall from 12.8% in 2012 to 9.6%.
The Trans-Pacific Free-Trade Charade (Project Syndicate) Joseph Stiglitz and Adam Hersh:
The reality is that this is an agreement to manage its members’ trade and investment relations – and to do so on behalf of each country’s most powerful business lobbies. Make no mistake: It is evident from the main outstanding issues, over which negotiators are still haggling, that the TPP is not about “free” trade.
U.S.
U.S. system designed to prevent financial crisis ‘likely to fail,’ say experts (MarketWatch) The current U.S.regulatory structure designed to prevent another financial crisis is “Balkanized,” a “mess” and likely to fail when needed, experts said. U.S. regulators, including the Fed, don’t have the tools or the mandates from Congress that they need, according to Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, at a two-day conference on financial stability sponsored by the Boston Federal Reserve. Posen said:
“The current U.S. institutional set-up is likely to fail in a crisis, and will be doing less to prevent a crisis than it should be.”
Germany
Germany expects up to 1.5 million asylum seekers in 2015, says report (The Guardian) Authorities are reportedly concerned about the risk of a ‘breakdown of provisions’, with forecast up from previous estimate of 800,000 to 1 million.
German Reunification: A Job Still Unfinished (Carnegie Europe) Ghosts of the past still haunt the Germany psyche. The country today is still burdened by many of the same internal conflicts that affected its behavior in the past. Close cooperation, especially with the United States, will be a precondition for continued evolution toward a role that satisfies both Germans and their partners. But see also In a United Germany, the Scars of the East-West Divide Have Faded (The New York Times).
Russia
Artists should be feared by the powerful – Keynote closing the 6th Moscow Biennale, 1st October 2015 (audio) (Yanis Varoufakis) This is a very interesting presentation about the shortcomings of economics to an audience with a large number of non-economist. But even more interesting is the live tv broadcast by RT was abruptly terminated when Varoufakis started to criticize the Putin government.
India
Business First as Angela Merkel Meets PM Narendra Modi (NDTV) German Chancellor Angela Merkel is on a two-day visit to India. She will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi today.
China
China’s Ambitious Rail Projects Crash Into Harsh Realities in Latin America (The New York Times) Latin American politics, resistance from environmental groups, and a growing wariness toward China have slowed China’s huge rail project plans. While China boasts of its rail initiatives around the world, it has often been stymied here in Latin America, reflecting how even China’s formidable ambitions have limits. Other Chinese projects are having trouble as well – see next article.
Chinese mogul behind Nicaragua canal lost 85% of his fortune in stock market (The Guardian) Net worth of telecoms tycoon Wang Jing has plummeted from $10.2bn in June to $1.1bn, casting doubt on building of 178-mile canal. Econintersect: Remember the late 1980s when Japanese were buying super-expensive real estate in the U.S. like Pebble Beach Golf Course and Rockefeller center in New York? Later they sold these properties back to Americans for much less than they paid. Maybe China can avoid a similar fate, at least in the western hemisphere, by stopping grandiose plans before the money is spent.
Australia
Australia’s “Black Swan Moment” (Wolf Street) According to this article the end is near for Oz.
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