Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 05 April 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
Asia markets mostly lower; Nikkei tumbles 2.5% as yen strengthens (CNBC) Asia markets were mostly lower Tuesday, as pressure from a decline in oil prices pushed U.S. equities lower overnight. Chinese markets were an exception with gains.
Panama Papers: the nuts and bolts of a massive international investigation (The Conversation) This article describes the enormity of the task facing global media to bring out this story.
The whole story started with a whistleblower who leaked a huge number of documents and data. At 2.6 terabytes of information, this leak is enormous, dwarfing the Wikileaks documents about the Iraq war or even Edward Snowden’s leaks of NSA surveillance details. Once again it shows how in the data age all organizations are vulnerable to vast caches of information being smuggled out on a computer hard drive or USB stick.
The World May Have Too Much Food (Bloomberg) For the first time in history, more people are obese than underweight. The past 40 years have seen an unprecedented increase in the number of obese adults worldwide, climbing to about 640 million from 105 million in 1975. If the current trend continues, about one-fifth of adults will be obese by 2025.
Oil Prices Fall On Dimming Prospect Of Output Restraint (International Business Times) Hat tip to Rob Carter. Monday’s oil price declines extended a 4% tumble on Friday when Saudi Arabia said it would only participate in a global freeze of its output if its rival Iran also took part, something Tehran has so far dismissed. Adding to concerns of a global glut that has pulled down prices by as much as 70% since 2014, U.S. production has remained stubbornly high despite steep cuts in drilling for new reserves as well as a jump in bankruptcies.
What are the Similarities Between the Current Oil Collapse and the U.S. Housing Crisis? (Bloomberg)
U.S.
Kris Jenkins buzzer-beater wins NCAA championship for Villanova (CNN) Villanova won right at the buzzer to finish of top seeded North Carolina 77-74 in one of the all-time great championship games. Tonight the UConn women will try to win an unprecedented 4th consecutive title.
Daniel Ellsberg: US Will Repeat Old Mistakes and It’s ‘Not Going to Eliminate ISIS’ (Mint Press News, Reader Supported News) Hat tip to Rob Carter. Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg compared President Bush’s claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident that ignited the Vietnam War.
EU
How war in Nagorno-Karabakh could spread – and become a major problem for Europe (The Conversation) While recognized as part of Azerbaijan by the international community, the ethnic Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region fought an independence war to a standstill in 1994. It is now essentially an independent republic supported by Armenia, and while the fragile truce that has held from 1994 on has been regularly breached, the latest bout of fighting is the most serious escalation of violence to date.
UK
Panama Papers: HMRC gears up for Mossack Fonseca data leak fallout (City A.M.) Legal experts warn that any entity with business dealings in the Central American country could potentially find itself receiving a knock on the door from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Iceland
With Pirates on the horizon, Iceland’s government may not survive the Panama Papers (The Conversation) The release of the Panama Papers will have a huge impact around the world. But Iceland deserves some particular attention. According to documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, several Icelandic politicians, former bankers and government advisers have had links to anonymous offshore companies. Among them, are three members of the Icelandic government: the prime minister, Sigmundur Dav’ð Gunnlaugsson, the finance minister, Bjarni Benediktsson and the interior minister, Ólöf Nordal. The government parties seem likely to lose big in the next elections. The prime minister is unable to complete an interview when the foreign bank question came up:
China
China Unveils Plan to Mine the Moon for Helium-3 (Yibada) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. China plans to mine the moon for its large deposits of Helium-3, a rare substance that can give enough power via nuclear fusion for 10,000 years and solve Earth’s energy crisis. Mining Helium-3 is considered an economically viable plan as each ton of the rare substance has an estimated value of $3 billion, while the total R&D cost for building a fusion plant and creating the necessary spacecraft would cost $20 billion.
