Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 05 May 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
Asian shares fall as China services data moderates, dollar strengthens (CNBC) Asian markets were flat to lower on Thursday in the wake of a reading on China’s economy showing growth in the services sector moderated and the U.S. dollar strengthened.
Larry Summers: ‘Overwhelmingly likely’ this will change finance forever (CNBC)​ Bitcoin itself may have an uncertain future but Larry Summers says the technology on which the cryptocurrency runs will “change finance forever“. The blockchange technology is less costly for exchanges and far more secure than traditional bank systems.
U.S.
Is Kasich’s fall the end of the Republican establishment? (Tribune Washington Bureau) The utter failure of John Kasich’s presidential bid is more than personal. It is the failure of the Republican establishment to connect with the American people. Kasich, the governor of Ohio, was the last of the Republican insiders standing in the way of likely nominee Donald Trump, the brash gadfly who has never won, or even sought before, elective office. A year ago, the party offered a lengthy all-star team of pragmatic conservatives with histories of winning broad constituencies. But Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida; Rick Perry, former governor of Texas; Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida; and Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, all flopped as presidential candidates. Only Kasich survived into May. Yet he couldn’t win any state other than his own and was embarrassed week after week. As he left the race Wednesday, he had 153 delegates to the Republican convention, still fewer than Rubio, who suspended his campaign seven weeks ago.
When Can Fetuses Feel Pain? Utah Abortion Law and Doctors Are at Odds (The New York Times, MSN News) The science examining when a fetus begins to feel pain is complex. Most scientists who have expressed views on the issue have said they do not think the neurological wiring to feel pain is in place until a fetus is further along in a pregnancy, past the point when nearly all abortions occur. But in recent years the issue has become political fodder in legislative battles over restricting abortions later in a pregnancy. Starting later this month, women in Utah seeking an abortion 20 weeks or more into a pregnancy will first have to be given anesthesia or painkillers – drugs that are intended not for them, but for the fetus. Those are the terms of a new law that has made Utah the first state in the country to require what doctors here are calling “fetal anesthesia” for the small percentage of abortions that occur at this point in a pregnancy. The law, passed by the Republican-controlled State Legislature and signed in late March by Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, has opened a new front in the heated debate over fetal pain.
Republicans Don’t Want to Know Costs of U.S. Nuclear Arsenal (The Intercept) Hat tip to Rob Carter. GOP members of the House of Representatives have lined up to quietly kill a cost estimate of the Pentagon’s three-decade nuclear modernization program, which experts predict will exceed $1 trillion. The vote was mentioned briefly in Politico‘s morning briefing list last week but otherwise received no media coverage.
Looking to November: Clinton leads Trump by double-digits in new poll (USA Today) Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 13 percentage points nationally, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday. As both candidates look ahead to a November showdown, Clinton has a 54% to 41% advantage over Trump in a hypothetical matchup – her largest lead over Trump since July, according to the poll. Voters trust Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, more than Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee, on almost every issue surveyed in the poll, including terrorism and immigration. They trust Clinton more than Trump to handle health care, foreign police, education, the income gap and climate change by margins of 15 points or more, the survey finds. Trump leads in only one category: handling the economy. Econintersect: Remember what Bill Clinton said in 1992? “It’s the economy, stupid!“
If Donald Trump wants to beat Hillary Clinton, he needs to win these 5 states (USA Today) The key states: Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. These are only 93 of the 237 electoral votes needed for election but these swing states will reflect on how the vote goes in many other areas of the country.
Polls Indicate Sanders Beats Trump by More than Hillary: Does the Democratic Party Care? (Morss Global Finance) Elliott Morss contribute to GEI. The following table provides a most powerful argument for the Democratic Party to consider choosing Bernie Sanders to run against Donald Trump. In polls looking at Clinton and Sanders facing Trump, the monthly average spread by which Sanders beats Trump is much larger than Hillary’s. For April, these results from Real Clear Politics suggest that while Clinton would beat Trump by 6 percentage points, Bernie would beat him by 13.6 points.
UK
Bill forcing people to prove nationality slammed as discriminatory (The Guardian) Government measures making people prove their nationality or face prosecution risk damaging community relations and are discriminatory, critics have warned. The Conservatives want to give police and immigration officers the power to order people who have been arrested to state their nationality and require those believed to be foreign nationals to produce their nationality documents, such as a passport. Failure to do so within 72 hours would become a criminal offence under the policing and crime bill currently going through parliament. Sara Ogilvie, policy officer at Liberty, the civil rights organisation, said:
“The only grounds on which police could decide someone might not be British are their appearance and their accent, so the very basis of this policy is discrimination. Requiring police to make clumsy assumptions and ask provocative questions about a person’s nationality is a toxic recipe for race relations in our towns and cities. This policy should have no place in the criminal justice system and risks leading to unfair trials.”
Spain
Spain issues arrest warrants for Russian officials close to Putin (The Guardian) Spain has issued arrest warrants for senior Russian government officials close to Vladimir Putin following a decade-long investigation into the activities of the Russian mafia. A Spanish national court judge is seeking to arrest 12 people allegedly linked to Russian gangsters operating in Spain. They include Vladislav Reznik, a prominent MP for Putin’s ruling United Russia party, and Reznik’s wife Diana Gindin. Also sought are Nikolai Aulov, the deputy head of Russia’s federal narcotics service and Igor Sobelevsky, the former deputy head of the the prosecutor general’s investigative committee, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Most of those wanted by Spain are believed to be in Russia.
India
The season of scorching ironies (The Hindu) It is the Supreme Court and not Parliament that has found time to pay attention to serious issues of drought relief and mitigation for hundreds of millions of Indians.
India’s long wait for justice: 27 million court cases trapped in a legal logjam (The Guardian) India has one of the lowest judiciary budgets in the world (only 0.2% of the total budget was given to the Law Ministry in 2016) and it shows – the courts simply can’t handle to cases, even some for murder on hold for 20 years or more. And criminal cases are backlogged even more than civil actions, which seems counter-intuitive to Econintersect.
Japan
Takata to recall 40 million more airbags in US (BBC News) Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata has been forced by U.S. authorities to increase its product recall. The expansion adds 35 to 40 million airbag inflators to the recall list and affects vehicles from 12 carmakers and more than doubles the existing recall. Takata inflators have been linked to 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries. The recall targets the airbag inflators that may explode with too much force and shoot metal debris at the driver and passengers.
Brazil
Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff could face criminal charge (The Guardian) In what are expected to be her last days as president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff has reportedly been accused by the country’s prosecutor general of obstructing justice. The criminal allegation – which she denies – adds the risk of prison to the woes of the Workers party leader, who is likely to be forced to step aside next week while the senate debates a separate impeachment motion against her. Econintersect: And it is now less than 3 months to the Brazil hosted summer olympics.
Chile
Why Are Chilean Beaches Covered With Dead Animals? (The Smithsonian) Recent months have not been kind to the Chilean coast, which has played host to washed-up carcasses of over 300 whales, 8,000 tons of sardines, and nearly 12 percent of the country’s annual salmon catch, to name a few. Warm waters have turned the country’s once-pristine coast into a putrid sight.
Mexico
Mexico changes its tune on Trump (The Hill) Mexican officials are focusing on the positives in the U.S.-Mexico relationship, avoiding direct references to the presidential campaign. In an interview with The Hill Monday, Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo said “it’s not very convenient for foreign officials” to comment on U.S. elections. He said they will instead focus on the massive economic potential of the U.S.-Mexico partnership. The Mexican government has traditionally avoided commentary on foreign elections, but as Donald Trump heightened his rhetoric against immigrants and about building a border wall, several high officials took the bait.
Illegal immigrant numbers skyrocket at Mexican border (The Hill) Child migration is surging again. The number of families and unaccompanied children apprehended on the southern border has skyrocketed this year, according to new figures from the Obama administration. Through the first six months of fiscal 2016, which ended on March 31, border officials apprehended 27,754 unaccompanied children, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported – a 78% jump from 15,616 apprehended in 2015, and just shy of the 28,579 apprehended in 2014. For family units, which consist of at least one child traveling with at least one adult, the increase was even more dramatic. In the first six months of 2016, 32,117 families were apprehended, the CBP reported – an increase of 131% from the 2015 figure (13,913) and 62% from the 2014 figure (19,830). A major source of the migrants are the violence plagued countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Canada
Canada wildfires: worst of blazes ‘still to come’ after Fort McMurray evacuated (The Guardian) More than 80,000 residents were ordered to leave the city of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta on Tuesday, after shifting winds saw the blaze go from being largely in control to a “nasty, ugly” inferno, as described by the local fire chief. Authorities warned that the hot, dry and windy weather expected on Wednesday would probably fuel the fire, which started on Sunday. “The worst of the fire is not over,” said Bernie Schmitte of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “We’re still faced with very high temperatures, low relative humidity and some strong winds.” Officials said the fire had grown from about 1,200 hectares to span more than 10,000 hectares in the past two days.
