Early Headlines: Japan Deflation, Another China Bubble, Tropical Storm For So. Carolina, Trump Dumps Sanders, Hillary E-mail Appeal, European Lazarus, London Property Corruption, Grexit And More

Written by Econintersect

Early Bird Headlines 28 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

• A Global Push to Address Trade and Inequality (The New York Times) Most experts agree that free trade is not entirely to blame for the dislocations and anxieties now so prevalent in the developed world. Nor, they say, should the remedy be a rejection of globalization, but rather a concerted international effort to address deeper and broader economic changes that many people see as unfair.

U.S.

• First 2016 U.S. tropical storm warning issued for South Carolina (Reuters) Wait a minute – the hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1. The National Hurricane Center in Miami is warning of tropical storm conditions reaching South Carolina’s coastline within 36 hours – in the midst of the Memorial Day holiday weekend – from the Savannah River north to the Little River Inlet. Tropical storms are defined as a cyclonic weather systems packing winds with sustained surface speeds ranging from 39 to 73 miles per hour (63 to 119 kilometers per hour). The current threat to South Carolina was posed by the formation of a tropical depression off the southeastern United States, marking the second such weather system of 2016, following one that grew into Hurricane Alex in the far eastern Atlantic in January. And the hurricane season is supposed to end November 30?

• The Daily Trail: Trump to Sanders: Sorry, I don’t debate people who don’t win (The Washington Post) This afternoon – after Bernie Sanders’s campaign capped off two days of tweets and press releases and interviews with a statement that he was “prepared to accept” either of the network debate proposals for a Trump-Sanders faceoff – the Trump campaign quickly released a statement of their own putting a kibosh on the whole idea: it would be “inappropriate,” said Trump, for a primary season winner to debate the other party’s runner-up.

• Hillary Clinton finally figured out a good answer on her latest email problem (The Washington Post) Clinton (and her team) realized that what she had said earlier in the week wasn’t enough. So she set about trying to fix it. She called in to Chuck Todd’s “Meet the Press Daily” on Thursday and offered this up:

I said this many times, it was still a mistake. If I could go back, I would do it differently. And I understand people have concerns about this, but I hope and expect voters to look at the full picture of everything I’ve done and stand for. And the full threat posed by Donald Trump. If they do, I have faith in the American people that they will make the right choice.

• Graduating ‘Student of the Year’ barred from receiving diploma because of beard (Fox News, MSN News) Senior Andrew Jones wore a beard all year at Amite High School and it never stopped him from earning As in all his classes, excelling in sports, or being awarded a college scholarship. When Jones arrived for the graduation ceremony he was stunned to learn that he wouldn’t be allowed to go up on the stage with the beard. The Tangipahoa Parish School System has a policy ban on facial hair on students. Tangipahoa Superintendent Mark Kolwe defended the policy but said he would make sure administrators know that it has to be enforced starting on the first day of school. Thirteen other students with facial hair did shave and were presented on stage.

EU

• Hold on a moment: the European corpse may be rising from the slab (The Telegraph) In the first quarter of this year, Eurozone growth was markedly higher than both the US and the UK. Job creation too has been substantially better in recent months. That the Eurozone is finally beginning to play catch-up should come as no great surprise to close observers of economic events, for the main reason for this bounce is that belatedly policymakers have begun to apply some of the same therapies as their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Indeed, the real surprise is that the scale of the recovery has not been greater.

UK

• London’s empty towers mark a very British form of corruption (The Guardian) Gaudy skyscrapers soar over what used to be historic city districts. And they stand empty.

• Revealed: 9% rise in London properties owned by offshore firms (The Guardian) Land Registry data of past 10 months shows 40,000 properties – from entire apartment complexes to wine cellars and car parks – have been registered in tax havens.

Greece

• Brexit? How About Grexit? (Elliott Morss, Morss Global Finance) EM contributes regularly to GEI. Dr. Morss discusses the history of the “rescue” of Greece which, since 2010, has seen the national debt balloon by 74%, GDP shrink by 18% and unemployment go from 13% to 25%. The “rescue” plan required Greece to add massive amounts of additional debt while cutting government spending and raising taxes – austerity. Elliott concludes:

“… how much longer will it take Greece to realize it cannot compete in the global economy if it has to use a currency whose value depends primarily on German productivity?

Grexit should happen sooner than later.”

Japan

• Japan falls deeper into deflation (Financial Times) The headline consumer price index fell 0.3% year on year in April, after a fall of 0.1% in March, marginally better than economists’ expectations but a far cry from the 2% increase targeted by the BoJ. Although the BoJ will not be too alarmed by the headline fall – it is weighed down by commodity prices and the recent strength of the yen – domestic inflationary pressures also weakened.

China

• China plans rise in government debt to prune corporate red ink (South China Morning Post) China will boost government borrowing to lower debt in the corporate sector, the Ministry of Finance has announced. The government has the capacity to do so because its debt levels are still low compared with other major economies, the ministry said on Thursday. The government debt ratio – including direct and contingent debt – was just 41.5% of gross domestic product at the end of last year. This was much lower than Japan’s 200%, France and the United States’ 120%, Brazil’s 100% and Germany’s 80%. The government indicated that “local government debt risks are generally under control“. Local government debt is just under 90% of GDP.

• World’s scariest school run? Chinese children tackle 800-metre cliff (The Guardian) That is half a mile high – and the children climb it to go to school every day, using rickety ladders. The government is now promising to build a steel staircase for the children.

• Land prices go through the roof in top Chinese cities (South China Morning Post) Land prices in the biggest Chinese cities continue to skyrocket, with 118 sites sold at huge premiums so far this year, show new data. By May 19, 118 land parcels had been sold at steep premiums in the 22 top cities tracked by research house China Real Estate Information Corp (CREIC). Developers paid more than 100% premium for nearly 60 of them while the premium reached 400% for some. See also this from February: China property bubble bound to burst, say experts.