Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 31 July 2016
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
Something Dark Emerges from the Tar Pits and Oil Sands, Destroying Crude Oil Price Rally (The Great Recession Blog) The author indicates there is more to go to the downside and expects to return to $30 a barrel before this decline is over. Econintersect: Looking at his chart below, we’re surprised the author didn’t say ‘we’ve come this way before‘.
It’s Not Just Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders – The Whole World Is Turning On Its Elites (The Daily Beast) U.S. politics and its voters are often insular and inward looking, but right now the same issues Americans care about are creating a firestorm in other parts of the world. Voters are making a deliberate decision to reject an elite ruling class in favor of political outsiders more attuned to the concerns of ordinary citizens. Far from a threat to the neo-liberal order, these insurgencies may be the key to retaining the integrity of our political systems.
The Fuel of the Future is not a Renewable (Bloomberg)
U.S.
Hot air balloon catches fire, crashes in Texas; 16 feared dead (CNBC) exas state police confirmed that 16 people died on Saturday in the crash of a hot-air balloon, which eyewitnesses said struck power transmission lines and burst into flames before plunging into a pasture. The Federal Aviation Administration said the crash, one of the deadliest balloon accidents on record, occurred near Lockhart, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Austin and that at least 16 people were on board the craft. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that 16 people were dead.
The Path to Prosperity Is Blue (The New York Times) How can America’s leaders foster broad prosperity? For most Republicans – including Donald J. Trump – the main answer is to “cut and extract”: Cut taxes and business regulations, including pesky restrictions on the extraction of natural resources, and the economy will boom. Mr. Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan are united by the conviction that cutting taxes – especially on corporations and the wealthy – is what drives growth. The data does not support that ideology. Go to the Times for the complete graphic partly shown below.
Turkey
Turkey Sinks to New Lows (Pebblewriter) Pebblewriter contributes to GEI. The author recounts how a financial analyst in Istanbul has been arrested for writing a research report with projections for the future of currency and stock markets in Turkey. Of course more professionals in Turkey have been detained, including tens of thousands of teachers and thousands in media. But this particular case the analyst, Mert Ulker, CFA, appears to have written pretty plain vanilla analysis. Click on image below to review his LinkedIn profile:
Iraq
Many Islamic State leaders trying to flee to Syria: Iraqi minister (Reuters) Many Islamic State leaders have fled Mosul with their families toward Syria ahead of a planned offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces on the city, Iraq’s defense minister said on Saturday. Khaled al-Obeidi said he had intelligence of increasing conflict, especially over financial issues, among ultra-hardline militants of the group known as Daesh in Arabic by its enemies.
Russia
Putin tests West’s sanctions resolve on visit to Slovenia (Associated Press, Business Insider) Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a conciliatory tone Saturday on a visit to Slovenia, shaking hands and honoring dead soldiers as he tested Western resolve in maintaining crippling sanctions against the Kremlin for its role in Ukraine. Slovenia, a small Alpine nation where U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s wife Melania was born and grew up, is a member of both the 28-nation European Union and NATO. It has kept friendly relations with Russia even as it joined EU sanctions against Moscow for its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support for insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
IOC sets up 3-person panel to rule on Russian entries (Associated Press, San Diego Union-Tribune) A three-person International Olympic Committee panel will make a final ruling on which individual Russian athletes are allowed to compete in the Rio de Janeiro Games. The IOC’s ruling executive board, meeting Saturday for the final time before the opening of the games next Friday, said the panel will decide on the entry of Russian athletes whose names have been forwarded to compete by their international sports federations and approved by an independent arbitrator.
India
85 dead, 68 lakh displaced as rains pound north & east (The Hindu) With the monsoon trough moving toward northern parts of India, overflowing reservoirs and swirling rivers in combination with lightning strikes have claimed 85 lives over the last few days in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, displacing close to 68 lakh (6.8 million) people and rendering tens of thousands homeless. Econintersect: India has had two successive poor monsoon seasons (El Nino effect) and now the country is more than making up.
China
Start-up Mobvoi takes aim at US with AI-powered smartwatch (CNBC) Mobvoi, a 4-year-old Chinese technology start-up with a large following in China, has global ambitions for its smartwatch, which is barely a year old. On Tuesday, Mobvoi – which has raised $75 million in financing to date and is Google’s mobile tech partner in one of the world’s biggest markets for smartwatches – is launching a global edition of its Ticwatch 2, the second generation of a version currently available only in China. Mobvoi is gearing up a Kickstarter campaign for the four models of its device, which will offer an early bird price of $99 and $129 for a version with a plastic or oak/leather band, respectively – a bargain when compared to Apple Watch, which starts at around $300. The first version of the watch launched last year, and quickly became China’s best-selling Android-based smartwatch, the company said.
