Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 02 October 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
Poorer than their parents? A new perspective on income inequality (McKinsey) The real incomes of about two-thirds of households in 25 advanced economies were flat or fell between 2005 and 2014. Without action, this phenomenon could have corrosive economic and social consequences. There is considerable variation in how social programs are mitigating this affect, but in general the trend is currently one of decay, and steep decay in countries like Italy, Netherlands and the UK. If this continues, social unrest seems almost certain.
Oil is testing $50, and may yet scale to $60: RBC’s Croft (CNBC) The commodities’ strategist who called the rally in crude this week says more gains are to come, as Saudi Arabia appears ready to play ball and scale back production – a move likely to boost oil prices. Helima Croft thinks the floor is in for oil and expects prices in the 60s next year.
Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a “New Middle East” (Global Research) Hat tip to Doomstead Diner. Almost 100 years ago the middle east map much as it exists today was created out of the Ottoman Empire after the end of World War I. There have been many criticisms of the lack of recognition of natural tribal boundaries in that effort. Since 2006 there has been an unofficial new map for the Middle East first published in the Armed Forces Journal (AFJ), June 2006: Blood borders: How a better Middle East would look.
U.S.
Trump Had $916 Million Loss in ’95, Cutting Taxes, NYT Says (Bloomberg) Donald Trump was facing renewed pressure to release his personal tax information after a New York Times report that he recorded a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax return, a deduction that might have allowed him to cut his federal income tax for several ensuing years. The Times, citing tax analysts, reported on Saturday night that based on Trump’s 1995 income tax documents, he might have been able to reduce his tax bills for as many as 18 years. The newspaper posted to its website three documents, which purported to be from state tax returns in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. It received the documents in the mail last month, the newspaper said. Trump’s campaign said in a statement that he “has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes“. It also said the tax documents — which it referred to as an “alleged tax document“, had been “illegally obtained“.
Lawmakers call for end to Medicare ‘experiments’ (The Hill) A group of Republican lawmakers is calling on the Obama administration to halt a series of Medicare reforms, arguing that officials are overstepping their authority. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), tasked with finding ways to save Medicare money and better coordinate medical care, has launched several mandatory initiatives that providers in the designated areas must participate it in. The lawmakers argue the administration is overstepping its bounds.
Donald Trump renews voter fraud warning and says Clinton ‘could be crazy’ (The Guardian) has warned darkly of voter fraud in “certain areas” and mocked Hillary Clinton’s health and marriage while suggesting she should be imprisoned. Speaking to a crowd of nearly 5,000 in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, Trump made some of his wildest accusations yet about his opponent and the integrity of American elections. Trump attacked his Democratic rival in starkly personal terms. He said of her “she has bad temperament, she could actually be crazy” and went on to imply that she had been unfaithful for her husband.
What will be October’s surprise? (The Hill) Donald Trump’s political rise has been the biggest political surprise of the young century. But what will be the October surprise in a deeply unpredictable race? Past elections have been upended with surprise news in October – sometimes from events trigged by the campaigns and sometimes due to factors far out of their control. In recent elections, unemployment shot up in the weeks ahead of the 2008 race, Osama bin Laden released a video days before the 2004 election and news broke just ahead of the 2000 election that George W. Bush had been arrested for drunk driving decades earlier. This article discusses some possibilities for election changing surprises this October.
Overturning Obama, Congress Puts the U.S. in Danger (Bloomberg) The Bloomberg Editorial Board wrote:
Obama was right to reject the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would allow U.S. citizens to sue foreign nations for abetting terrorist acts, even if they are not included on the State Department’s official list of sponsor states. Whilethe law names no names, it is obviously intended to allow the families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged involvement.
The problem is that law clearly violates the principle ofsovereign immunity, which bars people from using their nation’s court system to sue a foreign government. If sovereign immunity is weakened, no country is more vulnerable than the U.S. In his veto message last week, Obama warned that the law undermines “longstanding principles that protect the United States, our forces, and our personnel“.
Massachusetts Is The Best Place To Live If You’re A Woman (The Huffington Post) The Northeast ― especially Massachusetts ― is the healthiest place in the countryfor women and children to live, according to the “America’s Health Rankings” report published this month by United Health Foundation. The report compared all 50 states based on 60 health measures in four categories: health behavior of residents, policy, socio-structural factors and health care.
Sheila Bair Called the Financial Crisis. Here’s Her New Nightmare (Bloomberg) The former FDIC chief went up against Wall Street in 2006. To her, the nation’s $1.4 trillion student debt is the disaster around the corner. And she is actively doing something about it.
UK
PM vows to make Britain ‘sovereign’ in first Brexit detail (Reuters) Prime Minister Theresa May will promise to make Britain “a sovereign and independent country” by repealing the act that took it into what is now the European Union next year, she told the Sunday Times newspaper. In an interview, May, appointed after Britain’s vote in June to leave the EU, said she would not wait for an election in Germany next September before triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty to start formal divorce proceedings.
France
France’s Nuclear Power Stations ‘At Risk of Catastrophic Failure’ (Global Research) A new review of the safety of France’s nuclear power stations has found that at least 18 of EDF’s units are are “operating at risk of major accident due to carbon anomalies.” The review was carried out at the request of Greenpeace France following the discovery of serious metallurgical flaws by French regulators in a reactor vessel at Flamanville, where an EPR plant is under construction. The problem is that parts of the vessel and its cap contain high levels of carbon, making the metal brittle and potentially subject to catastrophic failure. These key components were provided by French nuclear engineering firm Areva, and forged at its Le Creusot.
Greece
Greece: Staff Concluding Statement of the 2016 Article IV Mission (International Monetary Fund) The IMF says progress has been made in Greece but more is needed. If the following statement represents progress we would hate to see failure:
Greece has managed to reduce its fiscal primary and current account deficits from double digits to around zero over the last six years. This is an impressive adjustment for a country belonging to a currency union, where policy levers are limited. The initial fiscal adjustment was based on important reforms. However, it has become increasingly reliant on one-off and ad-hoc adjustments that could not be sustained, denting policy credibility. Recurrent political crises and confidence shocks associated with the inability to sustain the reform effort resulted in a high cost for society, with output having declined by 25 percent and still stagnating, and unemployment and poverty rates remaining much higher than before the crisis. Looking forward, growth prospects remain weak and subject to high downside risks, and unemployment is expected to stay in the double digits until the middle of the century.
Syria
Russian, Syrian missiles pound Aleppo, destroy hospital: rebels and aid workers (Reuters) Planes and missiles continue the bombardment of Aleppo. Russian warplanes and their Syrian government allies battered rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo on Saturday, and rebels and aid workers accused them of destroying one of the city’s main hospitals and killing at least two patients.
Japan
Japan desperate for foreign farmers (Nikkei Asian Review) The Japanese government will begin discussions to attract experienced farmers from abroad to a country now suffering from serious labor shortages in the agriculture industry. The special government program would accept workers with certain skills and experience in agriculture. They would be allowed to work in special strategic zones where restrictions on foreign labor could be relaxed. The agriculture experts would be paid equal to or higher than their Japanese peers.