Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 16 April 2017
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.
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Global
Deepening capital markets in emerging economies (McKinsey & Company) Deeper capital markets in emerging Asia could free up an additional $800 billion every year in funding, mostly for midsized to large corporations and infrastructure, accelerating economic growth and potentially lifting millions out of poverty. Instead, these emerging economies lack access to predictable capital-market funding at scale, their investors lack avenues to deploy long-term savings, and capital markets still play a poor role in efficiently allocating resources. Addressing these issues and freeing up this potential depends on policy makers’ ability to build vibrant capital markets. This is easier said than done. While the building blocks of well-functioning capital markets are well understood and documented, policy makers lack both the tools for a detailed diagnostic and a change-management approach to implement the necessary changes. This paper is based on research conducted to fill this gap.
U.S.
Five hurdles to avoiding a government shutdown (The Hill) Congress is scrambling to avoid political landmines as lawmakers face a tight timeline to avoid a government shutdown later this month. With two weeks until the April 28 funding deadline, lawmakers are locked in negotiations over a funding bill that would likely last until the end of September. Eager to show they can govern, Republican leaders are pledging they’ll meet the deadline and avoid a short-term funding bill, but the talks face last-minute hurdles. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is warning the White House to stay on the sidelines of the talks, pledging that Democrats will oppose any bill that includes “poison pill” riders. But Trump’s budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, says lawmakers need to include Trump’s priorities if they want the president to sign spending bills. Here are five hurdles that could stand in the way of keeping the government open:
ObamaCare payments
Sanctuary cities
Border security
Miners healthcare and pensions
Defense money
Alt-Right Ringleader Mike Cernovich Threatens to Drop ‘Motherlode’ If Steve Bannon Is Ousted (The Daily Beast) A week after President Donald Trump began to publicly distance himself from White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, alt-right ringleader Mike Cernovich threatened to release a “motherlode” of stories that could “destroy marriages” if Bannon is formally let go from the administration. Cernovich made the claims that he’d release a series of “scoops” if Bannon is officially pushed out of the White House on an eleven-minute, self-recorded Periscope Thursday night.
This Koch-backed group invites you to celebrate fossil fuels on Earth Day (Think Progress) One thing Earth Day celebrations have been lacking is a recognition of fossil fuels  –  at least according to the Independence Institute, a self-described “action tank” based in Colorado that receives funding from a litany of prominent conservative dark money groups. An email from the organization reads:
“Enviros celebrate by planting trees but they never celebrate the trucks that deliver the trees, or the gas that powers that truck, or the plastic handles of the shovels they use. Shouldn’t Mother Earth be thanked for making Earth Day events possible?”
Five Obama-era tech policies on the chopping block (The Hill) Five things that the GOP wants to remove:
Net neutrality
Business data regulations
Broadband subsidies to low income households
Media ownership limits
Television box reforms to elimiate cable monopolies
THE MEMO: Has Trump gone Washington? (The Hill) President Trump is moving in a more conventional direction, winning plaudits from former critics in the process. But his shifts, in both policy and personnel, are disconcerting those who were once among his loudest boosters. The Trump diehards are queasy at the notion that a president who ran as a proud outsider might be co-opted by a Washington establishment they loathe.
France
Who’s Ahead in the France Presidential Election? (The Cross Tab) The race between Emmanuel Macron, François Fillon, and Marine Le Pen is heating up, but the election might not be as close (or unbalanced!) as you think.
Germany
Who’s Ahead in the Germany Federal Election? (The Cross Tab) Germany’s current center-right governing coalition, the Union party made up of the Cristian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, is entering its 12th year in power. Will Angela Merkel lead her party into the next decade, marking 20 years of her rule, or will she fall to the Social Democrats? Current polling and probabilities:
North Korea
Trump ‘ready to strike Kim’s nuclear sites’ (The Sunday Times) Donald Trump’s closest military advisers have told Britain that America has the firepower to neutralise North Korea’s nuclear programme – and may even launch a pre-emptive strike to do so. In what will be seen as an attempt to pile pressure on China to intervene to prevent Kim Jong-un from conducting a new nuclear test, senior sources said the United States could “utterly destroy” the key targets using conventional weapons.
North Korean missile test fails, US and South Korea say (CNN) An attempted missile launch by North Korea on Sunday failed, US and South Korean defense officials told CNN. The attempted launch occurred a day after the regime of Kim Jong Un showed off a bevy of new missiles and launchers at a large-scale military parade on its most important holiday. A South Korean defense official said the action took place in Sinpo, a port city in eastern North Korea. That was the site of a ballistic missile test earlier this month in which the projectile fell into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.
