Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 09 February 2018
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, published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 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
- Asian stocks tumble after US markets sharply sell-off; Chinese shares lead losses (CNBC) Asian shares took a tumble on Friday, taking cues from U.S. indexes which extended sharp losses in the last session. The dollar index was mostly steady at 90.269 at 12.22 p.m. HK/SIN. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 0.96% to trade at $60.56 per barrel. Brent crude futures slid 0.65% to trade at $64.39. Spot gold was mostly unchanged at $1,317.51 an ounce,at 0321 GMT after touching their lowest since Jan. 4 at $1,306.81 on Thursday.
- Volatility is Isolated (The Daily Shot) The stock market volatility spike has not spilled over into other asset classes.
U.S.
- Congress to miss shutdown deadline as Senate goes into recess (The Hill) Congress is poised to blow past a deadline to avert a government shutdown after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) refused to let the Senate speed up a budget deal Thursday night. The Senate has recessed until 12:01 a.m. on Friday – past the deadline to prevent the second shutdown in less than a month. Paul objected to several requests to move up an initial vote to Thursday night, as leadership raced to stave off a brief partial closure. Under Senate rules, the earliest the chamber can vote on the two-year budget deal is early Friday morning, unless every senator agreed to speed things up. See also US government officially shuts down as Congress fails to pass spending bill in time (CNBC).
- Paul Ryan believes he has the votes to pass two-year budget deal (Washington Examiner) House Speaker Paul Ryan believes he has the votes in the lower chamber to pass a bipartisan two-year budget deal unveiled Wednesday, the Wisconsin Republican said Thursday. See also House Dem opposition mounts to budget deal (The Hill)
- Budget deal is brimming with special tax breaks (The Hill) The Bipartisan Budget Act that Congress is set to pass Thursday is brimming with tax provisions for a variety of special interests, including racehorse owners, small private colleges and television and film companies.
At least two of the tax breaks help the constituents of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who negotiated the deal with Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.).
Altogether, the special tax provisions amount to $17.4 billion over the next four years, with most of the costs incurred – $13.3 billion – in fiscal year 2018, according to an analysis released by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).
- As Conservative Group Grows In Influence, Financial Dealings Enrich Its Leaders (ProPublica, Chicago Sun-Times) Illinois Policy Institute has called for government reform while channeling money to firms owned by insiders.
- Treasurer José Cisneros Announces the Members of the Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force (Press Release, City of San Fransisco) Treasurer José Cisneros announced today the 16 members of the Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force. The formation of the Task Force was recommended by the Board of Supervisors to identify and pursue opportunities to extend access to credit for small businesses, provide banking services to the cannabis industry, expand capital for affordable housing, and research the viability and advisability of a municipal bank. Cisneros said :
“San Francisco has always been a leader in socially responsible banking and investment. I am eager to work with the Task Force to identify new approaches to support our City’s bold vision for inclusive innovation. My primary responsibility is to safeguard City funds, and I am confident that the Task Force will recommend solutions that also meet the stringent fiduciary and investment requirements set by state law.”
- ICE arrests went up in 2017, with biggest increases in Florida, northern Texas, Oklahoma (Pew Research Center) After years of decline, the number of arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) climbed to a three-year high in fiscal 2017, according to data from the agency. The biggest percentage increases were in Florida, northern Texas and Oklahoma.
- How a Nazi Made the Ballot in Illinois (The Atlantic) The strange candidacy of Arthur Jones points to failures of democratic safeguards on every level. The Holocaust denier who is running unopposed in the Illinois Republican primary for U.S. Congress doesn’t describe himself as a Nazi. His party, however, does. Arthur Jones now prefers the term “white racialist“. Jones, a health-insurance agent living in Lyons, Illinois, spent eight years as a member of the National Socialist White People’s Party – previously known as the American Nazi Party – and has been active with the America First Committee since the 1980s.
- Macy’s Military Parade Proposal (The New Yorker) See also What Would Trump’s Military parade Symbolize?
Trump’s understanding seems clear on the surface: he thinks that parades go with the Presidency like gold-leaf furniture goes with wealth. Also, Trump wants it seen that he – and not the generals who are charged with taming him – is the Commander-in-Chief. Plus, his button is bigger than Kim Jong Un’s.
UK
- What Makes You Proud to Be British? (The Daily Shot)
Taiwan
- Second 5.7 magnitude earthquake hits Taiwan’s Hualien, 24 hours after first quake killed at least 7 and left 67 missing (South China Morning Post) The second quake came at 11.21pm local time on Wednesday – and just hours after Taipei turned down Beijing’s offer of help. The quake occurred in the same spot at Tuesday’s violent tremor – 21km northeast of Hualien – this time at a depth of 11km (the 6.4 shock was at a depth of 10.6 m), according to the US Geological Survey. It came after more than 180 aftershocks, the strongest at 5.3.
China
- China January inflation eases even as global price anxiety grows (Reuters) China’s producer and consumer inflation eased as expected in January, even as global stock markets nosedive on fears that price pressures are slowly building in the United States and Europe. A moderation in Chinese inflation would support the view that the world’s second-largest economy is slowly starting to lose momentum after forecast-beating growth of 6.9 percent in 2017. The producer price index (PPI) rose 4.3% in January from a year earlier, the smallest rise in 14 months and compared with 4.9% in December. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.5% from a year earlier, in line with expectations and slowing from December’s gain of 1.8%.
- China’s central bank releases nearly 2 trillion yuan in temporary liquidity (CNBC) China’s central bank said on Friday that it has released temporary liquidity worth almost 2 trillion yuan ($316.28 billion) to satisfy cash demand before the long Lunar New Year holidays.
The People’s Bank of China had announced in December that it would allow some commercial banks to temporarily keep less required reserves to help them cope with the heavy demand for cash ahead of the festivities, which begin later next week.
Interbank liquidity levels will remain reasonably stable, the PBOC said on its official microblog.
- China Is Financing a Petrochemical Hub in Appalachia. Meet its Powerful Backers. (DeSmog) Over the past year, oil and gas industry plans to build a petrochemical refining and storage hub along the Ohio River have steadily gained traction. Proponents hope this potential hub, which would straddle Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, could someday rival the industrial corridor found along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana.
Those plans center around creating what is known as the Appalachian Storage Hub, which received a major boost on November 9 during a trade mission to China attended by President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. At that trade mission, also attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the China Energy Investment Corp. announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to invest $83.7 billion into the planned storage hub over 20 years. For comparison, West Virginia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 was $72.9 billion.
