Early Headlines: Asia Stocks, Oil And Gold All Up, Dollar Steady, Financial Stress Up, Gun Law Debate, Russian Indictments, EU Construction Sentiment Up, RBS Fraud, Alliance To Counter China, And More

Written by Econintersect

Early Bird Headlines 19 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

• Asia trades mostly higher as markets in Greater China remain on holiday (CNBC) Asian markets mostly rose on Monday. The dollar index remained relatively stable and traded at 89.127 at 2:26 p.m. HK/SIN. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery was up $0.74 (0.2%) at $62.42 a barrel by 0217 GMT, after earlier touching its highest since Feb. 7. London Brent crude was up $0.46 (0.7%) at $65.30, after rising more than 3% last week. Spot gold was up 0.2% to $1,350.28 an ounce by 0324 GMT.

• Over a Century of Global Equity (The Daily Shot) Here is the evolution of the relative market capitalization across the largest economies since 1900.

U.S.

• Dems hit stock buybacks in tax law fight (The Hill) Democrats are emphasizing companies’ stock buybacks to help make their case against the GOP tax law ahead of the midterm elections. The law is becoming more popular with the public and companies are touting employee bonuses, putting Democrats in a tough spot. That’s led them to highlight stock repurchasing announcements, which they say show the law’s benefits to wealthy shareholders and corporate executives dwarf any benefits to the middle class. Econintersect: Before 1984, stock buybacks were illegal, considered a form of insidre trading.
• Financial Stress is Spiking (The Daily Shot) The St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index has risen sharply over the past couple of weeks amid market volatility.

• Is Tillerson serious about modernizing the State Department’s workforce? (The Hill) This week, the president released the Joint State-USAID Strategic Plan(JSP) and the Congressional Budget Justification (CBJ) for 2019. In prior years, these documents devoted very little space to discussing workforce matters and any promised reforms were rarely implemented. However, it appears this year might be different.

President Trump has promised repeatedly to reform the “deep state” and issued an executive order in March “to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the executive branch.”

• A history of violence: Florida shooter HIT his adoptive mother with a vacuum hose, threw chairs and a dog bowl prompting dozens of police call outs – yet STILL he was able to buy an AR-15-style rifle (Daily Mail) Background checks do not reveal any history except for felony convictions and psychiatric holds. See also Trump finally uses the words ‘gun control’ in tweet and reminds followers that Democrats couldn’t pass any gun restrictions during Obama’s presidency despite multiple mass shootings.
• The 14 GOP senators who voted against Trump’s immigration framework (The Hill) These 14 senators have almost 14 different reasons for their votes. In alphabetical order:

1. John Barrasso (WY)
2. Susan Collins (ME)
3. Ted Cruz (TX)
4. Steve Daines (MT)
5. Mike Enzi (WY)
6. Jeff Flake (AZ)
7. Jim Inhofe (OK)
8. John Kennedy (LA)
9. Mike Lee (UT)
10. Jerry Moran (KS)
11. Lisa Murkowsky (AK)
12. Rand Paul (KY)
13. Ben Sasse (NB)
14. John Thune (SD)

• Mueller’s Indictment Ends the Trump Myth of the Russian “Hoax” (The New Yorker) It may end it for some but not for the president and his most ardent followers. See als other great articles from The New Yorker: Reading the Mueller Indictment: A Russian-American Fraud and What Mueller’s Indictment reveals About Russia’s Internet Research Agency.
• Trump blames Obama, lashes out at Schiff and Democrats, but spares Russia criticism in weekend tweet storm (CNBC) See also Trump’s anger boils over with Russia probe (The Hill). From CNBC:

• President Donald Trump lashed out at his critics, political rivals and even his own national security advisor in a weekend tweet storm about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
• The president zeroed in on his predecessor in the Oval Office, Barack Obama, for not doing enough to stop Russian operations intended to sow chaos in the American political system.
• The tweets followed federal indictments Friday that alleged several Russians waged “information warfare” against the U.S. in a bid to benefit Trump’s 2016 campaign.

• Indictment Leaves No Doubt: Russia Backed Trump. But Was It the Difference? (The New York Times) The detailed indictment of 13 Russians for intervening in the 2016 presidential election has rekindled a debate that had never fully gone away and now seems destined to become one of the great unresolved questions in American political history: Did Moscow tilt the election to Donald J. Trump? Econintersect: We cannot think of any research effort that could possibly answer that question.
• Trump vents frustration over Russia probe, rails against FBI (Associated Press) Venting his fury over the Russia investigation, President Donald Trump on Sunday asserted that the Obama administration bears some blame for the election meddling, insisted he never denied that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 U.S. campaign and said “they are laughing their asses off in Moscow“. In a rapid-fire series of tweets from his Palm Beach estate, the president unloaded over the Russia investigation, days after an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians with a plot to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. See alsoTrump has repeatedly cast doubt on Russian interference in US politics – until now (CNBC).
• Indictment: Russians also tried to help Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein presidential campaigns (USA Today) It looks like the Russian effort might be called either “Never Hillary” or “Anybody but Hillary”. The lede for the USA Today article followed by a tweet:

EU

• Eurozone Construction Sentiment (The Daily Shot) The Eurozone construction sentiment is pointing to growth in the sector going forward.

UK

• RBS admits FORGING an elderly customer’s signature which left her signed up to a product she didn’t want (Daily Mail) It seems that Wells Fargo is not the only big bank committing this fake account/fake product fraud.

• RBS has conceded that a fake signature had been used on an official document
• The bank was forced to apologise after retired Jean Mackay came forward with paperwork that clearly showed her signature was faked on a bank document
• She said RBS had charged her for payment protection insurance (PPI) even though she had declined to sign up

Kenya

• The world’s richest people are abandoning London, Rome, and Paris for an unexpected destination (Business Insider) Map provided by Shoor Safaris.

• Cities like London, Rome, and Paris have always attracted rich people in search of a pied-à-terre.
• But Kenya, famous for its African safari, is one of the most popular second-home destinations for rich Africans.
• Increasingly, wealthy buyers from places like the UK, America, and Italy, are looking to buy vacation property in Kenya.
• Kenya’s tourist season lasts about 40 weeks out of the year, one of the longest of any beach locale.

Click for larger image.

Iran

• Saudi foreign minister calls Iran most dangerous nation for cyberattacks (CNBC)

• The most dangerous nation for cyber threats is Iran, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC on Sunday.
• Though the minister did not offer specific examples for his claim, security experts have pointed to what they see as Iran’s increasingly sophisticated cyber-espionage capabilities.
• The accusation was not surprising, given the mounting animosity between the Sunni monarchy and the Shia Islamic republic.

North Korea

• Whither maximum pressure? Why we need a White House special envoy on North Korea (Brookings) The White House should appoint a special envoy, with President Trump’s stated confidence, to take advantage of the opportunities of shifting dynamics and manage the maximum pressure process, while presenting this individual as a channel for potential engagement, according to this author.

China

• A four-nation alliance may be rising to counter China’s Belt and Road (CNBC)

• The U.S., Japan, India and Australia could join forces to establish an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Australian Financial Review reported.
• Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would discuss the plan with President Donald Trump during his visit to the U.S. later this week, according to the report.