Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 15 March 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
- Stocks in Asia mixed as trade concerns remain in focus (CNBC) Asian markets were mixed on Thursday, as some regional stock indexes shrugged off early losses despite concerns over heightened trade tensions. The dollar index was down at 89.650 at 12:37 p.m. HK/SIN. U.S. crude futures edged up 0.13% to trade at $61.04 per barrel and Brent crude futures were nearly flat at $64.91. Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,326.71 per ounce at 0108 GMT.
U.S.
- Sessions Weighs Firing FBI’s McCabe Before Retirement (Bloomberg) Attorney General Jeff Sessions is being forced to make a politically explosive decision: whether to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe just days before he’s scheduled to retire and start drawing his pension, according to a person familiar with the matter. Sessions is reviewing a recommendation from the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility that McCabe should be fired immediately for misleading Justice Department officials, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing the sensitive deliberations.
Sessions could allow McCabe to retire and receive his full pension. But that risks enraging President Donald Trump and Republicans who have railed against McCabe, including for his role in the FBI’s decision against charging Democrat Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information by using private email when she was secretary of State.
McCabe stepped down as FBI deputy director in January amid blistering criticism from Trump and conservatives. He’s been on leave until his retirement takes effect on March 18 and he can start collecting his pension, according to the New York Times, which reported the FBI office’s recommendation to fire him earlier Wednesday. If McCabe is dismissed this week, he risks losing at least a portion of his pension.
- Five takeaways from the Pa. special election (The Hill) Democrat Conor Lamb looks likely to win Pennsylvania’s close special election, giving his party a significant morale boost heading into the battle for the House majority this fall. President Trump won the district by nearly 20 points in 2016, but Lamb has reversed Democratic fortunes in the area. He leads Republican Rick Saccone by more than 500 votes in the latest count, even after Republicans dumped more than $10 million into an attempt to hold the reliably Republican district. Five takaways:
- There is more evidence of a blue wave
- Tax cuts and Pelosi attacks won’t work everywhere
- There is GOP trouble in Trump country
- A boost for Biden 2020
- Dems can break with abortion litmus test and win
- Trump Tells Boeing He Wants a ‘Good Price’ on Fighter Jets – or Else (Bloomberg) President Donald Trump used a visit to a Boeing Co. aircraft factory in St. Louis to tout the Republican tax overhaul and urge the company to give the government a “good price” for its fighter jets, lest he take his business elsewhere.
- How Militarization Has Transformed America’s Police – For the Worse (INET) Giving police military weapons doesn’t make anyone safer, argues Toledo University’s Olugbenga Ajilore. It just makes police treat people more like enemy combatants than co-members of the community. Econintersect: Police have changed from “serve and protect” to be more like an occupying force in many communities.
- NCAA tournament: Six dark-horse teams that could stage Final Four runs (USA Today) Here is one stab at picking some bracket busters.
- Game of musical chairs follows Pennsylvania’s special election (Reuters) The special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District was still too close to call on Wednesday but the winner could soon have to start campaigning all over again – in a different district against a different opponent for the November congressional elections. That is because the 18th District, as currently drawn in southwestern Pennsylvania, will cease to exist because of a recent court order that set new boundaries for every district in the state.
- Tillerson is out as secretary of state and Haley just dodged a bullet (Brookings) Last October, during the height of the “Tillerson is out” rumor period, Ambassador Haley stated that if offered the position of secretary of state, “I would not take it” and that “I want to be where I’m most effective” (read: not as Trump’s secretary of state).
At the time, trying to predict who would replace Tillerson had become a favorite Washington parlor game. Both the Washington Post and New York Times reported that White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had a plan to replace Tillerson with Pompeo. But in light of Tillerson’s firing, Haley’s comments now take on new meaning. It seems likely that Ambassador Haley already understood what Pompeo is sure to discover: being the face of Trump’s foreign policy is losing proposition.
- The bullish US economic scenario (Credit Writedowns) The prime age labor force participation ratio is on the rise, one of the bullish economic trends cited in this piece.
- Asset forfeiture: Rap albums and hard-earned cash are the government’s ‘little goodies’ (USA Today) Many of the owners who’ve had their property confiscated by the feds aren’t convicted criminals like infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, they’re innocent people never even charged with a crime, much less convicted of one. A whopping 87% of DOJ forfeiture cases involve civil, not criminal, forfeiture – meaning no conviction is required. Under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Trump administration has doubled-down on this controversial practice.
Civil forfeiture can be – quite literally – highway robbery. Musician and entrepreneur Phil Parhamovich found that first-hand, when he was pulled over by the Wyoming Highway Patrol last year and ticketed $25 for improperly wearing his seatbelt. During the traffic stop, troopers found $91,800 in cash. Suspicious, they seized the money but never charged Parhamovich with a serious crime. Parhamovich wanted to use his cash to purchase a legendary Madison, Wisc., music studio where Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins had once recorded. In the months after his highway robbery, Wyoming refused to return the money to Parhamovich. In fact, they even held a hearing about his funds before they notified him of the hearing date. The Institute for Justice (IJ) sued the state of Wyoming on Parhamovich’s behalf. Justice was so swift it could have been pulled over for speeding: Mere hours after IJ filed the lawsuit, a Wyoming judge ordered the state to return the money to Parhamovich, which the state flatly refused to do until he sued.
- Subprime Auto Bonds Caught in Vise of Rising Costs, Bad Loans (Bloomberg) More Americans are falling behind on their car payments and that’s making it more expensive for subprime auto lenders to sell bundled loans. On average, AAA bond investors last year demanded insulation from the first 51% of losses on subprime-auto asset-backed securities, up more than seven percentage points from 2016, according to Wells Fargo NA. Prime lenders needed to offer enhancements on just 6%, Fitch Ratings said.
UK
- Britain expels 23 Russian diplomats over nerve attack on ex-spy (Reuters) Britain is to kick out 23 Russian diplomats, the biggest such expulsion since the Cold War, over a chemical attack on a former Russian double agent in England that Prime Minister Theresa May blamed on Moscow, an assessment backed by the United States.
Germany​
- German Emigration is Up Sharply (Twitter)
Japan
- Third court rules Tepco, government liable over Fukushima disaster: media (Reuters) Kyoto district court on Thursday ruled that Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) and the Japanese government were liable for damages arising from the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, the Asahi newspaper said. The ruling is the third court decision assigning liability to both Tepco and the government for the disaster that led to the evacuation of around 160,000 people. A group of 174 claimants sought 850 million yen ($8 million) in damages arising from the disaster. The court in western Japan did not accept that all plaintiffs should be awarded damages
China
- Waiting for the Chinese Bear Stearns (INET) The author says that the shadow banking system is where trouble lurks for China:
Unregulated, speculative lending markets nearly brought down the global financial system 10 years ago. Now, Western banks are exporting this failed model to the developing world.
- A Reporter Rolled Her Eyes, and China’s Internet Broke (The New York Times) Hat tip to Roger Erickson. With a fellow reporter’s fawning question to a Chinese official pushing past the 30-second mark, Liang Xiangyi, of the financial news site Yicai, began scoffing to herself. Then she turned to scrutinize the questioner in disbelief. Looking her up and down, Ms. Liang rolled her eyes with such concentrated disgust, it seemed only natural that her entire head followed her eyes backward as she looked away in revulsion. Captured by China’s national news broadcaster, CCTV, the moment spread quickly across Chinese social media.
