Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 21 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.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side for social media buttons.
​Global
- Asian stocks trade cautiously higher ahead of expected Fed rate hike (CNBC) Asian markets traded cautiously higher on Wednesday, with markets focused on the Federal Reserve after it kicked off its March meeting. Gains in the region took cues from the overnight move higher on Wall Street after a pull back earlier in the week. The dollar index traded lower at 90.263 by 12:06 p.m. HK/SIN. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $63.82 a barrel at 0027 GMT, up $0.28 (0.4%) Brent crude futures were at $67.66 per barrel, up %0.24 cents, or 0.4%. Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,311.72 per ounce, as of 0118 GMT.
U.S.
- Congress Stymied on $1.3 Trillion Bill as Another Shutdown Nears (Bloomberg) Congressional Republicans missed another target to unveil a $1.3 trillion spending bill, as talks continued early Wednesday with just days remaining for House and Senate votes to avert a third government shutdown this year. Lawmakers had hoped to announce a bill by the end of the day Tuesday, but disagreements persisted over immigration, border security, tax breaks and a rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. Current government funding expires at the end of the day Friday.
- GOP leaders to Trump: Leave Mueller alone (The Hill) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday defended special counsel Robert Mueller as “thoroughly credible” as Senate Republicans pushed back on President Trump’s criticism of his investigation. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wi) also spoke out to defend Mueller.
- Facebook Just Lost More Than Tesla’s Entire Market Cap in Two Days (Bloomberg) The social media giant has lost over $60 billion in market value over the past two days, following revelations that personal data of millions of users was obtained by a data analytics firm. That’s more than the market capitalization of Tesla Inc. at around $52 billion or three times that of Snapchat owner Snap Inc. at about $19 billion.
- What’s genius for Obama is scandal when it comes to Trump (The Hill) This article describes similarities betwen the Obama campaign in 2012 and Trump in 2016 regarding use of the Facebook platform. The author of this article claims Facebook showed bias toward Obama and bias against Trump.
- Facebook Was Letting Down Users Years Before Cambridge Analytica (Slate) Between about 2010 and 2015, Facebook was a data-exporting machine. Facebook gave data – profiles of users who agreed to take one of those annoying quizzes that proliferated around Facebook between 2010 and 2015, but also records of those who were Facebook friends with those users – to developers who built cute and clever functions onto Facebook. These included games like Mafia Wars, Words with Friends, or FarmVille. You might have played, and thus unwittingly permitted the export of data about you and your friends, to other companies. Facebook was taken to task about this and settled with regulators, promising to do better. But apparently the settlments were insufficient nd Facebook should have faced stricter regulation.
- Uber Victim Stepped Suddenly in Front of Self-Driving Car (Bloomberg)
First pedestrian fatality with autonomous car raises questions
Uber vehicle struck and killed woman Sunday night in Tempe
- Unemployment Expected to Keep Falling (The Daily Shot) Trade-war scenarios aside, economists expect the US unemployment rate to fall further as fewer workers enter/reenter the labor force from the ‘sidelines.’
EU
- Eurozone Trade Surplus Likely to Decline (The Daily Shot) The euro’s strength will be taking a toll on the Eurozone’s trade surplus. Will it ease trade tensions with the US?
Russia
- Putin’s re-election was decades in the making (Brookings) The Russian election over the weekend not only represented a victory for Vladimir Putin at the ballot box, but also the culmination of his decades-long domestic disinformation campaign, writes Alina Polyakova.
Japan
- Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women (Bloomberg Businessweek) Every aging society faces distinct challenges. But Japan, with the world’s oldest population (27.3% of its citizens are 65 or older, almost twice the share in the U.S.), has been dealing with one it didn’t foresee: senior crime. Complaints and arrests involving elderly people, and women in particular, are taking place at rates above those of any other demographic group. Almost 1 in 5 women in Japanese prisons is a senior. Their crimes are usually minor – 9 in 10 senior women who’ve been convicted were found guilty of shoplifting.
Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.
China
More intense policy efforts expected after legislative session
Long-term risks mount as country again embraces one-man rule
- U.S. subsidies for its soybean farmers have given them an unfair competitive advantage in selling to China, the Global Times claimed Wednesday.
- “Strong restrictive measures need to be taken against the massive subsidies and dumping of soybeans by some countries on China,” it said.
- Its comments come as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce tariffs against Chinese imports. China, the world’s top soybean importer, buys 60 percent of the commodity traded worldwide, mainly from U.S. and Brazil.
Canada
- Donald Trump’s Mythical Trade Deficit With Canada Doesn’t Bode Well for NAFTA Negotiations (Slate) The president insisted in a recent meeting with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau that the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada.
As usual, Trump is incorrect. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the United States has run a trade surplus in goods and services with Canada for three years. This is not esoteric information; the data is readily available on the government’s own website.
Mexico
- Facebook Warns on Fake News in Mexican Presidential Campaign (Bloomberg) After coming under fire for its role in the 2016 U.S. election, Facebook Inc. is taking steps to prevent what it calls fake news during Mexico’s presidential campaign. The social-networking giant on Tuesday placed full-page ads in prominent Mexican newspapers including El Financiero under the title “Tips to Detect Fake News.” The company’s logo appears on the top left corner.
