Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 06 April 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 close mixed after Trump’s new tariff threat (CNBC) Asian stocks closed mixed on Friday, as the overnight rally on Wall Street failed to translate after President Donald Trump indicated that more tariffs against China could be in the works. The dollar index firmed slightly to trade at 90.469. Brent crude for June delivery was down $0.32 (0.5%) at $68.01 per barrel at 0410 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was down $0.35, or 0.6%, at 63.19 a barrel. Spot gold rose 0.3% to $1,330.18 per ounce as of 0320 GMT, and the U.S. gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,333.50 an ounce.
U.S.
- Democrats cry foul as GOP eyes move to cancel spending (The Hill) Democrats are lashing out at the notion that President Trump and GOP leaders may seek to eliminate some of the funding increases in the enormous 2018 spending package adopted less than two weeks ago.
Republicans have come under fire in their districts during the spring recess after supporting the $1.3 trillion omnibus bill, which provides a huge bump in both defense and domestic spending, adding hundreds of billions of dollars to federal deficits. In response, Trump and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are reportedly in talks to tap an obscure provision of a decades-old budget law to prune some of the spending increases from the package.
- E.P.A. Officials Sidelined After Questioning Scott Pruitt (The New York Times) At least five officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, four of them high-ranking, were reassigned or demoted, or requested new jobs in the past year after they raised concerns about the spending and management of the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt. The concerns included unusually large spending on office furniture and first-class travel, as well as certain demands by Mr. Pruitt for security coverage, such as requests for a bulletproof vehicle and an expanded 20-person protective detail, according to people who worked for or with the E.P.A. and have direct knowledge of the situation.
Mr. Pruitt bristled when the officials – four career E.P.A. employees and one Trump administration political appointee – confronted him, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
- The Memo: Kelly said to be losing influence with Trump (The Hill) White House chief of staff John Kelly has lost significant influence with President Trump, according to several sources within Trump’s orbit. Those sources tell The Hill that Trump has proven increasingly resistant to the discipline that Kelly has sought to impose on the White House since he took over from Reince Priebus last summer. One former administration official said that Kelly had “ruled the West Wing with an iron fist” during the first six months of his tenure but added, “I don’t think that is the case any longer.”
- Does It Matter If Trump Is a ‘Target’ or a ‘Subject’ of Mueller’s Probe? (The Atlantic) The president’s attorneys may be relieved that Mueller made the distinction, but experts caution there’s little reason for the president to take comfort. According to Bruce Green, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Fordham:
“It’s not comforting to be a ‘subject’ of an investigation. Most white-collar criminal defendants started out as subjects of a grand jury investigation.”
- Trump effect splits Senate and House GOP candidates (The Hill) Republican candidates, particularly those running in contested Senate primaries, are rushing to embrace Trump, who is highly popular with the party base. GOP candidates in targeted House districts, however, are often distancing themselves from Trump, who threatens to rev up angry Democrats and turn off independents.
- Trump Says He Didn’t Know About Lawyer’s Payment to Stormy Daniels (Bloomberg) President Donald Trump said Thursday that he didn’t know about a payment his attorney made to the adult-film actress known as Stormy Daniels in exchange for remaining silent about an alleged sexual encounter.
Cohen has said he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket weeks before the 2016 election, and that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was directly or indirectly a party to the transaction. Trump has denied having had a relationship with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and said Thursday that he didn’t know where Cohen got the money.
- San Francisco sues U.S. attorney general over repealed civil rights memos (Reuters) The city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, asking a federal court to overturn his December decision to revoke legal guidance designed to protect minorities, the indigent and disabled.
- Auto Alliance Pushed Climate Denial to Get Trump Admin to Abandon Obama Fuel Efficiency Standards (DeSmog) The Trump administration officially announced Monday that it will scrap fuel economy and emissions targets for cars and light-duty trucks sold in the United States and set new weaker standards, effectively undermining one of the federal government’s most effective policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times anticipated late last week, the two agencies responsible for auto standards – the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – both claimed that their internal reviews have found the Obama-era standards to be too strict, and that the agencies would go back to the drawing board to revise standards for model years 2022-2025. See also Pruitt, Auto Industry, and Climate Deniers Retreat Behind Closed Doors to Weaken Fuel Efficiency Targets. The weaker standards, expected to be revealed in coming months and reported to be well below the current targets of 54.5 miles per gallon (or roughly 35 miles per gallon in real-world driving conditions), will be celebrated as a victory for the automakers, which have been lobbying the Trump administration since the day after the presidential election and which used a major trade group to peddle climate science denial in support of the rollback. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement:
“The Obama administration’s determination was wrong. Obama’s EPA cut the Midterm Evaluation process short with politically charged expediency, made assumptions about the standards that didn’t comport with reality, and set the standards too high.”
UK
- Britain Is Being Outperformed by Its Trading Partners: Chart (Bloomberg) For the first time in years, the U.K. is being outperformed by its trading partners as the impact of the decision to leave the European Union bites. Still, Bloomberg Economics expects the more favorable global backdrop to help offset some domestic weakness with net trade seen accounting for a third of overall growth, as it did in 2017. Beyond 2018, the boost from stronger global growth is likely to fade as many of Britain’s trading partners — particularly in the euro area — experience a slowdown as they reach the end of their cyclical recoveries.
- At U.N. nerve agent attack meeting, Russia tells Britain: ‘You’ll be sorry’ (Reuters) Russia warned Britain at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that it was “playing with fire” by blaming Moscow for poisoning a former Russian spy and his daughter. Nebenzia said that the United States and Britain had both developed the nerve agent. He added:
“Novichok is not copyrighted by Russia in spite of the obviously Russian name.”
Turkey
- Lira Continues Its Decline (Twitter)
Syria
- Trump Drops Push for Immediate Withdrawal of Troops From Syria (The New York Times) President Trump has instructed his military commanders to quickly wrap up the American military operation in Syria so that he can bring troops home within a few months, senior administration officials said on Wednesday. He dropped his insistence on an immediate withdrawal, they said, after commanders told him they needed time to complete their mission.
Russia
- U.S. plans to sanction Russian oligarchs this week: sources (Reuters) The United States plans to sanction Russian oligarchs this week under a law targeting Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in what could be the most aggressive move so far against Russia’s business elite.
China
- China’s March data set to show gradual cooling in economy as trade war risks grow (Reuters) A raft of Chinese data over coming weeks is expected to show the world’s second-biggest economy cooled slightly in March from the first two months of the year, with the main risk to the outlook now centered on an escalating Sino-U.S. trade spat. Analysts fear a full-blown U.S.-China trade spat could have damaging economic consequences, hitting exporters of both nations and shattering global growth.
- Trump proposes $100 billion in additional tariffs on Chinese products (CNBC) President Donald Trump on Thursday said he has instructed the United States Trade Representative to consider $100 billion in additional tariffs against China. Stock market futures in the U.S. plummeted on the news. See also Hope for an US-China trade agreement just got ‘thrown under the bus,’ says a Wall Street veteran.
- How Shenzhen, China, Built The World’s Largest Electric Bus Fleet (Clean Technica) The southeastern city, which connects Hong Kong to mainland China, announced at the end of last year that all of its 16,359 buses had gone electric. The city’s buses are the world’s first 100% electrified bus fleet, and its largest – bigger than New York’s, Los Angeles’s, New Jersey’s, Chicago’s and Toronto’s electric bus fleets combined. How the city overcame obstacles like high costs, lack of charging station infrastructure and more provides lessons for other cities looking to electrify their bus lines.
