Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 25 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.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side for social media buttons.
​Global
- Asia markets fall while dollar climbs in afternoon trade (CNBC) Markets in Asia traded lower on Wednesday, following an overnight drop in U.S. stocks as investors worried about rising interest rates and the outlook of the economy. The dollar index traded higher at 90.981 as of 2:43 p.m. HK/SIN. U.S. crude was lower by 0.13% to $67.61 and global benchmark Brent declined 0.12% to $73.77 a barrel. Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,330.96 per ounce at 0058 GMT.
U.S.
- Federal judge: Trump administration must accept new DACA applications (The Washington Post) A D.C. federal judge has delivered the toughest blow yet to Trump administration efforts to end deportation protections for undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers,” ordering the government to continue the Obama-era program and – for the first time – to accept new applicants.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates called the government’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program “virtually unexplained” and therefore “unlawful.” However, he stayed his ruling for 90 days to allow the Department of Homeland Security a chance to provide more solid reasoning for ending the program.
Bates is the third judge to rule against Trump administration attempts to rescind DACA, which provides work permits and deportation protections for about 690,000 undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children.
- Mulvaney’s Advice to Bankers: Up Campaign Donations to Diminish Consumer Watchdog (The New York Times) Mick Mulvaney, the interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told banking industry executives and lobbyists on Tuesday that they should increase their campaign donations to influence lawmakers, revealing that he would meet only with lobbyists who contributed to his campaign when he served in the House. Econintersect: How blatantly corrupt will Americans allow their government to become?
- Arizona special election: Debbie Lesko holds on to seat for Republicans (The Guardian) A strong performance by Democrats in a district where the party did not even field a challenger in the last two elections marked yet another troubling sign for the Republican party ahead of the 2018 elections. Republicans held onto a deeply conservative Arizona congressional seat on Tuesday night in a special election race to replace an incumbent lawmaker who resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations. Debbie Lesko, a former state senator, led Democrat Hiral Tiperneni, a doctor and political newcomer, by a margin of 53% to 47% in the race for a Phoenix-area seat that Donald Trump had won by over 20 points. See also Dems flip New York state seat that Republicans have held for nearly four decades (The Hill).
- His nomination in peril, Jackson fights for VA post (Associated Press) His nomination in peril, Veterans Affairs nominee Ronny Jackson fought Tuesday to convince lawmakers of his leadership abilities as more details of accusations against him emerged, ranging from repeated drunkenness to a toxic work environment as he served as a top White House doctor.
President Donald Trump sent mixed signals about his choice to lead the sprawling veterans’ agency, suggesting during a White House news conference that Jackson may want to withdraw because of unfair scrutiny. But the president privately urged his nominee to keep fighting to win Senate confirmation, and Jackson showed few signs of backing down.
- Judge revokes bond for Nashville shooting suspect after public outcry (Reuters) A Tennessee judge on Tuesday revoked a $2 million bond set for the man accused of opening fire at a Nashville-area Waffle House restaurant, killing four people, while new details emerged of the suspect’s struggles with paranoia and delusions.
Davidson County Judge Michael Mondelli did not give a reason for overturning the bond order issued by a night magistrate following the arrest of Travis Reinking, but his decision followed a public outcry over the possibility that the suspect could potentially be freed from jail.
The Nashville District Attorney’s office was “inundated with calls” from angry members of the public saying the shooting rampage suspect should not be released under any circumstances, spokesman Steve Hayslip said.
- Scott Pruitt’s Political Patron Now Questions the E.P.A. Chief’s Ethics (The New York Times) Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, may be losing support even from his staunchest allies. His longtime political patron, Senator James Inhofe, said Tuesday that he would like to see an investigation into the ethical allegations against his protégé. If any prove true, he said, they could “have an effect” on Mr. Pruitt’s job.
Mr. Inhofe said he was troubled by a recent New York Times story that detailed allegations of unchecked spending and ethics questions during Mr. Pruitt’s career as attorney general and state senator in Oklahoma.
- Economists Predict 2% Inflation Will Be Exceeded Within 2 years (The Daily Shot) Economists are convinced that the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the core PCE, will reach the 2% target this year and move beyond that level over the next couple of years.
EU
Economists still predict asset purchases will end this year
Protectionism seen as bigger threat than recent slowdown
UK
- Brexit blamed as record number of EU nurses give up on Britain (The Guardian) Record numbers of nurses and midwives from EU27 countries quit Britain last year, fuelling fears that a Brexit brain drain will deepen the NHS’s already chronic staffing crisis. A total of 3,962 such staff from the European Economic Area (EEA) left the Nursing and Midwifery Council register between 2017 and 2018. The number of departures was 28% more than the 3,081 who left in 2016-17 and three times higher than the 1,311 who did so in 2013-14.
At the same time, the number of EU nurses and midwives coming to work in the UK has fallen to its lowest level. Just 805 of them joined the NMC register in 2017-18. That total is just 13% of the 6,382 who came over the year before.
- U.K. Consumers Stay Under Pressure Even as Pay Squeeze Nears End (Bloomberg) The year-long squeeze on living standards may be coming to an end, but U.K. consumers may not be out of the woods just yet. Workers are enjoying the strongest wage growth in almost three years, while the sharp price increases of 2016 that ate into incomes are fading, leaving workers with more cash in their pockets, but real incomes still below 2008 peak.
Finland
- Finland to end basic income trial after two years (The Guardian) Europe’s first national government-backed experiment in giving citizens free cash will end next year after Finland decided not to extend its widely publicised basic income trial and to explore alternative welfare schemes instead. Since January 2017, a random sample of 2,000 unemployed people aged 25 to 58 have been paid a monthly €560 ($680, £475) , with no requirement to seek or accept employment. Any recipients who took a job continued to receive the same amount.
The government has turned down a request for extra funding from Kela, the Finnish social security agency, to expand the two-year pilot to a group of employees this year, and said payments to current participants will end next January.
Iran
- Macron pitches new Iran deal to sweeten existing agreement for Trump (The Guardian) Emmanuel Macron has proposed negotiations on a “new deal” aimed at curbing Iran’s military power and regional activities, to exist alongside a three year-old agreement that restricts the country’s nuclear program.
The offer seemed calculated to appease the US president’s discontent with the current agreement, the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA) by proposing a broader initiative to tackle other elements of Iran’s challenge in the region, particularly its ballistic missile programme, and its military role in Syria.
- Iran threatens to withdraw from nuclear weapons treaty (The Guardian) Iran has threatened to withdraw from the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the clearest indication of how it will react should Donald Trump pull the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, said Tehran could leave the NPT nearly half a century after it signed if it decided the treaty no longer served its interests.
North Korea
- Trump hails North Korea’s ‘honorable’ Kim but tempers summit expectations (Reuters) .S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had been “very honorable” and discussions on a planned summit were going well, but tempered expectations for any quick denuclearization deal by saying “it may be we’re all wasting a lot of time“.
South Korea
- Ahead of summit with North, South Koreans hope more for peace than unification (Reuters) As North and South Korea gear up for their first summit in over a decade this Friday, many South Koreans have lowered their expectations since previous summits, hoping for peace rather than any swift reunification. See also South Korea, U.S. expected to hold summit in mid-May: South Korean official.
China
- Police in Chinese city seize 600 computers used to mine bitcoin (Reuters) Police in the north China city of Tianjin confiscated 600 computers used to mine bitcoin cryptocurrency after the local power grid operator reported abnormal electricity usage, Xinhua reported Wednesday.
- US developers feel pinch as Chinese investors pull back from EB-5 programme that offers green card as a reward (South China Morning Post) A U.S. immigration program rewards wealthy immigrants with green cards in exchange for investment in real estate projects is seeing long-time Chinese interest waning. This is causing pain in sizeable American real estate projects.
