Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 30 Aug 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 markets mixed after news of a planned telco merger in Australia (CNBC) Asia markets were mixed territory in afternoon trade on Thursday, as two telecommunications companies, TPG Telecom and Vodafone Hutchison Australia, announced plans for a merger. The U.S. dollar index was largely flat at 94.573 as of 12:43 p.m. HK/SIN. Brent crude was up by 0.17% at $77.27 a barrel. U.S. crude was up by 0.24%t at $69.68 a barrel. Spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,203.86 an ounce at 0329 GMT, after rising nearly 0.5% in the previous session.
U.S.
- Trump heightens attacks against CNN, Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein over Trump Tower story (The Hill) President Trump on Wednesday stepped up his personal attacks against CNN, lambasting the network and veteran journalist Carl Bernstein for a July report about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting. Bernstein, known for his coverage of the Watergate scandal, co-wrote an article for CNN, reporting that Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, was willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that then-candidate Trump knew about the June 2016 meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
- CNN fires back at Trump: ‘CNN does not lie’ (The Hill) CNN on Wednesday fired back at President Trump for his comments lashing out at the network, writing on Twitter that “CNN does not lie.” The comments from came shortly after Trump stepped up his attacks against CNN and veteran reporter Carl Berstein over a July report about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting. The official Twitter account for CNN Communications tweeted late Wednesday.
“Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie. We report the news. And we report when people in power tell lies. CNN stands by our reporting and our reporters. There may be many fools in this story but @carlbernstein is not one of them.”
- Google says that it did promote President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in 2018, countering a video that the President tweeted out on Wednesday.
- Trump’s video appeared to show that Google promoted Barack Obama’s State of the Union speeches on its homepage, but didn’t not promote his in the same way.
- The video is a doubling-down on his accusations of Google’s anti-conservative bias.
- Polls tell the hidden story about Trump’s impeachment (Fabius Maximus) FM has contributed to GEI. Unless more damaging information emerges, impeaching a president supported by 40% of Americans risks igniting a political crisis. That might enrage and energize conservatives to a degree not seen since the 1960s. Democrats might rue the day of their success.
- Trump warns of ‘violence’ if Democrats win midterm elections (Associated Press) President Donald Trump urged evangelical leaders this week to get out the vote ahead of the upcoming midterm elections and warned of “violence” by opponents if they fail. Trump made the dire warning at a White House dinner Monday evening attended by dozens of conservative Christian pastors, ministers and supporters of his administration.
Trump was stressing the stakes in November when he warned that, if Democrats win, they “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently,” according to attendees and audio of his closed-door remarks obtained by media outlets, including The New York Times. He specifically mentioned self-described antifa, or anti-fascist groups, describing them as “violent people“.
- The very white house: intern photo shows decline in diversity under Trump (The Guardian) A leaked photo of the White House summer 2018 interns has again placed Donald Trump’s administration under scrutiny over its commitment to diversity, or lack thereof.
- Sweating the Auto Details of Trump’s Trade Deal with Mexico (Peterson Institute for International Economics) The centerpiece of the agreement, a set of new and complex rules constraining trade in the automobile industry, could be problematic for the US auto sector, and for Mexico and Canada as well. At the least, the new rules will raise the price of autos for US consumers. The North American auto sector could suffer an even worse blow if the Trump administration imposes new import tariffs or quantitative limits on autos and parts not covered by the new deal.
- California moves towards 100% carbon-free electricity after landmark vote (The Guardian) California has given fossil fuel-derived energy a hefty shove towards obsolescence after legislators voted to require that 100% of the state’s electricity come from carbon-free sources. The bill, which will need to be approved by the state senate and Governor Jerry Brown, will require a complete shift to clean energy such as solar and wind by 2045. It would also demand that electric utilities source 60% of their power from renewable sources by 2030, up from the current target of 50%.
- Sources: China Hacked Hillary Clinton’s Private Email Server (The Daily Caller) This article prompted a couple of tweets from the president (below).
- A Chinese-owned company penetrated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server, according to sources briefed on the matter.
- The company inserted code that forwarded copies of Clinton’s emails to the Chinese company in real time.
- The Intelligence Community Inspector General warned of the problem, but the FBI subsequently failed to act, Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said during a July hearing
- FBI Refuses to Conirm or Deny ICIG Warned of Clinton Server Intrusion (The Daily Caller) See preceding and following articles.
- The FBI won’t disclose whether it met with senior officials of the Intelligence Community Inspector General.
- TheDCNF confirmed that the ICIG briefed top bureau officials on three separate occasions to warn the FBI of an “anomaly” they found 30,000 in-bound and outgoing emails.
- The anomaly showed a code embedded in Clinton’s server was producing in real time a “courtesy copy” to a third party.
- FBI rebuts Trump tweet about China hacking Hillary Clinton’s email (NBC News) This supposedly new development (see preceding two articles) has been contradicted former FBI Director James Comey’s previous claim that there was no evidence that Clinton’s server was penetrated. See also A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election (U.S. Office of Inspector General). On Wednesday, officials speaking on behalf of the bureau told NBC News that this was still the case:
“The FBI has not found any evidence the (Clinton) servers were compromised.”
- Drowning in Dirty Water, Permian Seeks $22 Billion Lifeline (Bloomberg) Fracking is booming and producing a side-product: Contaminated water. Disposal of this dirty water could add as much as $6 a barrel to the cost of ptoducing Permian crude in the future.
EU
- Old Stone Drought Warning Resurfaces in Europe: ‘When You See Me, Cry’ (Live Science) Old stones bearing ominous messages have resurfaced in a river in Central Europe, according to news reports. Over the course of centuries, Europeans marked low water levels during droughts by carving lines and dates into boulders along the Elbe River, which runs from the Czech Republic into Germany. The idea was that if water levels dipped low enough to reveal an old carving, it would signal to locals that dry, hungry times – similar to those experienced in the marked year – were coming. Over a dozen of these “hunger stones” have reappeared in the Elbe this year, amid a record-setting European drought. See also Drought reveals ancient ‘hunger stones’ in European river (Associated Press).
UK
- Supporters of London house price crash are missing bigger picture (The Guardian) he warning that property values in London will fall this year and next will bring a smile to many who believe house prices have run out of control in the last 30 years. The added warning of a possible full-blown crash in the capital if Britain leaves the European Union without striking a deal will only turn the smile into a beaming grin. For some it is enough to persuade them that a no-deal Brexit is the best thing that could happen to the country. And it’s a seductive position to adopt. A crash would make homes more affordable to those on lower incomes and the young. Profit-hungry housebuilders would see their revenues collapse and the much-reviled estate agency industry would shrink. But there would be a lot of economic paon as well, and that is not being thought of by the revelers.
- Britons Are Obsessed With House Prices and New Figures Show Why (Bloomberg) Land accounted for 51% of the U.K.’s net worth in 2016, far more than in any other measured Group of Seven country, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. In Germany, the figure was as low as 26% and the G-7 average excluding the U.S. and Italy was 39% See graph below. Land values are a significant contributor to the UK’s high housing prices.
Aghantistan
- China is helping Afghanistan set up mountain brigade to fight terrorism (South China Morning Post) China is helping Afghanistan to set up a mountain brigade in the country’s north to boost counterterrorism efforts, the Afghan embassy in Beijing said on Wednesday. But “there will be no Chinese military personnel of any kind on Afghan soil at any time“, the embassy said in a fax to the South China Morning Post. The embassy said the Afghan government appreciated China’s assistance and that the countries’ militaries were working in close coordination, without giving further details.
Sources close to the Chinese military earlier told the Post that China had funded and started building a training camp for Afghan troops in Afghanistan’s isolated Wakhan Corridor – a narrow strip of inhospitable and barely accessible land extending about 350km from the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan to China’s Muslim region of Xinjiang.
India
- Demonetisation drive that cost India 1.5m jobs fails to uncover ‘black money’ (The Guardian) It was a move that will go down in history as one of the dumbest ever by a sovereign government. {See also India’s small businesses facing ‘apocalypse’ amid biggest financial experiment in history} More than 99% of the currency that India declared void in a surprise announcement in 2016 was returned to the country’s banks in subsequent weeks, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report.
The figures suggest prime minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation policy, which likely wiped at least 1% from the country’s GDP and cost at least 1.5m jobs, failed to wipe significant hordes of unaccounted wealth from the Indian economy – a key rationale for the move.
- The Indian rupee slid to a record low of 70.8100 against the dollar, after a previous new low a day before. That marks a 10.97 percent decline since the start of the year.
- Economists attributed the slide to rising oil prices, broader emerging market concerns, and strong month-end dollar demand.
China
- Trump’s trade war is an unintentional attack on China’s economic model (South China Morning Post) Alex He says even now, close trade ties constitute the foundation of US-China relations, and compromise is possible, even if conflict between the US-led free-market system and the Chinese model is inevitable.
Behind the US’ attack on China’s forced technology transfer policy, intellectual property theft and Made in China 2025 strategic plan, and behind the tit-for-tat tariffs, there lies a fundamental fault line of the trade war: the clash between the Chinese state-dominated economic model and the US-led free-market economy system.
Canada
- President Donald Trump says Wednesday that he is optimistic Canada will join the new U.S. trade deal with Mexico.
- Trump also reiterates his Friday deadline for the U.S.’ northern ally to join the NAFTA replacement, which Trump coined “The United States-Mexico Trade Agreement” earlier in the week.
- Stocks touched record levels after Trump announced the new deal Monday in a live speakerphone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.