Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 04 Sep 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 shares broadly positive on Tuesday; trade and emerging market concerns weigh (CNBC) Asian stock indexes were broadly positive on Tuesday afternoon, after a slightly turbulent trading day, with markets remaining uncertain over trade concerns and emerging market worries. The U.S. dollar index gained 0.28% at 95.403 as of 3:02 p.m. HK/SIN, after trading around 95.14 yesterday. Brent crude futures recovered from its earlier losses to trade up 0.1% at $78.23 a barrel. U.S. crude futures were up 0.83% at $70.38 a barrel, following the evacuation of two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms in anticipation of a hurricane. Spot gold was down 0.3% at $1,196.90 an ounce at 0639 GMT
- Oil could surge 30% into the mid-$90s within months, creating $4 per gallon gas: Energy expert John Kilduff (CNBC) U.S. crude oil hasn’t traded at $95 a barrel since 2014, but this is the year that could change. Energy expert John Kilduff counts Iran sanctions as the top reason West Texas Intermediate (WTI) could climb as much as 30% by winter, and that could spell $4 a gallon unleaded gasoline at the pumps. On Friday, WTI crude oil settled at $69.80 a barrel while ICE Brent crude closed at $77.42.
U.S.
Tropical Storm Gordon Expected to Become a Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico; Hurricane Warnings Posted for Northern Gulf Coast (The Weather Channel) Tropical Storm Gordon is strengthening over the eastern Gulf of Mexico ahead of a northern Gulf Coast landfall late Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane. The National Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane warning from the mouth of the Pearl River, Mississippi, to the border between Alabama and Florida. Sig Silber is tracking the storrm: September 3, 2018 Weather and Climate Report – Tropical Cyclones Wild.
- GOP challengers hit vulnerable Dems over Trump tax law votes (The Hill) Republican candidates are taking aim at vulnerable Senate Democrats by reminding voters that their opponents did not support one of President Trump’s top agenda items: the 2017 tax-cut law. GOP challengers in states that Trump carried, often overwhelmingly, have been making the case that Democratic incumbents seeking reelection are more in line with liberal politicians than the president.
- Trump loyalist Devin Nunes facing tighter House race in California as Democratic rival Andrew Janz rises in the polls (CNBC)
- California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes maybe one of the most powerful Republicans in the House but he’s also a polarizing figure in national politics.
- The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is in a tighter race than usual, as Democratic challenger Andrew Janz has been rising in fresh polling.
- Nunes, a Trump loyalist, may be starting to lose some support in his agriculture-heavy district that has commodities such as dairy, fruit and nuts targeted with retaliatory tariffs.
- Fox News’ Brit Hume to Trump: Sessions’s job ‘is not to play goalie for a president’ (The Hill) Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume on Monday pushed back on President Trump’s tweets knocking Attorney General Jeff Sessions for pursuing charges against a pair of GOP congressmen.
- Get Sick, Go Bankrupt and Die (Paul Krugman, The New York Times) Prof. K thinks that if the GOP wins the House and the Senate in November they will repeal Obamacare. Why? Because that is what Republican candidates are saying.
- Trump’s trade war could affect 11 million jobs (Axios) Hat tip to Menzie Chinn. With an escalation in President Trump’s trade war possible as early as Thursday, retaliatory tariffs threaten U.S. companies employing some 11 million workers, according to an Axios analysis. Why it matters: Industries affected by the brinksmanship are mostly concentrated in rural, deeply red, already-struggling parts of the country, with political consequences for Trump and Republicans in 2018 and beyond.
- Trump Is Not the Problem, He Is a Symptom of It (Global Researchl) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. Michael Bucci thinks that the Trump symptom will eventually be treated , and with it thr causitive problem corrected. From this article:
It is altogether clear that the dilemma now crystallized and embodied in the figure of Donald J. Trump is actually one within the very lifeblood of the American electorate – in numbers from one-third to almost one-half of them. Such zeal. Such iconoclastic passions. Such preference for lawlessness and immorality, yet justified with religious overtones. One might call the whole legion a “Fifth Column”, which is exactly what those who undermine government, legality, and democratic institutions are called.
There is one catch in Mr. Trump’s jagged, mercurial, half-diminished mind that bears watching and it might be the very thing that collapses everything from within: he might make a BIG MISTAKE. By mistake I don’t mean shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, starting a nuclear exchange or provoking a confused loon to blow-up CNN (those acts he’ll escape from).
To illustrate: How many “on the fence” Trump-Republicans have now doubted their loyalty after he embarrassed the Office of the President through continued open hostility to Sen. John McCain (on the deathbed)? But this was only one daily mistake. But one each day equates to thousands in time and with each falls away another Trump supporter. There will be no mad rush out of Trump’s ensnaring vineyard of delusions. That’s a pipe-dream (another delusion). But drain the swamp he will – of his own kind through misadventure, high-stakes gambling, and delusions of invincibility of such fervor the patient gods of destiny will finally answer back with Almighty karma. And if for some reason he gets away with all of it – if for some reason – there is always St. Peter waiting on the other side of the veil.
UK
- Expensive London property is getting more expensive, but people ain’t buying (FT Alphaville) Graphics tell the story. Two of them are shown below: prices are rising and sales volume is going down. Click on either graphic for larger image.
Sweden
- Sweden Was Long Seen as a ‘Moral Superpower.’ That May Be Changing. (The New York Times) Populism is the new ugly. As an angry and divided Sweden prepares to vote on Sunday, the shape of the next Swedish government is utterly unclear, because of the rapid rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Europe Sweden Democrats, a populist nationalist party that is expected to win a fifth of the vote. Ulf Bjereld, a professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg and an active member of the Social Democrats, said:
“This election is a struggle about values and Swedish identity. The question is how to keep Sweden in the forefront of liberalism and social democracy versus stronger support for the nation state and borders. Who will Sweden be in this struggle? We’re just at the beginning of this debate.”
Syria
- Trump warns Assad, Russia, Iran against Idlib attack (France 24 International News) US President Donald Trump on Monday warned Syria against launching an attack on the country’s last rebel stronghold with the help of Russia and Iran, saying the offensive could trigger a “human tragedy.” The warning came as Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javed Zarif met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in a surprise visit to Damascus ahead of the looming offensive.
India
- Arun Shourie: ‘2019 Elections the Last Chance for Opposition, for Indian Democracy’ (The Wire) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. Painting a dire picture of the future of democratic rights and even free and fair elections in the country should Narendra Modi be re-elected prime minister in 2019, former BJP minister Arun Shourie said the opposition parties must pledge to ensure they put up one common candidate against the BJP in every constituency.
Speaking to a packed audience at The Wire Dialogues on Saturday, Shourie, who was interviewed on stage by Karan Thapar, said it was a myth to believe Modi is so popular a leader that the Opposition would be unable to provide an alternative.
- For the BJP, a Troubling National Election Outlook (The Wire) It appears impossible for the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) to win a majority on its own in 2019. It may still win enough seats to form a coalition government, but it will have to bargain with allies deeply frustrated with Modi’s willful, unresponsive ways.
Myranmar
- Special Report: How Myanmar punished two reporters for uncovering an atrocity (Reuters) Time and again, Myanmar’s government appeared at risk of blowing its prosecution of two young journalists who had exposed a massacre of 10 Muslim men and implicated security forces in the killings.
In the end, the holes in the case were not enough to stop the government from punishing the two reporters for revealing an ugly chapter in the history of Myanmar’s young democracy. On Monday, after 39 court appearances and 265 days of imprisonment, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Japan
- Japan PM Abe says will raise sales tax ‘by all means’: Nikkei (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to proceed with next year’s scheduled sales tax hike “by all means” and take steps to ease an expected hit to consumption from the higher levy, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Tuesday. Abe said his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won last year’s lower house election with a pledge to use proceeds from the sales tax increase to make Japan’s social welfare system more sustainable.
- Japan widens evacuation advisories as Typhoon Jebi makes landfall (Reuters) Japan issued evacuation advisories for more than 1 million people and canceled hundreds of flights in the face of extremely strong winds and heavy rain as typhoon Jebi made landfall on its west coast on Tuesday. For more details follow the ocassionally updated weekkly global weather and cliamte report by Sig Silber: September 3, 2018 Weather and Climate Report – Tropical Cyclones Wild.
China
- China lures chip talent from Taiwan with fat salaries, perks (Reuters) A huge pay rise, eight free trips home a year and a heavily subsidized apartment. It was a dream job offer that a Taiwanese engineer simply could not refuse. A veteran of Taiwan’s top-tier chipmakers, including United Microelectronics Corp (UMC)(2303.TW), the engineer took up the offer from a Chinese state-backed chipmaker last year and now oversees a small team at a wafer foundry in eastern China. The engineer joined a growing band of senior Taiwan professionals working in China’s booming and fast-developing semiconductor industry.
- As Trade Tensions Rise, Fewer Americans See China Favorably (Pew Research Center) Trade disputes have dominated relations between the world’s two biggest economies in recent weeks, as Washington and Beijing have slapped tariffs on goods from their respective countries. Although tensions over trade are hardly new, they have intensified during the Trump administration, and as a new Pew Research Center survey illustrates, American attitudes toward China have become somewhat less positive over the past year.
Canada
- Exclusive poll: Americans want new NAFTA deal, but not without Canada (Axios) Americans are narrowly in favor of President Trump’s renegotiation of NAFTA, but the balance swings the other way when it comes to moving ahead on a deal that excludes Canada, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll.
