Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 06 February 2019
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 shares mostly up as Trump deliver his second State of the Union address (CNBC) Asia shares mostly rose Wednesday as investors digested U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. The dollar index rose to 96.129, climbing from levels below 95.400 in the previous week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $53.74 per barrel at 0153 GMT, up $0.08 from their last settlement. They closed down 1.7% on Tuesday. International Brent crude oil futures were at $62.05 per barrel, up $0.07, after closing down 0.8% in the previous session. Spot gold was steady at $1,314.30 per ounce, as of 0546 GMT. U.S. gold futures were also steady at $1,318.20 an ounce.
- Global Money Supply (Twitter) Follow the money.
​U.S.
- Fed move hints best days of Trumponomics may be over (Reuters) The Fed’s policy shift this week may seem to deliver what President Trump wanted by pausing further rate increases. But the narrative suggests that the best days of Trumponomics may be over.
- 2019 State of the Union and Responses (The Real News Network) Watch as President Trump delivers the annual State of the Union Address and key opposition figures, including (D)-Stacey Abrams and (I)-Bernie Sanders deliver their responses. In the first video is the president’s roughly hour and a half address followed by a 9 minute response by Stacey Abrams starting at 1:47:15.
- State of the Union 2019: Read the full transcript (CNN) This is one of the rare ocassions where what the president said was the same as the transcript.
- AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s claims in his State of Union address (Associated Press) President Donald Trump laced his State of the Union speech with puffed-up numbers and partial truths Tuesday as he hailed an “economic miracle,” warned of human traffickers flooding across the border and appeared to place Afghanistan in the Middle East instead of where it is, Asia. Trump used information selectively in claiming a drop in drug prices not seen in half a century and promised the nation it would see bountiful benefits from a trade deal that hasn’t been approved, might not be and in any event makes only modest changes from the status quo. Thsi article goes over false and misleading statements. It is long.
- Nancy Pelosi’s clap at Trump’s SOTU is quickly becoming a meme (Twitter Moments) Has Donald Trump met his political theatrics match? Click image to watch.
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- Former Models for Donald Trump’s Agency Say They Violated Immigration Rules and Worked Illegally (Mother Jones) With the president spending so much time on illegal immigration in the SOTU, it is worthwhile to point out just how much he has personally profited from exploiting it, as documented in this 2016 article. See also:
- Trump’s New Jersey golf club employs undocumented immigrants, women say (NBC News, 06 December 2018)
- Trump Organization to Use E-Verify to Prevent Hiring Undocumented Immigrants (The New York Times, 29 Jan 2019)
- Washington Post: Trump Organization fires at least 18 undocumented workers from golf courses (CNN, 04 February 2019)
Undocumented former Trump workers lobby Congress (CNN, 04 February 2019)
- Here’s how much Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett could pay under Bernie Sanders’ tax plan (CNBC) Under Sanders’ new tax plan announced Thursday, billionaires would be subject to a 77% estate tax, which is the tax levied on the cash, property, real estate and other assets (“everything you own or have certain interests in,” according to the Internal Revenue Service) of a deceased person when it is transferred to another person. In 2018, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act put the estate tax at 40% after the first $11.18 million, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
EU
- Euro zone factory growth dried up in January, outlook gloomy: PMI (Reuters) Growth in euro zone factory activity was minimal in January as new orders fell at the fastest rate in nearly six years, suggesting manufacturers are acting as a drag on the economy, a survey showed on Friday. Some of that scant growth was from factories running down backlogs of orders for a fifth month while having to stockpile finished products at the fastest rate since the survey began in June 1997.
Russia
- Russia will exit INF nuclear pact in six months: Ifax (Reuters) Russia will exit the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in six months as part of a symmetrical response to the United States’ pullout, the Interfax news agency cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday.
- Putin: Russia’s new nuclear missile is invincible (CNN) Russia’s new hypersonic missile system, which President Vladimir Putin claims is “invulnerable” to US defenses, will enter service in 2019, the Russian leader said after a test of the missile.
North Korea
- Hopes high for concrete results from 2nd Kim-Trump summit (Associated Press) Governments across Asia on Wednesday expressed hope that a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam will produce concrete results that would lead to complete denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. Trump announced in his State of the Union address that the summit will take place Feb. 27-28.
Australia
- Banking royal commission: The financial sector’s descent to the fourth circle of hell (abc.nat.au) Forget purgatory, Australia’s financial sector is currently rooted in the fourth circle of hell – the spot reserved for those being punished for greed and indifference to the plight of others. Australia’s big banks, superannuation funds, wealth managers and insurers are now facing massive and enforced changes to their culture, management and conduct, largely thanks to their own testimony before the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Their stock price fortunes reflect the revelations.
Venezuela
- Why Did Venezuelans Elect Hugo Chavez? (The Real News Network) Over and over again US media outlets make the claim that Venezuela was the “jewel of Latin America” before Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998 and that his election marked the country’s downfall. In part 1 of this Venezuela primer, on the 20th anniversary of Chavez first taking office on February 2, 1999, we look at what led up to his election.
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