Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 06 May 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
- Chinese markets plunge more than 5% as US-China trade tensions escalate (CNBC) Stocks in China plummeted on Monday following a re-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions as President Donald Trump declared an impending increase in tariffs rates on $200 billion of Chinese goods. The U.S. dollar index was down at 97.573 after seeing highs above 97.8 last week. Brent crude futures contract dropped 2.36% to $69.18 per barrel. U.S. crude futures also fell 2.53% to $60.37 per barrel. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $1,282.38 per ounce, as of 0301 GMT. U.S. gold futures were up 0.2% at $1,283.90 an ounce.
U.S.
- Trump says Mueller shouldn’t testify (The Hill) President Trump on Sunday said special counsel Robert Mueller should not testify on the findings of his probe into Russia’s election interference, suggesting the move was an attempt by Democrats to renew scrutiny on the White House after the release of Mueller’s long-awaited report.
- Trump tweets support for far-right figures banned by Facebook (The Guardian) Donald Trump criticized social media companies after Facebook banned a number of far-right and other extremist figures, declaring that he was “monitoring and watching, closely!!” The president, who at the weekend tweeted and retweeted complaints, including complaints from rightwing figures themselves, said he would “monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms“.
- Past Nominees Trail Early (A Shot of Politics)
- Abolishing The Electoral College Used To Be A Bipartisan Position. Not Anymore. (FiveThirtyEight) While the controversial 2000 election was still being decided, Gallup found that 61% of Americans – including 73% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans1 – preferred amending the Constitution to elect the popular vote winner. Only 35% of respondents preferred the current system. The partisan gap widened even further after the 2016 election.
- Latest Approval Polling (FiveThirtyEight) Polling results over the past 16 months has been unusually consistent.
- If the US unemployment rate included everyone who says they want a job, it would be nearly double (Quartz) This article is from January 2017. As measured by the BLS, the unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed people who are currently in the labor force. In order to be in the labor force, a person either must have a job or have looked for work in the last four weeks. A person only needed one hour in the prior week to be considered employed. This leaves out a ton of relevant people. According to the November 2016 data, over 5.5 million Americans said they want a job, but don’t have one, and are not considered a part of the labor force. If these people were included in the unemployment rate, it would jump from 4.6% to 8.2%. See also next article.
- Table A-16. Persons not in the labor force and multiple jobholders by sex, not seasonally adjusted (Bureau of Labor Statistics) The current data for for wanting a job but not in the labor force is only slightly smaller than the previous situation reported in preceding article. The existence of this buffer is at least part of the reason there is little wage inflation.
Israel
- Palestinians report Gaza truce with Israel as violence ebbs (Reuters) A deadly surge in violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel petered out overnight and Palestinian officials reported that Egypt had mediated a truce early on Monday. The latest round of fighting erupted three days ago, peaking on Sunday when rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel, and Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians.
Iran
- Iran to keep enriching uranium despite U.S. move: parliament speaker (Reuters) Iran will continue with low-level uranium enrichment in line with its nuclear deal with world powers, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani was quoted as saying on Saturday, despite a U.S. move to stop it.
- EU and Britain condemn U.S. oil and nuclear sanctions on Iran (Reuters) The United States’ allies in Europe have criticized its recent decisions to restrict oil trade with Iran and to limit the extension of waivers for nuclear non-proliferation projects. Britain’s foreign office said in a joint statement with its German and French counterparts and the European Union:
“We … take note with regret and concern of the decision by the United States not to extend waivers with regards to trade in oil with Iran.”
- U.S. deploying carrier, bombers to Middle East to deter Iran: Bolton (Reuters) The Trump administration is deploying a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to troubling “indications and warnings” from Iran and to show the United States will retaliate with “unrelenting force” to any attack, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday.
Russia
- Moscow airport plane fire: Forty-one people killed in Aeroflot crash landing (CNN) At least 41 people on board a Russian passenger jet were killed, including two children, after the aircraft crash-landed at a Moscow airport on Sunday, bursting into flames on impact. Aeroflot flight SU 1492 skidded down the runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, its rear section ablaze and spilling thick, black smoke. Once the plane had come to a halt, passengers escaped using emergency slides from the plane’s two forward doors, before running away from the burning aircraft.
India
- Praise for India’s response to devastating cyclone (The Times of India) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. UN and other experts on Saturday praised India for its early warning systems and rapid evacuation of more than 1 million people, which they said helped minimise loss of life from a deadly cyclone that battered its eastern coast. Only 12 fatalities were recorded from the storm. A similar cyclone 20 years ago killed more than 10,000.
North Korea
- North Korea faces food crisis after poor harvest, U.N. says (Reuters) Hat tip to Sig Silber. Four in ten North Koreans are chronically short of food and further cuts to already minimal rations are expected after the worst harvest in a decade, the United Nations said on Friday.
China
- Two U.S. warships sail in disputed South China Sea (Reuters) The U.S. military said two of its warships sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Monday, a move that could anger Beijing at a time of tense relations between the world’s two biggest economies.
- China Vice Premier Liu may still travel to U.S. this week: SCMP (Reuters) China Vice Premier Liu He could still travel to the United States for trade negotiations but shorten his trip or cancel it altogether, South China Morning Post reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source briefed on the latest plans. See also next article.
- China says it’s still preparing for US trade talks – but won’t give details after new Trump threats (CNBC)
- A source told CNBC that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will likely cancel the trip he’d planned for himself and a 100-person delegation for the final round of talks that U.S. officials had previously said could yield a deal by Friday.
- A second source said Trump’s decision to more than double the tariff rate on $200 billion of goods was meant to send a message to Liu to not come to the U.S. with more “empty offers.”
- During a Monday news conference, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said through a translator that the country’s team “is preparing to travel to the U.S. for the trade talks.” He did not confirm whether Liu would be among that group.
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