Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 13 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
- Mainland Chinese shares slip amid US-China trade uncertainty (CNBC) Mainland Chinese shares declined on Monday amid uncertainty on the U.S.-China trade front, after tariffs on Chinese goods were raised last Friday. Other major Asian markets also fell. The U.S. dollar index was lower at 97.315 after scaling highs above 97.6 last week. Brent crude futures contract gained 0.76% to $71.16 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures were 0.29% higher at $61.84 per barrel. Spot gold was down 0.2% at $1,283.46 per ounce, as of 0351 GMT.
U.S.
- Kudlow contradicts Trump, says China isn’t paying tariffs on goods going into US (Fox News, YouTube) In an interview with Chrisa Wallace, Larry Kudlow admitted that tariffs amount to taxes paid by American consumers.
- How the GOP dossier chase may help Democrats get Trump’s tax records (CNN) In the end, Congress will almost certainly get President Donald Trump’s financial records — and Republican efforts to investigate the Christopher Steele dossier could be one reason why. Trump has asked the courts to stop the records from getting to the Democratic-held House of Representatives. Yet one past court case that could hurt his arguments was, ironically, the case that hurt the Democrats in the last two years, the case of the “Steele Dosier“. Courts ruled that the financial records invovled in that case could not be protected from Congressional investigation, establishing a precedence for the president’s personal finances.
- States fight Trump rollback of Obama lightbulb rules (The Hill) States are preparing to fight back as the Trump administration moves to erase Obama-era standards for lightbulbs. The Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed new regulations for lightbulbs that would eliminate efficiency standards for half the bulbs on the market. The move has prompted a backlash from a bipartisan mix of state attorneys general and governors who say it is harmful to the planet and may be illegal.
Washington and Colorado passed bills this month designed to backstop the Obama-era standards if DOE proceeds to roll them back, and half a dozen other states are considering similar legislation. Vermont passed such a law as soon as President Trump was elected.
State leaders say they are fighting what they see as an alarming trend under the Trump administration where agencies with an environmental purview are instead rolling back green regulations.
- Trump’s Justices, With Much in Common, Take Different Paths (The New York Times) President Trump’s two Supreme Court appointees went to the same Jesuit high school in the Washington suburbs – at the same time. After attending Ivy League colleges and law schools, they worked as law clerks on the Supreme Court – for the same justice, in the same term. They served as appeals court judges for more than a decade, turning out opinions that captured the attention of conservative legal groups like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. They were confirmed by tight votes, mostly along party lines.
On the Supreme Court, they were widely expected to be jurisprudential twins. But it turns out that there is more than a little daylight between Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who joined the court in 2017, and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who started in October.
- Party 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.
- 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.
EU
- How will Brexit affect European elections around the EU? (The Guardian) Brexit barely features as an electoral issue in the rest of the bloc: as usual, voters will be swayed more by domestic politics and personal perceptions of the EU’s value. But it has influenced the debate indirectly. Most European mainstream parties have become more explicitly pro-EU and hardly any of the nationalist parties calling for referendums on EU membership in 2016 are still doing so now, demanding instead an EU remodelled as a “Europe of nations“. Polls show the EU’s popularity is at a 30-year high.
- EU supports Iran nuclear deal, may talk to U.S.’s Pompeo: Mogherini (Reuters) The European Union fully supports the international nuclear accord with Iran and wants rival powers to avoid any further escalation over the issue, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to meet EU officials in Brussels on Monday to talk about Iran.
UK
- Brexit talks will tie up Whitehall for years, top UK diplomat warns (The Guardian) The next stage of the Brexit negotiations are going to make the current mess look like a simple affair and will tie up the civil service for years, the former national security adviser and head of Britain’s diplomatic service has warned. Peter Ricketts’ remarks will alarm those who believe the Brexit cloud hanging over the country will evaporate if only Theresa May can get the EU withdrawal agreement passed in parliament.
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
US war against Iran is impossible, claims Iranian general (The Guardian) The deployment of a US aircraft carrier to Iran’s regional waters is nothing but psychological warfare and part of a plan to intimidate Tehran, the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen Hossein Salami, has told parliamentarians in a closed-door session.
The IRGC commander said a US war against Iran was impossible, claiming Washington lacked the necessary military strength.
Another senior commander claimed Iran had the firepower to “hit the US in the head” during the session in Tehran on Sunday.
China
China defiant on trade, U.S. for strong enforcement steps (Reuters) The United States and China appeared at a deadlock over trade negotiations as Washington demanded promises of concrete changes to Chinese law and Beijing said it would not swallow any “bitter fruit” that harmed its interests.
Here’s how China may retaliate to Trump’s tariff hike (CNBC)
- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday hiked the tariff rate to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
- China’s Commerce Ministry said it would take countermeasures against the American tariff hike. It did not announce what its response would entail but said it “deeply regrets” the turn of events.
- Experts said China is likely to use a number of methods to economically strike back at the United States.
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