Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 17 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
- China shares drop amid trade tensions with the US (CNBC) Mainland Chinese shares tumbled on Friday amid ongoing tensions between Beijing and Washington. Shares elsewhere in Asia were mixed. Japan and Australian markets rose, while South Korean shares slipped. See first graphic below. The U.S. dollar index was higher at 97.799 after bouncing from levels below 97.5 yesterday. Brent crude futures contract gained fractionally to $72.66 per barrel, while U.S. WTI crude futures added 0.22% to $63.01 per barrel. Spot gold was mostly unchanged at $1,286.44 per ounce as of 0536 GMT. Treasury yields ticked lower. See second grphic below.
- Central Banks with Negative Rates (Twitter) For full article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-17/growth-fears-leave-ecb-exposed-as-negative-rate-relief-doubted …
U.S.
- In a filing attached to his sentencing memorandum, made public late Thursday, federal prosecutors said Michael Flynn “informed the government of multiple instances … where either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the Administration or Congress that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation.”
- Flynn, a former national security advisor, not only told investigators about these communications but also provided the special counsel’s office with a voicemail of one instance.
- Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to federal investigators about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador.
- Senate Republicans running away from Alabama abortion law (The Hill) President Trump unveiled a new immigration plan on Thursday in the White House Rose Garden, only to be met by outrage from liberals and ambivalence from conservatives. The reaction underscored how troublesome the politics of immigration is for the administration, especially when it departs from the simpler – if polarizing – path of the president’s calls to build a border wall.
- Smooth Sailing Ahead for Trump (National Review) This Op Ed reveiws all the reasons a Democratic opponent to President Trump is likely to face defeat in 2020.
- ‘How Could We Fail so Miserably?’: Real-World Evidence Offers Sobering Reality (MedScape) Hat tip to Charles Gill. A mjority of cancer patients who have received proper diagnosis and prescription for care in a recent study actually received the treatment.
These results do not speak to the huge population of patients who never had molecular marker testing, whether because they had insufficient tissue or because it simply wasn’t tested. We are clearly missing many patients who fly under the radar.
But that makes this a more egregious omission, because these are the patients who already had testing that revealed a biomarker associated with an effective therapy. They already hit the ground-rule double, if not a home run. They just never ran the bases.
Far too many patients with driver mutations are dying without receiving treatments that are among the most effective that we have for lung cancer, or many other malignancies, for that matter. As an oncology community, we should take a hard look in the mirror and reflect on how deeply we are failing these patients.
- Weakening Core Inflation (The Daily Shot) How much of the weakness in the core PCE inflation measure has been due to “transitory” factors? Apparently, not enough to explain the recent decline. The second chart below shows the breakdown.
EU
- European elections: how the six biggest countries will vote (The Guardian) More than 370 million people will be eligible to vote in the European elections. But as they enter the polling booth they will have very different issues on their mind, as this survey of the six biggest countries conducted by the Europa group of newspapers reveals. Among leading issues are protectionism in France, lower taxes in Italy, and Brexit in the UK.
- Eurozone Exposures to US – China Trade War (The Daily Shot) Germany is more exposed to the US-China trade dispute than other Eurozone economies.
Germany
Iran
- Iran tells Middle East militias: prepare for proxy war (The Guardian) Iran’s most prominent military leader has recently met Iraqi militias in Baghdad and told them to “prepare for proxy war”
- Trump Admin Moves Fueled Iran’s Aggression, U.S. Intel Says (Daily Beast) ‘Most of the activities that the Iranians are undertaking are in response to our very aggressive posture in the region,’ one member of the House Intelligence Committee said.
- The Many Downsides of War with Iran (National Review) While American forces should defend themselves from any attack, to answer a question about whether America should initiate military action against Iran requires understanding the risks of war. And I fear that America’s post – 9/11 experience has distorted America’s memory and perceptions of military conflict. Simply put, we have not fought an intact regional power since Desert Storm, and we have not fought a foe with Iran’s long-range strike capability arguably since World War II. The U.S. would certainly win such a war but would suffer damages greater than any other recent war.
China
- China Isn’t Paying U.S. Tariffs (Twitter) See also China Is Paying for the Tariffs like Mexico Is Paying for the Wall!
- Improving Business Sentiment in China (The Daily Shot) Will the recent improvements in China’s business sentiment get reversed as a result of the renewed trade tensions with the US?
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