Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 24 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
- Asia markets mixed as investors worry over US-China trade tensions (CNBC) Asia Pacific markets traded mixed Friday, as worries over trade tensions between the United States and China weighed on investor sentiment. The dollar index last traded lower at 97.696, falling from an earlier high of 97.906. Brent crude futures jumped 0.99% to $68.43 per barrel, and U.S. crude futures soared about 1.11% to $58.55 per barrel, following overnight crushing declines in the U.S. and Europe. Spot gold was steady at $1,283.21 per ounce by 0653 GMT. At around 03:40 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was higher at around 2.32%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was lower at around 2.75%.
U.S.
- Trump orders intel agencies to cooperate with Barr probe into ‘spying’ on 2016 campaign (The Hill) President Trump has ordered U.S. intelligence officials to cooperate with Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into “surveillance activities” directed at the president’s 2016 campaign, the White House said Thursday.
- AG William Barr given power to declassify documents on surveillance activities into Trump campaign (Washington Examiner) President Trump has given Attorney General William Barr “full and complete authority to declassify information” related to the origins of the federal investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The move is the strongest sign yet that Trump is taking serious action to “investigate the investigators” and has found a willing champion in Barr, who rankled Democrats last month when he said “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign.
The White House issued a memorandum to the heads of several agencies Thursday instructing them to cooperate with Barr’s inquiry, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Department, State Department, and Energy Department.
- Wells Fargo, TD Bank turn over Trump financial records to House Dems (Fox News) Wells Fargo and TD Bank have turned over President Trump’s financial records to the House Financial Services Committee, Fox News confirmed on Thursday, amid a contentious legal battle between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats seeking access to sensitive files. NBC News first reported that Wells Fargo turned over a few thousand documents to the committee, and TD Bank provided a handful. The banks are two of the nine financial institutions with which congressional Democrats are seeking cooperation. The push has led to an escalating legal battle on multiple fronts.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in New York ruled that two other banks, Deutsche Bank and Capitol One, were required to comply with congressional subpoenas seeking access to Trump’s financial records.
- Nadler: Mueller wants to testify privately (The Hill) House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D, NY) said special counsel Robert Mueller wants to testify privately about his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Nadler, appearing on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC Thursday night, said he doesn’t know why Mueller wants to testify privately as opposed to publicly.
- Trump lists people he believes committed treason (CNN)
- Julian Assange hit with 18 federal charges in new indictment (CBS News) A federal grand jury has indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on 18 felony charges for his alleged involvement in the 2010 leak of classified documents by Chelsea Manning, the Justice Department announced Thursday. The indictment includes 17 new counts of violations of the Espionage Act, in addition to one charge that had been unsealed after Assange was arrested by in London in April. Each count carries a maximum sentence of between five and 10 years if convicted.
- Independence Pass is Still Not Open (Outside) Independence Pass, part of Colorado State Highway 82, passes over the Continental Divide between Leadville and Aspen, Colorado. It is a classic Colorado drive and the highest paved pass in North America! The summit at the Continental Divide is 12,095 feet above sea level. It is about 32 miles long and takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half with stops along the way to enjoy the scenic views. See map below. Much of the 32 miles is closed for the winter from early October to late-May (usually). This year it is still not open. The snowpack for the area measured in at 183% of the average, and for the first time in a decade, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) will not open the pass by Memorial Day weekend. The highway department is still trying to clear 10-foot deep snow banks and keep getting held up by late season avalanches. See picture of equipment working below the pass summit below. See also Everything You Need to Know about Independence Pass (Aspen Chamber of Commerce).
EU
- Drastically Shorter Workweeks Needed to Fight Climate Crisis, Study Finds (EcoWatch) If people in three European countries want to fight the climate crisis, they need to chill out more. That’s the conclusion of a new study from think tank Autonomy, which found that Germany, the UK and Sweden all needed to drastically reduce their workweeks to fight climate change. See The Ecological Limits of Work: on carbon emissions, carbon budgets and working time (Autonomy).
​UK
- British PM May resigns, paving way for Brexit confrontation with EU (Reuters) ritish Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday said she would quit, triggering a contest that will bring a new leader to power who is likely to push for a more decisive Brexit divorce deal.
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Germany
- Deutsche Bank Death Spiral Hits Historic Low. European Banks Get Re-Hammered (Wolf Street) Deutsche Bank has been subject to years of revelations of shenanigans that span the palette. Once a conservative bank that primarily served its German business clientele in Germany and overseas, it decided to turn itself into a Wall Street high-flyer that caused its shares to skyrocket until May 2007, when it got tangled up in the Financial Crisis that then led to a slew of apparently never-ending hair-raising revelations, settlements with regulators, and huge fines. Since their death-spiral began in May 2007, Deutsche Bank shares have lost over 94% of their value.
India
- Battleground 2019: Lok Sabha Data Hub (The Times of India) Hat tip to Sanjeev Kulkarni. The sweeping nature of the Modi win is evident in this national map of parliamentary seats. NDA captured 64% of the seats, a true landslide. (See first map.) This was an increase from the 2014 elections (second map) where BJP (majority party in NDA) had 52%. The really dramatic change is from 2009 (third map) where BJP was a minor party with only 116 seats (21%).
- Why Narendra Modi’s win is great news for America (Washington Examiner) Narendra Modi’s landslide reelection is good news for America. It means that India will continue its slow but significant movement towards economic modernity and will support the evolving architecture of U.S. global order. While the final results aren’t yet in, it’s clear that Modi has won big. The prime minister’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to secure a majority of around 300 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha Parliament, beating out its closest rival, the Indian National Congress, by a ratio of 6 to 1. That will enable Modi to advance his reforms over the resistance of the INC-led progressive alliance and consolidate India’s footprint as a major global power.
Modi’s reforms have stagnated recently, so we can hope that this new mandate will give him new energy to push through the vested interests and turn India into a dynamic free-market economy.
Nepal
- An American Died on Everest in a Summit Traffic Jam (Outside) On May 22, one of the best weather windows of the season so far opened up on Everest, and more than 200 climbers made their push for the summit of the world’s highest peak. American Don Cash, 55, was one who made it but he didn’t come down alive. After collapsing twice he succumbed while waiting for 2 hours at the top of the Hillary Step, 200 feet below the summit, delayed from decending by heavy upbound traffic which has right-of-way.
This is the third death on Everest this season. A climber from India, Ravi Thakar, died after summiting while at the South Col and Seamus Sean Lawless, of Ireland, disappeared after his summit and is presumed dead from a fall between the Balcony and South Col. There have been 12 deaths across the 8,000-meters mountains during this spring’s climbing period.
China
- China weighs allowing the renminbi to ‘crack 7’ (Financial Times) Will China’s currency “po qi” or “crack seven” – trader talk for the government letting the renminbi depreciate through the 7 to the dollar level in the foreign exchange markets? International currency traders are facing off against the country’s central bank over a decision that is as much psychological as it is strategic as China considers the weapons at its disposal in the growing trade war with the US. China’s central bank exercises firm control over the value of the renminbi. A depreciation of about 8 per cent since June has mostly offset the impact of tariffs that US president Donald Trump imposed last year, prompting traders to speculate that the bank will allow a further slide. To counter the latest tariff increase imposed by Mr Trump on May 5, which raised duties from 10% to 25% on $200bn of goods, the renminbi would need to weaken well past 7 to the dollar. See next article.
- Don’t worry about China selling US bonds – worry about this instead (MoneyWeek) It’s hard to see a path for China to dump its Treasuries that doesn’t end up causing it far more trouble than it’s worth, while leaving the US potentially unscathed. A much bigger deal could be what China decides to do with its currency, the yuan (or renminbi). Ever since 2008, as John Authers points out on Bloomberg, the yuan has remained below the seven per dollar level (up until 1995, it was pegged to the dollar at the much weaker rate of 8.3). That number seven is seen as a line in the sand. If China allows the yuan to weaken to the point where it crosses that line, that will be seen as significant. You can see it as a prelude to another “currency war” – if China allows its currency to weaken, then that would be an effective way of offsetting American tariffs. This would have a huge affect on the rest of the world, first by releasing global defltion which would ultimately be followed by a whipsaw into inflation.
- Trump predicts ‘fast’ trade deal with China but provides no evidence (CNBC)
- “It’s happening, it’s happening fast and I think things probably are going to happen with China fast because I cannot imagine that they can be thrilled with thousands of companies leaving their shores for other places,” Trump said during remarks at the White House, providing no evidence of such an exodus.
- Both countries have blamed each other for the breakdown in talks, which were intended to end trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies marked by tit-for-tat tariffs.
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