Early Headlines: Asia Stocks Mixed, Dollar Up, Oil Down, Gold Mixed, Yields Near Flat, Solar Growth, DOJ Criminal Inquiry Into DOJ, Endless Wars, Barr Recuse?, Germany Housing Bubble, Ozone Hole, Plus More - 30 Articles, 11 Graphics

Early Bird Headlines 25 October 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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Key Articles

Global

Asia markets mixed as investors search for guidance on trade and Brexit (CNBC) Asia markets traded mixed on Friday as investors searched for guidance on developments in the U.S.-China trade war and in the U.K.’s planned departure from the European Union. Chinese mainland markets erased early losses to climb in the afternoon. The dollar index traded at 97.675, about 0.05% higher than its previous close. Oil prices declined Friday during Asian hours: Global benchmark Brent fell 0.16% to $61.57 per barrel while U.S. crude futures were also down 0.27% at $56.08. Spot gold hit its highest since Oct. 10 at $1,504.35, but was down slightly by 0312 GMT, at $1,501.70 per ounce. The metal has gained 0.8% this week, heading for its biggest weekly gain since the week ended Aug. 20. U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,505 per ounce. U.S. Treasuries were nearly flat with yields very slightly higher.

Distributed solar to drive global renewable growth 50% by 2024: IEA (Utility Dive)

Renewable energy’s share of global power generation will rise from 26% today to 30% in 2024, according to new data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Solar generation will make up almost 60% of renewables growth, with onshore wind representing 25%. Offshore wind remains nascent and is projected to contribute 4%, but its capacity is forecast to triple by 2024.
Total solar capacity is expected to grow 250% over IEA’s forecast period, reaching almost 1.2 TW in 2024 with distributed solar projected to make up almost half of that growth. Despite the anticipated increase, the agency said renewables projections remain “well below what is needed to meet global sustainable energy targets.”

U.S.

Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry Into Its Own Russia Investigation (The New York Times) For more than two years, President Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russia investigation, portraying it as a hoax and illegal even months after the special counsel closed it. Now, Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into how it all began.

Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to convene a grand jury and to file criminal charges.
The opening of a criminal investigation is likely to raise alarms that Mr. Trump is using the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies.

Impeachment inquiry might be public by mid-November: report (The Hill) House Democrats might make their impeachment inquiry public as early as mid-November, according to The Washington Post. The committees conducting the inquiry have largely held the hearings in private thus far to prevent witnesses from coordinating testimony, but some Democrats are now pushing to make the hearings public after Republicans – many of them not on the committees – stormed the hearing room Wednesday and delayed the proceedings for several hours.

During the public portion of the inquiry, Democrats hope to question William Taylor, the head of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, and former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. They have already questioned both in private.

Despite Vow to End ‘Endless Wars,’ Here’s Where About 200,000 Troops Remain (New York Times) Under President Trump, there are now more troops in the Middle East than when he took office, and he has continued the mission for tens of thousands of others far from the wars of 9/11. Here is the list (globally):

Afghanistan: 12,000 to 13,000
Syria: About 200
Iraq: About 6,000
Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations: 45,000 to 65,000
Africa: 6,000 to 7,000
Japan and South Korea: About 78,000
NATO nations: More than 35,000
Elsewhere: More than 2,000

Why Trump’s Impeachment Might Be Different Than Clinton’s (FiveThirtyEight) Public opinion is much different now regarding a Trump impeachment that it ever was for Bill Clinton.

Jim Mattis statement blasts aide’s tell-all memoir (Politico) Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ office slammed a memoir by one of his former Pentagon aides today, issuing a statement saying that he doesn’t plan on reading the book and attacking its author for writing it. But the statement didn’t deny any of the book’s claims. The book by retired Navy Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, “Holding the Line: Inside Trump’s Pentagon with Secretary Mattis.” The book portrays Mattis fending off capricious demands from Trump and voicing private fears that the president was weakening U.S. national security. Gen. Mattis is pictured below. The statement from Mattis’ assistant, Candace Currier, says:

“Mr. Snodgrass was a junior staffer who took notes in some meetings but played no role in decision making. His choice to write a book reveals an absence of character. [S]urreptitiously taking notes without authorization for a self-promoting personal project is a clear violation of that trust. [Snodgrass] may receive a few brief moments of attention for this book. But those moments will be greatly outweighed by the fact that to get them, he surrendered his honor.”

William Barr must recuse himself from Ukraine probe, New York City Bar Association says (Fox News) The New York City Bar Association is demanding that U.S. Attorney General William Barr recuse himself from the Department of Justice probe into the Trump-Ukraine phone call that is central to the impeachment inquiry against the president, citing potential conflicts of interest. The bar also suggested that Barr be forced to resign, face sanctions, or be removed from Congress if he doesn’t recuse himself from the probe.
White House Personnel Director Tells Trump Top DHS Picks Are Ineligible (The Wall Street Journal) The White House personnel office chief has told President Trump that his top two picks to fill the Homeland Security secretary job aren’t eligible under a federal law dictating who can fill the role without Senate confirmation, people familiar with the matter said. The problem has arisen because of the rapid turnover of top-level personel rsulting in many possiblecandidates being very short-term, temporary appointees, and not having been previously approved by the Senate. See also Trump Running Out of Options for Homeland Security Secretary (The New York Times). Pictured below is Thomas Cuccinelli, former Attorney General of Virginia and acting director of the agency overseeing legal immigration, who is one Trump’s top picks and is ineligible.

Final State Department Review Finds No Wrongdoing Regarding Clinton Emails (Outside the Beltway) In what is likely to be the final statement on the matter, an internal State Department report has found no deliberate wrongdoing in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in office:

A multiyear State Department probe of emails that were sent to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s private computer server concluded there was no systemic or deliberate mishandling of classified information by department employees, according to a report submitted to Congress this month.
The report appears to represent a final and anticlimactic chapter in a controversy that overshadowed the 2016 presidential campaign and exposed Clinton to fierce criticism that she later cited as a major factor in her loss to President Trump.
In the end, State Department investigators found 38 current or former employees “culpable” of violating security procedures – none involving material that had been marked classified – in a review of roughly 33,000 emails that had been sent to or from the personal computer system Clinton used.
Overall, investigators said, “there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.” The report cited “instances of classified information being inappropriately” transmitted, but noted that the vast majority of those scrutinized “were aware of security policies and did their best to implement them.”
The release comes as Trump continues to raise the Clinton email issue to attack Democrats, even as new evidence has emerged of apparent security lapses by senior officials in his own administration.

Germany

German House Bubble Keeps Inflating (Twitter) This is happening as Germany appears to be going into an economic slowdown, possibly a recession.

Syria

Poll: Little backing for Trump’s Syria withdrawal (Politico) Econintersect: The use of the word “little” is questionable: Only 37% of voters support Trump’s decision regarding Syria, the poll shows, less than the 43% who oppose it. But a sizable number, 20%, say they don’t have an opinion about Trump’s decision.

China