March, 2016

• 28 March

  Fed’s Williams sees ‘huge impact’ on USA from China, Brazil

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said the global economy, particularly China and Brazil, was having a significant impact on measures that U.S. policy makers watch to determine interest rates. The world’s largest economy is doing “quite well,” Williams said on Monday in an interview on CNBC, citing stable inflation and strong employment growth. The U.S. ...

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• 28 March

  Brazilians scrimp and save in unwelcome surprise for investors

  

  Bloomberg Mariele Santarosa limits her social outings and shopping now that business at her Sao Paulo dental practice has dropped 80 percent in a year, a victim of Brazil’s longest recession in at least a century. “Many people lost their jobs and go to the dentist only when in pain,” said Santarosa, 35, who spent a recent Saturday morning browsing ...

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• 28 March

  After Brussels, spies debate security risks of Brexit

  

  BRUSSELS / AFP The Brussels attacks have pushed security to the forefront of Britain’s EU referendum campaign this week, as intelligence experts came out of the shadows to press the benefits and disadvantages of membership. A claim by the former head of foreign spy agency MI6, Richard Dearlove, that leaving the bloc would have few security implications sparked interventions from ...

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• 28 March

  Police raids expand to Italy, Netherlands after terror attacks

  

  Bloomberg Terrorism probes advanced across Europe in the wake of last week’s deadly bombings in Brussels, with suspects arrested in Italy and the Netherlands, and Belgium carrying out police raids in several areas. Belgian prosecutors said late Sunday that an Algerian man being held in Italy is suspected of participating in a ring that produced falsified documents for some of ...

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• 28 March

  Rousseff faces threat of coalition implosion

  

  Rio De Janeiro / AFP Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff could see her coalition disintegrate this week amid a political crisis that threatens to topple her government, as a congressional committee ponders impeachment proceedings against her. Already the Brazilian bar association was expected to file a new request on Monday to Congress for her impeachment. But Rousseff’s real troubles begin on ...

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• 28 March

  Strong winds bring outages, traffic chaos to France, UK

  Paris / AFP Tens of thousands of homes were without power in northwestern France early on Monday after the region was pounded overnight by winds gusting to hurricane force that also triggered flight cancellations and outages in southern England. Seven counties, in Normandy and Brittany were placed on “orange” alert, the second highest in Meteo-France’s three-stage warning system. At least ...

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• 28 March

  S Korea, Japan guarded over Trump’s foreign policy plans

  

  Seoul / AFP South Korea and Japan offered muted reactions on Monday to Donald Trump’s suggestion that, as president, he would withdraw troops from both countries and allow them to develop their own nuclear arsenal. There are nearly 30,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea and 47,000 in Japan, with little appetite for nuclear weapons in either nation. Asked ...

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• 28 March

  Why the future will disappoint

  

  Presidential campaigns incite both hypochondria and euphoria, portraying the present as grimmer than it is and the future as grander than it can be. As an antidote to both, read a rarity, an academic’s thick book (762 pages) widely recognized as relevant to America’s current discontents. Robert Gordon’s “The Rise and Fall of American Growth” argues that an unprecedented and ...

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• 28 March

  Long-term planning vital to develop sustainable cities

  Urbanization is posing huge challenges to city planners across the world and these challenges are going to multiply, if the goal of improving quality of life is given a short shrift. Lack of vision and working with myopia will only aggravate the existing woes that urbanites are facing today. Estimates indicate that 70% of the global population will be urban ...

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• 28 March

  Australia and the Brussels attacks

  Edward Cavanough SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The attacks in Brussels last Tuesday that left 35 dead and hundreds wounded have rightly shocked Australians and stoked global condemnation. But what are the consequences, if any, of this appalling act for the Australian public and government? It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that a similar style attack in Australia is “probable,” according to ...

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