December, 2019

• 10 December

  Zimbabwe deepens power cuts to 24 hrs

  Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s state-owned Zesa Holdings Ltd escalated power cuts to as long as 24 hours after losing regional power imports and local generation capacity remains critically constrained. The power utility has a non-binding agreement to import as much as 400 megawatts of power from South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, which is unable to meet local demand and has implemented ...

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• 10 December

  2020 candidates in US: Be bold, think small!

  

  Being in the midst of a presidential campaign, it’s not surprising that we’re bombarded with proposals for massive new government programs that promise to transform major segments of American life. We’re going to overhaul the health care system with “Medicare for All” or something like it; or we’re going to make college “free” by eliminating tuitions at state schools; or ...

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• 10 December

  ECB is acting against negative rates

  

  Euro zone finance minsters’ are pushing back against the negative rate regime of the European Central Bank (ECB) just as Christine Lagarde takes the reins from Mario Draghi. This is yet another rerun of the battle between the economically strongest (essentially northern) European nations and their weaker partners over who should shoulder the burden for maintaining stability in the euro ...

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• 10 December

  China’s small banks merger plan has now big challenges

  China’s small bank problem may be about to get a lot bigger. The slowing economy is exposing vulnerabilities built up by years of aggressive lending — and Beijing’s plans to preserve stability by merging weak lenders with each other could end up creating an even worse headache. The country’s hundreds of rural commercial and city lenders account for 27% of ...

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• 10 December

  Germany’s political crisis to unfold in slow motion

  A German political crisis isn’t a raging, unstoppable, unpredictable forest fire: It starts with seemingly irreconcilable positions but then evolves into a tedious, detail-focused negotiation and, more often than not, a compromise. That’s the direction things appear to be taking after the election of two determined leftists as co-leaders of the Social Democratic party (SPD), the junior member of Germany’s ...

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• 10 December

  Robots are very bad news for the millennial workers

  

  The rise of populist politicians across the rich world has led to a profound rethinking of the way developed economies work. In particular, the impact of automation on the labour market, and the disappearance of routine manufacturing jobs, has been blamed for the electoral successes of leaders such as US President Donald Trump and Italy’s Matteo Salvini. Yet there are ...

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• 10 December

  Count on Fed to take control of yield curve

  

  Given the proximity to the effective lower bound for interest rates, the Federal Reserve is looking to bolster its policy arsenal ahead of the next recession. Watch for the “bond traders’ nightmare” of adding yield curve control to the Fed’s toolkit to rise to the top of the list as the policy review draws closer to an end. Policy makers ...

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• 10 December

  Facebook just can’t seem to beat the Russians

  

  Social-media companies insist they’re making progress in fighting the manipulation of their platforms. But two researchers, working on an extremely modest budget, have just shown that their defenses are routinely bypassed by an entire manipulation industry, largely based in Russia. In a report for Nato’s Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, Sebastian Bay and Rolf Fredheim described an experiment they ran ...

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• 10 December

  Airbus soars ahead Boeing amid 737 Max uncertainty

  

  Bloomberg Shares of Airbus SE handily pulled ahead of rival Boeing Co. this year after a pair of fatal 737 Max plane crashes led to the grounding of the US model’s entire fleet. Airbus is poised to finish the year ahead of Boeing for the first time since 2015, with an increase of roughly 50% since the start of January, ...

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• 10 December

  Emirates cabin crew named world’s best

  

  DUBAI / Emirates Business Emirates cabin crew has been named World’s Leading Cabin Crew 2019 at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Grand Final Gala Ceremony. The event marked the culmination of the WTA’s annual search for the finest travel and tourism organisations in the world, where winners of its six regional ceremonies compete for the coveted world titles. Emirates also ...

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