December, 2019

• 9 December

  Climate change hangs over China’s embrace of markets

  

  For all the good intentions of the governments gathered in Madrid, a humbling reality hangs over the latest climate change conference. The effectiveness of what is agreed and done will ultimately stand or fall on the actions of just one country: China. It was the rise of China and to a lesser extent India, with their associated energy demands, that ...

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• 9 December

  It’s not easy being a green oil firm

  

  The oil industry knows the dirty business of extracting fossil fuels is likely to gush cash for the foreseeable future. But it also knows it needs to be a central part of the solution to the climate crisis. Trying to keep both ideas in mind, Repsol SA made an eye-catching commitment: to become carbon neutral by 2050. Unfortunately, achieving that ...

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• 9 December

  Uber’s assault report erodes power of trust

  What to make of the alarming data on assaults, murders and other unsafe incidents reported by Uber Technologies Inc.? More than 3,000 assault allegations were made in 2018 by Uber drivers and passengers in the US, the company said in a first-of-its-kind safety report. We can’t know from the data if Uber is statistically safer than other forms of transportation, ...

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• 9 December

  Singapore keeps building until buyers are coming

  You’ll build and they’ll come? Well, don’t bet on it. That’s what Singapore’s authorities seem to be telling property developers, who are flooding the market with new homes. The builders themselves are getting nervous about the glut. But everyone — the prospective homeowner, the seller and the government — is actually lucky. A minor bubble got pricked in time, with ...

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• 9 December

  The US economy keeps defying recession odds

  

  It’s impressive how well the US economy has held up during the past year. As early as 2018, leading indicators were suggesting a heightened risk of recession in 2019 or 2020. Then early this year the yield curve inverted, a traditional signal that recession is imminent (the inversion has since reversed, but this typically happens before growth actually goes negative). ...

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• 9 December

  Time to stop taking investors hostage

  

  More than three years after the Brexit referendum left investors with $23 billion trapped in seven UK real estate funds, holders of another property portfolio have discovered that when their right to daily redemptions meets the reality of hard-to-sell assets, their money can become a hostage to illiquidity. M&G Plc last week said it’s freezing a 2.5 billion-pound ($3.3 billion) ...

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• 9 December

  The case for QE in India is getting stronger

  

  With India’s nominal GDP growing at its slowest pace in 17 years, it’s a given that the central bank will cut interest rates again. What’s the point, though? Commercial bank lending rates have turned immune to monetary policy, so much so that a sixth reduction this year in the benchmark price of money will make hardly any difference. The only ...

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• 9 December

  Troubled Hong Kong Airlines given reprieve by regulator

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong Airlines Ltd. averted becoming the first carrier to collapse in the city in more than a decade after the local licensing authority said it won’t take further action against the embattled company on certain conditions. To keep its license, the airline must ensure it has a cash injection at a level determined by Air Transport Licensing Authority, ...

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• 9 December

  Airbus needs to step up jetliner deliveries to meet annual target

  

  Bloomberg Airbus SE needs to almost double jetliner deliveries next month to meet its target for full-year handovers, setting up a race to accelerate production over coming weeks. The European planemaker has handed over 77 planes in November, the same number as in October, according to a statement. That leaves the company 135 aircraft shy of its 12-month target of ...

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• 9 December

  Boeing 737 Max flying worldwide in early 2020, says WestJet CEO

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co.’s 737 Max could be cleared to fly by early February in Canada as regulators work with their counterparts in the US and Europe to re-certify the grounded jet, according to head of Canada’s second-biggest airline. Regulators are on track to lift the flying ban worldwide early in 2020, Ed Sims, chief executive officer of WestJet Airlines Ltd., ...

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