September, 2019

• 11 September

  Iran arrests three Australian citizens

  

  Bloomberg Iran has arrested three Australian citizens, including two with dual British nationality, in what appears to be a stepped-up targeting of foreigners for arrest amid a tense standoff with Western powers over the nuclear deal. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the detentions, but declined to provide further details due to “privacy obligations.” The Times newspaper reported ...

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• 11 September

  The globalisation backlash

  

  The verdict of history is that the trade war that’s now raging between the United States and China will lead to no good — with consequences that could go well beyond trade and threaten the world’s geopolitical and economic stability. How this plays out is anyone’s guess, but we should not pretend that there is no danger in letting the ...

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• 11 September

  Germany’s refugees start to pay off

  

  The tidal wave of asylum seekers that hit Europe in 2015 is often stereotyped as an invasion of poorly qualified migrants destined to be charity cases in the receiving countries. Recent research shows it’s not true. Germany, which welcomed the immigrants and almost immediately regretted it, is likely to end up profiting from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let them ...

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• 11 September

  These billionaires need to negotiate a media deal

  

  Vincent Bollore is developing an unfortunate habit of losing. The French billionaire who controls Vivendi SA emerged bruised from the latest round of his battle with former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Bollore has been trying to block the merger of Berlusconi’s Mediaset SpA with its Spanish subsidiary. Vivendi is the second-biggest investor in Mediaset but Bollore has so far ...

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• 11 September

  Keep your eye on the road, India investor

  India’s plunging auto sales are making investors nervous. Their bigger worry should be the vanishing new roads. The country’s top six automakers reported a 29% decline in August sales. A 45% slump in commercial vehicle sales by Tata Motors Ltd., the No. 1 Indian truck maker, added to the gloom. With GDP growth facing its longest slump since 2012, India ...

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• 11 September

  Berlin’s rent cap is a case of Communist amnesia

  

  The idea of capping rents for five years in Berlin, the city where they have been going up faster than anywhere else in Germany (except much cheaper Leipzig), has always smacked of Communist price controls. Now the Berlin Senate has published a legislative proposal on how a rent ceiling is supposed to work – a clear indication that the leftist ...

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• 11 September

  ECB reaches again for bond-buying bazooka

  

  Last week’s news headlines were dominated by hawks on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) governing council pushing back against the restart of quantitative easing. It’s a sure sign that Mario Draghi, the soon-to-depart ECB president, is readying the bond-buying bazooka once again. He has little choice but to ignore the protests of Germany, France and the Netherlands. As central banks ...

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• 11 September

  Screen size is the new generational divide

  

  The generational divide is described and defined in many different ways, some more empirical than others. Many of these theories are speculative rather than confirmed, so in that spirit I would like to offer my nomination for what is truly the dividing force: screen size. In a nutshell, younger people today are very comfortable with a small screen and older ...

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• 11 September

  US futures drift as stocks in Europe, Asia advance

  

  Bloomberg US stock-index futures drifted, failing to pick up momentum from a broad advance in equities in Europe and Asia after more signs emerged that China will move to lessen the trade war’s repercussions. Oil futures rose with the dollar. Gains in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index came in part from the strong rotation into cyclical sectors that had lagged ...

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• 11 September

  India stocks climb on stimulus plan

  

  Bloomberg Indian stocks rose as investors anticipated more government steps to revive consumer sentiment ahead of the festival season that accounts for a bulk of the nation’s sales. The S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.3 percent to 37,270.82 at the close in Mumbai, advancing for a third consecutive session. The NSE Nifty 50 Index also climbed 0.3 percent. The nation’s financial ...

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