March, 2017

• 11 March

  Why economists can’t forecast!

  

    You knew it all along: Economists can’t forecast the economy worth a hoot. And now we have a scholarly study that confirms it. Better yet, the corroboration comes from an impeccable source: the Federal Reserve. The study compared predictions of important economic indicators — unemployment, inflation, interest rates, gross domestic product — with the actual outcomes. There were widespread …

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• 11 March

  The misunderstanding at the core of economics

  

    The economist Kenneth Arrow, who died last month at age 95, was a model academic — brilliant, creative, precise, unfailingly modest. If only his fellow economists would stop misrepresenting his work. In the 1950s, Arrow and others proved a theorem that, many economists believe, put a rigorous mathematical foundation beneath Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible hand. The theorem …

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• 11 March

  Trump’s reckless plan to starve NOAA

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is just one of many federal agencies marked for drastic funding reductions to enable a big boost in military spending. But the cuts proposed for America’s center of weather and climate research reveal alarming pitfalls in President Donald Trump’s approach to budgeting: a reluctance to invest in the future, a disregard for …

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• 11 March

  South Korea must build stability after Park’s fall

    At last, what South Koreans accomplished was least expected. The country’s Constitutional Court removed President Park Geun-hye from office in a unanimous 8 to 0 decision. The court’s decision marked the most stunning downfall for the South Korea’s first female leader. The ruling allows possible criminal proceedings against 65-year-old Park and makes her country’s first democratically elected leader to …

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• 11 March

  Engie seeks to sell stake in India’s biggest LNG importer

  

    Bloomberg France’s Engie SA plans to sell its entire 10 percent holding in India’s biggest importer of liquefied natural gas. GDF International, an Engie unit, has written to the four Indian state-owned companies that together own half of Petronet LNG Ltd. to offer shares in proportion to their holding in the company, Petronet said in a stock-exchange filing. “It …

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• 11 March

  German developers seek additional sites for US wind farms

    Bloomberg German developer PNE Wind AG and Norway’s Statoil ASA are asking the US government to open additional sites for offshore wind farms off the coasts of New York and Massachusetts. The sites south of Long Island, New York, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, are near existing areas already designated for offshore development, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management …

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• 11 March

  Canada oil dependence on US loosens in Trump era

  

    Bloomberg The Canadian oil patch’s half-century bond to the US market is loosening one tanker load at a time in Donald Trump’s “America First” era. Last month, a ship loaded oil off Newfoundland and set sail on a 10,000-plus nautical mile, or 18,500 kilometer, journey to China, following on the heels of an oil-sands cargo shipped from the US …

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• 11 March

  Tesla completes Hawaii solar project

  

    Bloomberg Tesla Inc. has completed a solar project in Hawaii that incorporates batteries to sell power in the evening, part of a push by the electric car maker to provide more green power to the grid. The Kapaia installation includes a 13-megawatt solar system and 52 megawatt-hours of batteries that can store energy during the day and dispatch it …

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• 11 March

  Oil caps worst week since November as US supply glut expands

  

    Bloomberg Oil capped the biggest weekly loss since November after surging US supplies erased three months of gains that followed OPEC’s deal to cut output. Futures tumbled 9.1 percent this week in New York. For a second day, they closed below the settlement on November 29, the day before OPEC agreed to the curbs. US crude stockpiles have expanded …

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• 11 March

  US threats push China SUV maker to review Mexico site

  

    Bloomberg China’s biggest SUV maker is reconsidering its plan to build an auto plant in Mexico that would have made its best-selling vehicles for the US market, joining a growing list of global automakers reviewing investment plans after tax threats by President Donald Trump. Great Wall Motor Co., led by billionaire Chairman Wei Jianjun, may choose the US instead …

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