September, 2019

• 9 September

  China auto sales drop for 14th time in 15 months

  

  Bloomberg Chinese auto sales fell for the 14th time in 15 months, extending what’s already been a historically prolonged slump in the world’s largest car market. Sales of sedans, sport utility vehicles, minivans and multipurpose vehicles in August fell 9.9 percent from a year earlier to 1.59 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said. Automakers reeling from the industry’s ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Yoga guru firm gets court nod to buy out India’s Ruchi Soya

  Bloomberg India’s company court approved a bid by a group of firms controlled by yoga guru Baba Ramdev to take over cooking oil and soya-products maker Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd for 43.5 billion rupees ($606 million). Patanjali Consortium Adhigrahan Pvt — a venture by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd and three other companies — will merge with Ruchi Soya, according to a ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Hong Kong’s tourism drops 40%, most since SARS crisis

  

  Bloomberg The ongoing protests in Hong Kong, now in their 15th week, have delivered a blow to the city’s tourism industry not seen since the 2003 SARS epidemic. Tourist arrivals in the city declined almost 40 percent in August from a year earlier, Financial Secretary Paul Chan wrote in a blog post. That’s the biggest year-on-year decrease in visitor numbers ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Investors in India rush to gold ETFs

  

  Bloomberg Gold exchange-traded funds in India saw the highest inflows in more than six years as investors poured in money seeking safe havens amid record high domestic prices and a slowdown in the economy. Net inflows in August rose to $20 million, the highest since December 2012, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India. It was ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  UK’s Dalton Capital shuts Japan office

  Bloomberg Dalton Capital Japan, a subsidiary of Dalton Strategic Partnership LLP, said it will shut its Tokyo office, citing Brexit and shrinking demand from European investors. “As we expect the business environment to toughen due to Brexit and given dwindling appetite in Japanese equities from European investors, operations will be consolidated with Dalton Strategic Partnership in London,” the asset manager ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Why America is losing the information war to Russia

  

  Richard Stengel, a former Time editor who became the State Department’s undersecretary for public diplomacy, writes that he was once an information “idealist.” He believed that in the marketplace of ideas, the truth would ultimately prevail. Not anymore. “I think we all now know that this is a pipe dream,” writes Stengel in a disturbing memoir of his three years ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Time to unlock Brexit relief fund

  

  If the UK parliament can’t clean up the Brexit mess, it might be time for Europe to start spending instead. The economic impact of a worst-case no-deal Brexit on the rest of the European Union is estimated to amount to $250 billion by 2030, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Back in 2017, Ireland suggested that was a good ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Walmart’s move on guns could have a big impact

  

  Days after a mass shooting at one of Walmart Inc.’s stores in El Paso last month, the nation’s largest retailer offered a cautious and decorous response. CEO Doug McMillon offered prayers for the families of those affected and pledged the company would be “thoughtful” about how it responded. Now, a month later, the CEO’s thoughts have morphed into company policy ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Treasury bond yields have yet to see a bottom

  As the 1970s came to a close, I sensed that double-digit rates of inflation were about to turn to disinflation, or smaller and smaller overall price increases. Given the close correlation between inflation and yields on US Treasury securities, I forecast in 1981 a dramatic decline in the 30-year yield from what was then 14.7% to 3% and stated, “We’re ...

  Read More »
• 9 September

  Here’s a realistic plan to jumpstart US growth

  

  Two MIT economists have come out with a big, bold plan for reviving US economic growth. Done right, it just might work. Slowing growth creates a lot of problems. It engenders despair by making people less likely to be richer than their parents. It might exacerbate wealth inequality. It creates a zero-sum world where people must fight over a smaller ...

  Read More »