August, 2019

• 19 August

  Russian MPs look for foreign hand in protests

  

  Bloomberg Leaders of Russia’s lower house of parliament met to discuss alleged foreign meddling in the country’s affairs including in elections, amid the biggest wave of protests in Moscow in seven years. The council of the State Duma, comprising party leaders and top officials, held a special session to create a commission to investigate “the facts of possible interference in ...

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• 19 August

  Spain accuses Italy of breaking ‘migrant rules’

  

  Bloomberg Spain accused Italy of breaking international rules with its failure to allow a ship carrying 107 migrants to dock at an Italian port. Italy “is keeping its ports closed in breach of all the rules,” acting Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said in an interview with Cadena Ser radio. “We are talking about people, about laws that everyone has ...

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• 19 August

  China compares HK democrats to Mao-era ‘Gang of Four’

  

  Bloomberg Four senior Hong Kong democrats have found themselves labeled by Chinese state media as a new “Gang of Four,” as Beijing seeks to assign blame for the largely leaderless protest movement rocking the city. A string of state media editorials have compared the long-time opposition figures — including former Chief Secretary Anson Chan, former Democratic Party chief Albert Ho, ...

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• 19 August

  Hong Kong protests: Beware of ‘moral hazard’

  

  Watching videos of Chinese protestors singing the US national anthem in the streets of Hong Kong, or hearing the tear-jerking chorus of “Les Miserables” during a sit-in at the Hong Kong airport, only someone with a heart of stone wouldn’t want to assist these brave people who are fighting for their freedom. But beware. The problem is that easy gestures ...

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• 19 August

  Walmart finds consumer is still confident

  

  A day after a stock market rout driven by recession fears, Walmart Inc. issued a second-quarter earnings report that should provide at least a sliver of solace: Consumers have been out in force spending at its big-box stores. The mega-retailer reported that US comparable sales rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier in the quarter. That growth looks especially robust ...

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• 19 August

  The Treasury bond rush won’t end well

  Many nations in recent years are trying to wall themselves off from the rest of the world, but financial markets are immune: Money is moving freely, showing financial markets at least remain as intertwined as ever. In Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas, yield curves are inverting simultaneously. Investors, fearing that the protectionist nations will be successful against globalisation, are ...

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• 19 August

  The pace of technological progress may be slowing

  Shouldn’t we have space colonies by now? Instead there are signs that the pace of technological progress is slowing — even as researchers pump out papers at a prolific and increasing rate. With slowing progress in computing power, medicine and agriculture, my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Noah Smith warns that the stakes could not be higher. Surely some of the fault ...

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• 19 August

  Boris Johnson is not the most important Brexiter

  

  In the highly entertaining Channel 4 drama about the 2016 referendum campaign “Brexit: The Uncivil War,” Benedict Cumberbatch, playing the mastermind of the Vote Leave campaign, is sometimes found crouched in the narrow pantry where he retreats to think. It’s not hard to picture the real Dominic Cummings doing just that. Cummings is no mere political curiosity. Though unelected and ...

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• 19 August

  Aston Martin needs James Bond armour

  

  The company behind Aston Martin should take the plunge and raise some equity while it can. Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc doesn’t need the money immediately. But the historic sportscar maker may in the future, and it would be better to secure the cushion now before its window of opportunity shuts entirely. The brief 21 percent share price fall ...

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• 19 August

  WeWork takes startup-mania era to its logical extreme

  

  I confided to a colleague that the WeWork Cos IPO filing reminded me of a lower-stakes Mueller report. Truly. It was good for WeWork, as it was for President Donald Trump, that the public had a chance over years to process in small doses the wild events described in those very different tomes. Without the history of WeWork reporting from ...

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