August, 2019

• 13 August

  Italy needs a major industrial revamp, economist Tenconi says

  

  Bloomberg The next Italian government needs to get “creative” to fix the country’s stalling economy, according to ADA Economics Ltd. Chief Economist Raffaella Tenconi. Italy’s economy has failed to grow in four out of the last five quarters. While economists predict it will expand again in the second half of the year, gross domestic product is forecast to increase just ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  Fears of Argentina default loom large

  

  Bloomberg Argentina is once again on the cusp of a full-blown financial crisis. In the wake of President Mauricio Macri’s stunning rout in primary elections, investors dumped its stocks, bonds and currency en masse, leaving much of Wall Street wondering whether country was headed for yet another default. The upset, widely seen as a preview of October’s presidential vote, threw ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  London finds no easy answers post once-in-a-decade blackout

  

  Bloomberg When two UK power plants shut down almost simultaneously in London’s first major blackout for a decade, it triggered a storm of questions about how to avoid another failure. As National Grid Plc, the regulator Ofgem and plant operators investigate what happened, last week’s failure underlined the need to bolster an electricity grid increasingly fed by intermittent flows from ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  UK commuter train fares set to rise 3%

  Bloomberg After cancelations, delays and strikes, British train commuters are bracing for another kick in the teeth: fare hikes. Rail users could be looking at an increase of almost 3% in the cost of travel, based on inflation data set to be announced on Wednesday. Last month, a number of services were cancelled because of record temperatures, with many train ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  China-US trade tensions becoming more ominous

  

  Donald Trump sold himself to the American public as an expert deal-maker. At the top of his list was a promised trade bargain with China that would boost US exports and remedy some of the more egregious exa-mples of discrimination against American firms. It isn’t working as planned. To the contrary: The ensuing trade war between the United States and ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  UK firms trapped paying high dividends

  

  Reality is beginning to bite in the FTSE 100 as some high-yielding stocks give up on generous dividends. But many British companies are still continuing to offer jaw-dropping payouts when what investors really crave is growth. The dividend culture of the FTSE 100 has long been an oddity. Its investors have received a far higher proportion of their total returns ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  Bitcoin and gold are two monuments to irrationality

  With worries about a currency war growing and bond yields collapsing, investors have reached for their usual haven of gold. Only this time it has a friend (as my colleague Tim Culpan wrote): Bitcoin. Gold’s dollar price has risen 7 percent this month, Bitcoin’s by 18 percent. This apparent use of the two commodities as companion ports in a storm ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  Christine Lagarde’s biggest problem at ECB is Germany

  Christine Lagarde is still to be confirmed as the European Central Bank’s next president, but work is already piling up on her desk. The euro zone is in danger of becoming the biggest collateral victim of the US-China trade war and Lagarde will need all her political skills to plot an escape route from the threat of recession. The euro ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  In Russia’s summer wildfires, climate change is to blame

  

  Summer wildfires devouring Siberian forests are hardly unusual, but this year’s are a bigger worry than normal because clouds of smoke have reached big cities in the Asian part of Russia and because the authorities have reacted clumsily. The extra attention from the Russian and global media is welcome, even if it’s tinged with unnecessary alarmism: Russia needs to start ...

  Read More »
• 13 August

  China clips Cathay Pacific’s wings over Hong Kong protests

  

  Airlines are fundamental to the self-image of sovereign territories. The largest one in any country is routinely dubbed a ”flag carrier,” as if it was the leader of a naval squadron. No wonder Beijing has it in for Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. China’s civil aviation authority has ordered Cathay to bar air crew who supported Hong Kong’s recent protests from ...

  Read More »