July, 2019

• 2 July

  Iraq moves to curtail power of Iran-allied militias

  

  Bloomberg Iraq moved to curtail the power of Iran-backed militias by putting them under the formal command of the military, in an apparent attempt to limit the country’s exposure to an escalating showdown between the Islamic Republic and the US. The Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of militias founded to fight IS militants, are now “an inseparable part” of ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Contenders to lead Britain clash over parliament, Brexit and trust

  

  Bloomberg Jeremy Hunt said he would “100% not” suspend parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit, drawing a dividing line with Boris Johnson as the two men entered the last days of campaigning before Tory activists start voting for the UK’s next prime minister. Hunt’s commitment — a direct challenge to Johnson — helped win the backing of former Foreign ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Duterte’s son may join race for Philippine House Speaker

  

  Bloomberg President Rodrigo Duterte’s eldest child Paolo Duterte said he may join the race to head the Philippines’ House of Representatives. “The House is divided. I might be able to help unite it,” Paolo, first district representative in Davao, said in a statement released on Facebook. The president’s son and former Davao vice mayor is proposing that three lawmakers from ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  G-20 nations need radical reforms to revive growth

  

  While any global meeting that involves Donald Trump has the capacity to surprise, one thing was virtually certain about the weekend’s G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan: The gathered leaders issued a pious call to work together to shore up growth, trade and the global financial system. The challenge they face is much bigger than that, however. And good intentions aren’t ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Happy days for Europe bond sellers

  

  Sellers of euro-denominated corporate bo-nds had their best fund-raising month for three years in June, topping off their best six months since 2012. Some 210 billion euros ($238 billion) in new company debt was snaffled up by investors between January and June, 21 percent higher than the same period last year. Conditions are rarely better than this for company borrowers ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  The Fed should keep its tools in their place

  For the past year and a half, the US Federal Reserve has been paring down the multi-trillion-dollar portfolio of securities it purchased to support the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Now, Chairman Jerome Powell has suggested that the Fed might end this “quantitative tightening.” I think that would be a bad idea. When the Fed announced its last monetary-policy ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Don’t give Donald Trump too much credit for a trade truce

  Relief that Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping came to a trade truce will likely be short-lived. That’s because the two men have less command over the forces shaping global commerce than they might like to think. The decline of trade and manufacturing began in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, long before either leader came to power or ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Jobs growth suggests US may already be in recession

  

  Employment is no doubt the best indicator of the recession I’ve been forecasting. The recent deceleration in US jobs growth suggest that the business downturn may already be underway. In terms of timeliness, payroll employment is superior among major economic statistics since it is monthly, not quarterly, and reported early, generally on first Friday of the month for data covering ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Hong Kong protests feed a toxic brew for global luxury sales

  

  The protests in Hong Kong have, rightly, captured the world’s attention. If the demonstrations provoke no small amount of anxiety for onlookers living abroad, the strain on the city and its residents is surely acute. With streets getting closed and travel disrupted, businesses there will inevitably feel an effect. The world’s most famous luxury goods brands will not be immune. ...

  Read More »
• 2 July

  Breaking up Facebook would make things worse

  

  The calls to break up Facebook — or at least to consider it — are growing louder by the day. On the left, Elizabeth Warren got on the antitrust bandwagon early with a plan for dismantling the company and other tech giants, while on the right Republican Senator Josh Hawley has mused, “Maybe we’d be better off if Facebook disappeared.” ...

  Read More »