June, 2019

• 24 June

  Trade tensions hit German business confidence in June

  

  Bloomberg A slump in German business confidence deepened in June as trade tensions weighed on manufacturers. US-led protectionist thr-eats have clouded the growth outlook in Europe’s largest economy for mon-ths, contributing to a manufacturing slump and bo- osting fears that domestic demand will be undermined. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi last week said he’ll inject fresh monetary stimulus for ...

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• 24 June

  Iceland is getting ready for ‘deeper recession’ in 2019

  Bloomberg Iceland is preparing for a deeper recession this year amid dropping tourism arrivals and a disastrous fishing season, central bank Governor Mar Gudmundsson said. “We are prepared for the possibility of a deeper recession, and the numbers we are getting on tourist arrivals seem to indicate that that may happen,” Gudmundsson said in an interview on the sidelines of ...

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• 24 June

  Senator Bernie Sanders is FDR’s unimaginative echo

  

  That the Democrats’ two evenings of dueling oratory snippets are called “debates” validates Finley Peter Dunne’s prediction that “when we Americans are through with the English language, it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy.” Already a linguistic casualty of the campaign is the noun “socialism.” So, quickly, before Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign ...

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• 24 June

  Central banks don’t need new tricks

  

  The new central-banking toolkit looks a lot like the old one. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi drew President Donald Trump’s ire after remarking that he’s prepared to act forcefully to combat slowing growth and receding inflation. What was remarkable about Draghi’s comments – beyond the fact that Trump even paid attention to them – is how undeterred he ...

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• 24 June

  Pfizer’s cancer-drug deal takes pricey path to growth

  

  Pfizer Inc. is demonstrating once again how expensive it is for pharma firms to buy their way to growth. The company announced that it’s paying almost $11 billion for cancer drugmaker Array Biopharma Inc. The deal would bolster Pfizer’s cancer portfolio and add medicines that could meaningfully augment sales and profit. But the company isn’t getting much of a bargain, ...

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• 24 June

  Boeing is geting a big win, but at what cost?

  Boeing Co. just got a big vote of confidence, but it still has much to prove. The commercial-jet maker announced a surprise order for its 737 Max jet – the first since the top-selling aircraft was involved in two fatal crashes that prompted regulators around the globe to ground it and sparked a full-blown crisis for the company. British Airways ...

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• 24 June

  China’s Lehman moment is drawing much closer

  

  China’s central bank has acknowledged its monetary tools are insufficient. The most powerful ones are proving too blunt to drill through a hardening financial system. The country’s money markets have been shuddering since regulators took over Baoshang Bank Co. last month, despite initial assurances from the central bank and other authorities that they would maintain ample liquidity. While there has ...

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• 24 June

  Amazon lives on the edge, telecoms should tremble

  

  5G networks will allow vast gobs of data to be transmitted at great speeds. And more data usually means more money for mobile carriers like Deutsche Telekom AG and AT&T Inc. But there’s a hitch. Cloud giants such as Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are lurking. The new tech enables ever more computational decision-making to be carried out ...

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• 24 June

  Facebook’s Libra may spark a global currency war

  

  It’s one thing for academics in Asia to rant against the tyranny of the dollar, or to make cheery forecasts about its impending eclipse by the Chinese yuan. But now that Facebook Inc. wants to spawn a new global currency – one that could meet the “daily financial needs of billions of people” and perhaps rival the greenback one day ...

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• 24 June

  Trump says didn’t threaten to demote Fed’s Powell, but could

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump denied that he’d threatened to demote Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell but said he’d “be able to do that if I wanted.” The president repeated his criticism of Powell’s actions as Fed chief in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’m not happy with his actions,” Trump said of Powell. “No, I don’t think he’s ...

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