July, 2019

• 8 July

  Russian nuke submarine’s crew prevented ‘planetary catastrophe’

  

  Bloomberg The 14 sailors who died during a fire on a nuclear-powered Russian military submarine prevented a “planetary catastrophe,” a top naval officer said at their funeral, according to media reports. Captain Sergei Pavlov, an aide to the commander of Russia’s navy, praised the heroism of the men, who died as they battled to stop the fire from spreading in ...

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• 8 July

  Tories deploy new tool to prevent no-deal Brexit

  

  Bloomberg British Conservatives plotting to thwart a no-deal Brexit will make another attempt this week to stop the next prime minister from forcing a chaotic break with the European Union without parliament’s consent. Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, a veteran anti-Brexit rebel in the Conservative Party, plans to amend a bill going to parliament. He wants to ensure the House ...

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• 8 July

  China learns an iron law of the prices in markets

  

  China’s steelmakers have had enough of the squeeze. The government needs to “maintain normal iron-ore market order” and push prices back to “reasonable levels” Qu Xiuli, vice chairwoman of the China Iron & Steel Association, or CISA, told a conference in Shanghai. It’s not hard to understand the frustration. Iron-ore costs in June amounted to about a third of the ...

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• 8 July

  The true price of electric cars

  

  Most people will be happy to see the back of the combustion engine. Cleaner air and less dependence on oil are good reasons to look forward to the mass adoption of electric cars. But for the 3 million or so Europeans working in the auto industry, the transition to the new technology is a source of great anxiety. While the ...

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• 8 July

  A leaner Deutsche Bank may not be fitter in Asia

  It makes sense for investment banks to cut businesses where they’re too small to be competitive and staying in is costly. So Deutsche Bank AG’s exit from equities trading is overdue. That doesn’t mean life is going to get any easier, in Asia at least. The German lender is counting on its strength in fixed-income and currencies trading to pivot ...

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• 8 July

  Asset managers calling for planet-friendliness

  Asset managers are increasingly using their financial clout to persuade companies to be friendlier to the planet, wielding a combination of the stick of disinvestment and the carrot of engagement. But can the financial world do more to ensure countries and their central banks are also meeting their environmental, social and governance responsibilities? Travel platform from AtoB.com scrutinised the 2018 ...

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• 8 July

  Trump’s latest picks may be what the Fed needs

  

  Before I offer thoughts on President Donald Trump’s latest two nominees to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors and the challenges they face, some full disclosures are in order. I interviewed for one of the open governor positions at the White House in late May. I have an unconventional background for a Fed governor as I don’t have a Ph.D. ...

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• 8 July

  Hong Kong’s property bubble is protest-proof

  

  It will take more than a few protests to cool Hong Kong’s real estate market. The latest round of social unrest has homeowners worried that the local economy, especially the property sector, will suffer. In fact, the market is only going to get hotter — if it can weather the current round of chaos. The city has been in turbulence ...

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• 8 July

  How India’s water ends up everywhere but India

  

  As a child in 1943, the Indian economist Amartya Sen watched one of the worst famines of the 20th century sweep through his native Bengal. Contrary to the popular image, the disaster didn’t manifest as a widespread shortage of food, he later wrote. The middle classes hadn’t “experienced the slightest problem during the entire famine,” which primarily affected ”landless rural ...

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• 8 July

  US stocks fall as Treasuries, dollar advance; gold retreats

  

  Bloomberg At the start of a week stuffed with central-bank activity, US equities fell and European stocks drifted following steep share declines in Asia. Treasuries advanced as investors greeted on Monday in a cautious mood. The S&P 500 fell for a second day after the blow-out jobs report altered market calculus for Federal Reserve rate cuts, though equities came off ...

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