June, 2019

• 1 June

  Trump’s reunion with May caps allies’ dwindling ties

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s meetings in the UK with Prime Minister Theresa May next week likely will end the leaders’ relationship the same way it began: with awkward attempts to overcome a lack of personal chemistry. May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after he was sworn in as president. He’ll become the last foreign leader to visit ...

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• 1 June

  Anti-junta leader warns of protest

  

  Bloomberg His party took third place in Thailand’s disputed national elections, now Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a staunch critic of the junta, sees protesters returning to the streets if the military establishment escalates its campaign against the country’s opposition. A tycoon-turned-politician, Thanathorn invigorated millions with his pledge to restore democracy to Thailand after launching the Future Forward party just a year ago. ...

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• 1 June

  Argentina’s opposition leader pledges no default

  Bloomberg Argentine opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez said he won’t lead the country into default if he wins the presidential election in October, seeking to reassure investors who fear a new government might renege on its borrowings. “What we can guarantee is that we aren’t going to fall into a new default. I received an Argentina in default. I don’t want ...

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• 1 June

  Will China dump dollars?

  

  At last count, China held slightly more than $1 trillion in US Treasury securities. One fear has been that, should China and the United States engage in an economic war — as they clearly are now — those dollars could become a weapon against us. The Chinese would sell dollars in foreign exchange markets, raising US interest rates and perhaps ...

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• 1 June

  The race for virtual bank accounts

  

  China’s tech giants have upended the country’s payments system and promise to shake up its consumer-banking sector. The rest of the region won’t be so easy. Asia is quickly becoming next battlefront for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Ant Financial and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat Pay, after both secured licenses to set up online-only banks in Hong Kong this month. Singapore’s ...

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• 1 June

  Arming teachers won’t lead to safer schools

  Florida this month became the latest state to allow teachers to carry guns at school — even though there is no evidence to suggest this can reduce school violence, and ample reason to fear the unintended consequences. The new law coincides with the release of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most recent report on active shooters — the armed and ...

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• 1 June

  The few lessons from Europe’s elections

  It’s hazardous to see elections to the European Parliament as a barometer of European Union politics. Turnout was higher than in previous EU elections, but still only about 50%; voters in many countries aren’t sure what the parliament does; national anxieties predominate. In many ways, ballots have just been cast in 28 separate national elections, rather than in a single ...

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• 1 June

  Putin’s Arctic plans are a climate change bet

  

  Last weekend, Russia launched the last of a new crew of atomic icebreakers meant to consolidate the country’s dominance of commercial traffic in the Arctic. As much of the rest of the world recognises climate change as an emergency, Russia is working hard to capitalize on it — and the US appears to be far behind. The icebreaker Ural, launched ...

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• 1 June

  Alibaba’s Hong Kong IPO is a brilliant idea

  

  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s potential plan to raise $20 billion in Hong Kong is huge. That’s not just because $20 billion is a lot of money. After going public in New York, the Chinese e-commerce giant is considering a secondary listing in Hong Kong, Bloomberg News reported– a coup for the city that’s still sore from missing out on the ...

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• 1 June

  PM Modi, resist the urge to be India’s Xi Jinping

  

  At the time of his first bid to become India’s prime minister five years ago, Narendra Modi was seen by many in Mumbai as a reformer rising to slay crony capitalism, corruption and policy paralysis. It was the bureaucracy in New Delhi that had misgivings about the then chief minister of Gujarat state, known for his highly centralized style of ...

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