May, 2019

• 19 May

  Yes, bank on things being worse than they look

  It’s no secret that India’s banking regulator hates having its officials sit on the boards of state-run lenders. The practice exposes the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to all kinds of potential conflicts it would rather avoid. So when the RBI used its special powers to appoint a former deputy governor as a director of Yes Bank Ltd., a non-state ...

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• 19 May

  How the European Union can succeed on migration

  Start with the good news: Some 150,000 migrants sought to enter Europe illegally last year. That represents a 92% drop since 2015. The number of people seeking asylum in 2018 was 646,000, less than half of what it was three years ago. In numerical terms, Europe’s migration crisis is over. Politically, the issue remains as divisive as ever. Ahead of ...

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• 19 May

  The world’s last coal plant will soon be built

  

  Fossil-fuel advocates have a favorite rejoinder to those who predict a global shift to renewable energy: Coal has never been more popular. It’s a decent argument because it happens to be true. While coal-fired power has declined by nearly a quarter in Europe and almost 40 percent in North America over the past decade, the change has been overwhelmed by ...

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• 19 May

  WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption gimmick

  

  The discovery that hackers could snoop on WhatsApp should alert users of supposedly secure messaging apps to an uncomfortable truth: “End-to-end encryption” sounds nice — but if anyone can get into your phone’s operating system, they will be able to read your messages without having to decrypt them. According to a report in the Financial Times, the spyware that exploited ...

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• 19 May

  Boeing’s 737 Max woes make it trade-war pawn

  

  Boeing Co.’s 737 Max woes make it a prime target for China’s trade-war retaliations. China, responding to increased tariffs imposed by the US, said that it will boost levies on nearly 2,500 American products to 25%, while several thousand other items will be subject to taxes ranging from 5% to 20%. Soon after, Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of China’s Global ...

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• 19 May

  Emerging markets suffer rout as US-China trade war continues

  

  Bloomberg Another week, another leg of the emerging-market rout. An MSCI gauge of developing-nation stocks slipped 3.7 percent, setting the stage for the worst month since October. It was even worse for currencies, which capped a fifth straight week of declines, erasing gains for the year. Brazil’s real led the drop as protests added to political tensions and growth forecasts ...

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• 19 May

  Australian dollar to strengthen after Morrison wins vote

  

  Bloomberg The Australian dollar is set to strengthen against the greenback after the nation’s center-right government clung to power in a surprise election victory at the weekend. Despite trailing in most opinion polls, Prime Minister Scott Morrison waged a relentless attack on the Labor Party’s progressive agenda to take action on climate change and strip tax perks from wealthy Australians. ...

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• 19 May

  Banker crimes no hurdle for Nordic funds

  

  Bloomberg The biggest Nordic asset managers are either holding on to, or increasing, stakes in banks dragged down by vast money laundering scandals. In a region where the concept of ethical investing is regularly held up as a goal, none of the big institutional investors contacted by Bloomberg said they would consider divesting shares of banks under investigation for laundering. ...

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• 19 May

  Trade tensions might have chilling effect on global economy: Kaplan

  

  Bloomberg Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan says trade tensions might have a chilling effect on the US and global economy, and he’s also watching for the potential effects on inflation. Some end-markets may be jeopardised by the US-China trade dispute, but “the bigger thing is logistics and supply chain arrangements,” Kaplan said during a wide-ranging discussion at ...

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• 19 May

  PBOC warns on trade war, pledges targeted stimulus

  

  Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) warned that the escalating trade war could destabilise the global economy, and vowed to continue with its targeted stimulus policy at home. “Trade friction and uncertainties in global policy could impact the global economy negatively” by driving up inflation, damaging household and corporate confidence and causing financial market turbulence, the PBOC said in ...

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