May, 2019

• 5 May

  Anti-apartheid legacy a boon for ANC in vote

  

  Bloomberg Siyabonga Matlala is unequivocal about who he’ll support in South Africa’s May 8 election: the same party he’s backed since apartheid ended a quarter century ago. “I will always vote African National Congress,” the 49-year-old farm labourer said in Fisantekraal, a shantytown on Cape Town’s outskirts. The unwavering loyalty of voters like Matlala has underpinned the ANC’s grip on ...

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• 5 May

  The woman standing between Modi and a majority

  

  Bloomberg Santu Adhikari scavenges with scarred hands through the rubble of a Tata Motors factory where he once hoped to work. But the plant was torn down before it was finished, and the 28-year-old now spends his days among its ruins in this field outside Kolkata, hunting for scrap iron to sell. Adhikari blames his grim predicament on one of ...

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• 5 May

  The $100trn question

  

  We live in an age obsessed with economic inequality. There is too much of it, most people seem to agree. After Donald Trump — his personality, behaviour and policies — inequality may well become the dominant issue in the 2020 election. This poses dangers, the most obvious being the tendency to blame the rich and the super-rich for everything that ...

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• 5 May

  Macron’s Merkel strategy hasn’t worked

  

  Emmanuel Macron swept to power in 2017 on a pro-EU, anti-far right ticket, determined to reshape the bloc in his image with the help of Germany’s Angela Merkel. But his early ambition to deepen Europe’s ties in a host of areas – including a common budget for the euro zone – was soon replaced by fudge and vague promises, as ...

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• 5 May

  The West finally has its Huawei smoking gun

  For more than a decade, executives, intelligence agencies and conspiracy theorists have been warning about the dangers of equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. And for almost as long, Huawei has denied that its telecommunications products pose any kind of security threat. The West has finally found its smoking gun. Yet it may not be enough to sway those on ...

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• 5 May

  Fed needs to develop a better feel for markets

  This was supposed to be a no-drama, non-event Federal Reserve policy meeting — and was, until a small communication slip led to outsize moves in markets, with stocks and bonds selling off simultaneously. Understanding why tells us a lot about investor mentality and market positioning, not to mention the need for the Federal Reserve to develop a better feel for ...

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• 5 May

  Does sprawling Indonesia really need a new capital?

  

  Even as he awaits official confirmation of his election to a second term, Indonesian President Joko Widodo appears to be thinking about his legacy. He’s proposing a $33 billion plan to relocate the capital far away from clogged Jakarta. The idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. That doesn’t mean it’ll work. Jokowi, as the Indonesian leader is known, is ...

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• 5 May

  Google reminds rapid growth isn’t guaranteed

  

  Google investors may have had a flashback to the company’s bad old days of 2015. That year may feel like a distant memory. That was before news cycles were measured in seconds. It was before people were talking in earnest about FAANG stocks and before Mark Zuckerberg had sat through multiple rounds of congressional hearings. Back then, Google’s growth looked ...

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• 5 May

  What we want doesn’t always make us happy

  

  Much of modern economic theory is based around a simple idea: Human beings maximise utility. But what is utility? Many people think of it as happiness or pleasure; British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the inventor of utilitarianism, conceived of it this way. But this isn’t how modern economists think of the concept. To an economist, utility simply means how much people ...

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• 5 May

  One word grips bond market before update on inflation

  

  Bloomberg Bond traders will have one word on their minds as they gear up for the latest readings on inflation: “ transitory.” That’s how Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell characterised the factors behind muted price pressures after the policy meeting, where officials kept interest rates unchanged. Markets whipsawed on his comments, with benchmark 10-year Treasury yields bouncing off their lowest ...

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