April, 2019

• 7 April

  Thailand anti-junta coalition suffers huge setback from ‘seat allocations’

  

  Bloomberg The prospect of many small parties gaining parliamentary seats in Thailand has dented the claim by an anti-junta coalition that it has a majority following March’s general election. An Election Commission statement said more than 25 parties will receive lower house seats based on the proportional representation system in the military-backed constitution, implying many small parties will enter the ...

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• 7 April

  Nigeria deploys troops to bandit-affected regions

  

  Bloomberg Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered security personnel to parts of the country prone to attacks by bandits. “I have ordered rapid and robust deployment of troops to all the areas currently under attack from bandits,” Buhari said in a statement. “We are determined to tackle this challenge ferociously until these remorseless killers are crushed and utterly defeated.” The attacks ...

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• 7 April

  US waterways policy is sheer crony capitalism

  

  The president has received from one of his employees, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a report that probably tells Ross’ employer what he wants to hear: that imports of cars — “The Audis are coming! The Audis are coming!” — threaten “national security.” This report is required by our lackadaisical Congress so it can pretend to be involved in setting trade ...

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• 7 April

  Tesla suddenly makes sense ‘sort of’

  

  Here’s a phrase you haven’t heard much about Tesla Inc. lately: It all makes sense now. By “it,” I mean these events since January 1: Tesla announced it sold about 91,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2018, more than double the level of the second quarter. That included more than 63,000 Model 3s. The company said capital expenditure in ...

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• 7 April

  A stronger China won’t lift emerging markets

  Emerging markets are missing out on the trade of the decade. Green shoots are everywhere. China’s factory activity is finally stabilising, and the Federal Reserve may even cut interest rates this year. Both should be great news for stocks around the world. But nervous investors are busy selling instead, redeeming $2.6 billion of their holdings in emerging-markets ETFs over the ...

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• 7 April

  On Nato, Trump’s words should match US actions

  Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was a courteous guest during a joint session of Congress, playing down current frictions within the alliance and praising President Donald Trump’s effort to get Europe to pay more for its own defense. This was more than just astute diplomacy: It was recognition that, despite the impression given by Trump’s many disparaging remarks about Nato, ...

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• 7 April

  No silver bullet for China’s huge plastics problem

  

  Since 2004, China has been the world’s largest generator of waste, including plastics. And, since 2010 at least, China has been the largest source of waste plastic flowing into the world’s oceans. To its credit, the Chinese government has tried to shrink the problem. In recent years, it’s forced retailers to charge for single-use plastic bags that aren’t biodegradable (with ...

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• 7 April

  Wage growth no threat to corporate profits

  

  The jobs report brought a little good news for investors worried that a key part of the decade-long bull market is about to run out. Profit margins, which have reached record levels, are predicted to drop in the first quarter for companies in the S&P 500. While the drop is not expected to be sharp, there has been a growing ...

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• 7 April

  Dumping capitalism is not going to save the planet

  

  It has become fashionable on social media and in certain publications to argue that capitalism is killing the planet. Even renowned investor Jeremy Grantham, hardly a radical, made that assertion last year. The basic idea is that the profit motive drives the private sector to spew carbon into the air with reckless abandon. Though many economists and some climate activists ...

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• 7 April

  Ethiopian Air rethinks 737 Max purchase

  

  Bloomberg Ethiopian Airlines Group is reconsidering its order for 25 additional 737 Max jetliners from Boeing Co, in part because of the “stigma’’ surrounding the aircraft involved in two fatal air disasters in five months — one of them an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Tewolde GebreMariam, the state-owned carrier’s chief executive, spoke in an interview with Bloomberg News a day after ...

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