March, 2019

• 11 March

  UK admits Brexit talks in deadlock

  

  Bloomberg Theresa May’s government declared Brexit talks are “deadlocked” as ministers urged the European Union to make a last minute concession to stop the deal being thrown out by Parliament this week. May’s office said on Monday that she spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker by telephone late on Sunday, but the prime minister is not planning to travel ...

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• 11 March

  Ailing Bouteflika returns defiant to face Algerian protests

  

  Bloomberg Abdelaziz Bouteflika arrived home from Geneva, signalling that the Algerian president intends to push ahead with his bid for re-election in the face of mass demonstrations demanding he step aside. Bouteflika’s decision to run for a fifth term has triggered seismic protests in the North African OPEC member, presenting the 82-year-old leader and ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) party ...

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• 11 March

  UK admits Brexit talks in deadlock

  

  Bloomberg Theresa May’s government declared Brexit talks are “deadlocked” as ministers urged the European Union to make a last minute concession to stop the deal being thrown out by Parliament this week. May’s office said on Monday that she spoke to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker by telephone late on Sunday, but the prime minister is not planning to travel ...

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• 11 March

  Duterte critic’s news outlet loses appeal on foreign ownership

  Bloomberg A Philippine news website critical of President Rodrigo Duterte violated a constitutional ban on foreign ownership in media companies, the Court of Appeals said in a decision released Monday. Rappler Inc. cannot claim that it is 100-percent Philippine-owned as required by law, the appeals court said, standing by its earlier decision affirming Securities and Exchange Commission’s closure order. The ...

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• 11 March

  Why the US trade deficit is good news

  

  If nothing else, the latest US trade deficit — $621 billion in 2018 for goods and services — should give President Trump a lesson in the economics of trade. Trump has insisted that a successful policy requires a trade surplus (good) and the absence of a deficit (bad). That’s wrong, as many economists have argued. The economists are right. Not ...

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• 11 March

  China’s retail investors are no suckers

  

  The securities industry just rained on China’s bull-market parade. Stocks took their biggest tumble of the year last week as traders took a rare sell rating from the nation’s largest brokerage as a sign that the government thinks the rally has gone too far. Citic Securities Co. advised clients that People’s Insurance Co. (Group) of China Ltd., a $65 billion ...

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• 11 March

  When a billionaire offers $50mn, take it

  When Mike Ashley offers you a lifeline, it’s worth taking. That is the message from Debenhams Plc’s profit warning. The department store chain said it would no longer meet the estimate it published less than two months ago for full-year pre-tax profit of 8 million pounds ($10.5 million). It did not specify a new target. The market capitalisation says everything ...

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• 11 March

  Europe isn’t ready for the next recession

  The European Central Bank (ECB) surprised financial markets with moves to loosen monetary policy. The prospects for growth in the euro zone have dimmed lately, and policy was going to be tweaked at some point unless things picked up. But a change wasn’t expected so soon. ECB President Mario Draghi and his colleagues are apparently worried. They have reason to ...

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• 11 March

  History could well doom the US-China trade deal

  

  Trade talks between the US and China seem to be hurtling towards a predictable conclusion — the signing of a shallow deal that doesn’t solve the real issues dividing the world’s two largest economies. The coup de grace will likely come later this month in another high-profile summit between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. It’s time to admit the ...

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• 11 March

  Vodafone’s happy meal for hedge funds

  

  Vodafone Group Plc’s new boss needed some luck. The financing markets appear to be favuoring Nick Read as the UK mobile phone giant prepares to splash out on buying a huge chunk of John Malone’s European cable empire. Read unveiled a 4 billion-euro ($4.5 billion) financing package for the purchase, which should help the company create a converged mobile, broadband ...

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