March, 2019

• 17 March

  Azerbaijan’s president orders release of politicians, activists

  Bloomberg Azeri President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree pardoning more than 400 people, including opposition politicians and pro-democracy youth activists who were listed as political prisoners by international human rights groups. Fuad Qahramanli and Gozal Bayramli, deputy leaders of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party, are among the pardoned, according to a statement on the presidential website. Pro-opposition youth ...

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• 17 March

  Paris violence returns as yellow vests protest continues

  

  Bloomberg Violence returned to Paris as the Yellow Vests protested for the 18th weekend. Footage from TV news channels showed broken windows at stores as well as a ransacked restaurant on the Champs Elysees. A bank was set on fire near the iconic avenue, leading to 11 wounded in the building, including two police officers, AFP reported. The so-called Yellow ...

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• 17 March

  Tory MPs face pressure to back May’s deal

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond ramped up the pressure on Brexiteer Tory MPs as he warned they will trigger a long delay to leaving the European Union unless they support Theresa May’s proposed deal when it returns to Parliament. A growing number of Tories are now backing the agreement, he said, and the deal will only be put ...

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• 17 March

  Catalans take separatist campaign to Madrid

  Bloomberg Thousands of Catalan secessionists marched in downtown Madrid to protest a trial of their leaders, stoking a political crisis that’s helped topple two Spanish government in less than a year. In the biggest show of Catalan strength in the capital since the secession movement began gaining traction in 2012, marchers took to the iconic Paseo del Prado boulevard with ...

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• 17 March

  Trump’s fantasy budget

  

  The good news about President Trump’s proposed 2020 budget is that it vividly illustrates the basic causes of large, chronic deficits — a mismatch between the government’s commitments and the taxes needed to pay for them. The bad news is that the budget does virtually nothing to close the gap. “We must protect future generations from Washington’s habitual deficit spending,” ...

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• 17 March

  Inflation may make Duterte’s day

  

  Duterte just did a Modi. He may be as lucky, too. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte bucked procedural niceties when selecting the man who will control the supply of money in his country. He bypassed three deputy governors of the central bank and installed a former budget minister and fan of stimulus to run Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The new governor, ...

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• 17 March

  China’s property taxman cometh, someday

  The swell of talk about China implementing a property tax has resurfaced – again. But unlike past years, there’s growing certainty that it’s actually coming. Just not anytime soon. Late last week, shares of Chinese real-estate developers tanked after Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People’s Congress standing committee, said delegates will “focus energy” on drafting a property-tax law, among ...

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• 17 March

  Thai growth will ride out any poll unrest

  Thailand’s long-delayed elections to be held on March 24 have stirred concern among some analysts that we will see a fresh round of protests and social unrest. Investors should look past any temporary disruption. Whatever the result, Thai leaders will move forward with a landmark project that will support growth in what has been one of the most economically stable ...

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• 17 March

  Breaking up big tech is too scary for Europe

  

  US politicians, who, like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, want to break up the big technology companies are treading onto a path that has long drawn their European colleagues. Europe has better opportunities and more compelling reasons to dismember Amazon, Facebook and Google. Yet it hasn’t done so, despite years of discussion. There are at least three reasons the EU is ...

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• 17 March

  Finance is still excluding women from top jobs

  

  The second annual report on the Women in Finance Charter, an initiative sponsored by UK Treasury to redress gender imbalance in the management ranks of financial firms, just landed. The good news is that there has been an improvement in the past year. The bad news is there’s still a long, long way to go before the industry meets even ...

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