February, 2019

• 17 February

  Yes, reality continues to leak from American life

  

  In 1994, the Clinton administration decreed a bright shining future for education. Its Goals 2000 legislation proclaimed that by that year America’s high school graduation rate would be 90 percent and American students would lead the world in math and science achievements. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., was unimpressed: “That will not happen.” It didn’t, to the surprise of no ...

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• 17 February

  Brexit’s ‘project fear’ just got real

  

  When Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016, most economists expected the country’s economy to decelerate sharply. The slowdown has finally arrived. The sudden drop in economic activity at the end of 2018 raises the stakes for the British political class, which has been dithering over the future relationship with the EU as the UK enjoyed a relatively ...

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• 17 February

  Has UK found a way to curb Facebook, Google?

  Slowing the inexorable rise of Facebook Inc. and Google, the gatekeepers for news consumption online, can be a fool’s errand. For all the noise of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook’s revenue still grew by 37 percent last year, while Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s sales climbed 23 percent. Meanwhile, publishers’ revenue has faced a relentless squeeze as Silicon Valley sucks up ...

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• 17 February

  China’s default wave spares the biggest fish

  Brace yourself: A growing number of hard-up Chinese borrowers aren’t making good on their debts. The pattern is all too familiar. After a record year of defaults in 2018, two big issuers failed to meet their obligations in recent weeks. Coal miner Wintime Energy Co., one of China’s biggest defaulters last year, missed interest payments again this month. Beijing Orient ...

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• 17 February

  Corbyn looks like May’s unlikely Brexit saviour

  

  Here we go again: Britain’s parliament is debating Brexit and Prime Minister Theresa May is playing for more time as various factions try to influence the endgame. Her goal is to deliver her divorce deal without dividing her party. So what’s new? For one thing, the time left on the clock. Just 45 days remain until Britain exits on March ...

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• 17 February

  Gucci can’t escape from fashion police

  

  Gucci’s gaudy creations are moving from cutting-edge to classic. But there are signs that some investors might be starting to look elsewhere for the next big thing. The fashion house’s French parent company, Kering SA, said that Gucci’s organic sales rose 28.1% year-on-year in the last three months of 2018. That’s an impressive performance given that it was being compared ...

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• 17 February

  Japan’s women need more than more office jobs

  

  Japan’s leaders seem happy to rest the country’s fate on the shoulders of its women. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to get more of them out of the home to compensate for a shrinking workforce. His deputy Taro Aso, on the other hand, had to apologize recently after blaming them for not having enough kids. I can hear women secretly ...

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• 17 February

  Bond traders set to get big update on Fed’s portfolio

  

  Bloomberg In the wake of last month’s Federal Reserve gathering, traders have been left with as many questions as answers when it comes to the fate of the central bank’s balance sheet. Next week may finally provide some clues on where the runoff goes from here. The holiday-shortened week will be light on economic data but heavy on Fed signals. ...

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• 17 February

  Stocks staring down earnings recession fuel Wall Street clash

  

  Bloomberg The debate over the trajectory for corporate profits reached a crescendo this week, with two widely followed Wall Street strategists clashing over whether an earnings recession is imminent. Just days after Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson announced the S&P 500 profits would turn negative for the first six months of 2019, Brian Belski at BMO Capital Markets said such fears ...

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• 17 February

  Deutsche Bank reverses pledge to help distressed homeowners

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG has decided that none of the more than $4 billion it promised to spend on consumer relief after the global mortgage crisis will go to distressed US homeowners, according to a report by the monitor of the 2017 settlement. Instead, the consumer-relief money will be spent on originating new loans, according to the February 13 report ...

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