January, 2019

• 14 January

  Trump should demand a better tax cut, not a wall

  The conventional wisdom among President Donald Trump’s circle seems to be that he has no choice but to stick to his guns on the border wall: His base would regard anything less as a betrayal. Senator Lindsey Graham has gone so far as to say that, if Republicans fail to support Trump’s demand, it will be “the end of his ...

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• 14 January

  Xi leads China towards economic stagnation

  

  The ambition of China hawks in the Trump administration is to maintain American dominance by halting China’s economic rise. It’s strange that President Xi Jinping appears to be working toward the same end. The risk for any economy approaching China’s level of development is that it gets ensnared in the middle-income trap. Once the low-hanging fruit of urbanisation and industrialisation ...

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• 14 January

  Flight attendants aren’t ‘waitresses’

  

  The world’s first eight flight attendants took to the air in May 1930. They were all nurses, hired by Boeing Air Transport (forerunner to United Airlines, Inc.) to give early-era air passengers a greater sense of security onboard. As air travel became safer over the ensuing decades, nurses were no longer required in the cabin. Safety and security, though, remained ...

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• 14 January

  The EU faces a make-or-break moment on taxes

  

  The current European Commission could go out with a bang if it moves ahead with a plan to grab more tax-setting authority from EU member states. We could find out next week whether multinational companies using various tax-avoidance strategies in Europe will have more to fear than they do with the current periodic harassment disguised as enforcement of the EU’s ...

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• 14 January

  US stocks fall, bonds rise as China weighs on technology

  

  Bloomberg US stocks declined as weak Chinese trade data spurred concerns about slowing global growth. Treasuries rose and the dollar edged lower. The S&P 500 fell after rising for a third straight week, led by technology shares after slumping Chinese exports fuelled concerns about the growing impact of the US-China trade war on global growth. PG&E plunged after the utility ...

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• 14 January

  Bleak pound outlook clashes with its rivals

  

  Bloomberg The pound’s most accurate forecaster isn’t buying into the optimism of his peers. Sterling will slide more than 3 percent to $1.24 by the end of March as even the most favourable Brexit outcome will mean the economy will be worse off than if “remain” had won the 2016 referendum, according to Westpac Banking Corp. The median estimate in ...

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• 14 January

  Danske growth machine at risk over laundering case

  

  Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S’s money-laundering scandal threatens to undermine its growth engine. The lender’s Nordic banking operation, which encom- passes Norway, Sweden and Finland, was the only core unit of five to report higher profit in the third quarter. But now, some customers in the biggest Nordic economy may be reconsidering their loyalty to the bank, according to Berit Behring, ...

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• 14 January

  South Africa must pursue flexible policy, says ANC

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s ruling African National Congress said the reserve bank must consider the impact of monetary policy on economic growth when it targets inflation, re-emphasising the flexible mandate the government gave the central bank almost a decade ago. “The ANC believes that the South African Reserve Bank must pursue a flexible monetary policy regime, aligned with the objectives of ...

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• 14 January

  China’s big banks set to sell $22bn of hybrid securities by June-end

  

  Bloomberg China’s banks’ urgent want for cash is threatening to overload the country’s fledgling convertible-bond market. Four lenders are due to sell as much as 146 billion yuan ($22 billion) of the hybrid securities by the end of June after the regulator approved the deals in recent weeks. That includes what could be the largest such offering China’s domestic market ...

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• 14 January

  ‘RBI needs to reduce growth projection’

  

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India needs to soften its economic growth narrative and lower its projections for the current fiscal year. That’s the view of Mumbai-based SBICap Securities Ltd after data released January 11 showed industrial production in November grew 0.5 percent from a year ago, much lower than the expected 3.6 percent. The RBI needs to cut its ...

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