December, 2018

• 15 December

  Lankan court rules against election plan

  Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s top court ruled against President Maithripala Sirisena’s plan to dissolve the island nation’s parliament and call a new national vote, extending a political crisis that has roiled the island nation since late October. The Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a presidential notice to dissolve parliament before a period of four-and-a-half years from its first sitting unless the ...

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• 15 December

  Butina admits conspiring as Kremlin agent

  

  Bloomberg Maria Butina pleaded guilty to acting as an undeclared Russian agent in the US and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, advancing an inquiry into Russia’s efforts to build back-channels to politically connected Americans. The 30-year-old gun enthusiast operated as a Kremlin agent as she befriended National Rifle Association leaders (NRA) and influential US conservatives, she admitted in federal court ...

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• 15 December

  Swedish oppn leader calls for quick resolution

  

  Bloomberg Swedish opposition leader Ulf Kristersson, the man most likely to be asked to form a new government after Stefan Lofven’s second defeat in parliament, is calling for a quick resolution to the country’s political stalemate, warning that the chances of a snap election are now rising. “Ultimately, we are heading at quite a high speed toward a new election,” ...

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• 15 December

  The Fed’s latest worry

  

  Pay attention to the financial markets. If the Great Recession and 2008-09 financial crisis taught us anything, that was it. Until then, the Federal Reserve had focused mainly on fighting inflation and unemployment. What we learned is that overborrowing, shaky mortgages and inflated stock and home prices could also plunge the economy into crisis. Predictably, then, economists and business executives ...

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• 15 December

  Ending Greece’s banking nightmare

  

  If a country has a problem with its banks, the thing to do is to come up with a strategy and execute it swiftly. The trouble with Greece is that it has too many plans – and is taking too long to choose between them. The Greek banking system is saddled with a very large number of non-performing loans, a ...

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• 15 December

  India’s central bank woes won’t end with new leader

  India can burn through as many central bankers as it wishes, but unless politicians let the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) do its job, the economic setup will fall short of the nation’s aspirations. It’s commendable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved swiftly to replace Urjit Patel, who quit this week as RBI governor. It’s never good to have a vacuum ...

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• 15 December

  Trade war is too broad to turn on quick fixes

  Count the straws in the wind, and it looks like the trade tensions between the US and China could be moving closer to a resolution. Don’t relax just yet, though. Beijing will delay by a decade some of the targets in its Made in China 2025 program to move into high-technology industries, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News ...

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• 15 December

  For India, cost of a Modi victory may be too high

  

  Many of us have long argued that, whatever its problems, India is one of the best long-term bets in the world for one simple reason: It has the sort of world-class institutions that can help build and sustain a genuine market economy. Sadly, many of those same institutions are being undermined by the country’s own leaders — most recently the ...

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• 15 December

  China’s auto tariff retaliatory move looks like a lemon

  

  China has capitulated on cars. Or so it may seem to trade-war watchers. A premature President Donald Trump tweet, a phone call between trade negotiators and then days later, China may be backing down on a key bone of contention: An elimination of retaliatory tariffs on US automobiles has been submitted to the State Council, people familiar with the matter ...

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• 15 December

  London’s $22 billion supertrain is worth the wait

  

  When they’re not busy bemoaning a shambolic Brexit, Brits now have another embarrassment to lament. London’s 17.6 billion pound ($22 billion) Crossrail project was meant to open this month, but it won’t. On December 10, London’s authorities confirmed that the railway connecting Heathrow Airport in the west with Canary Wharf in the east will need up to 2 billion pounds ...

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