January, 2019

• 6 January

  Today’s Germany is best one the world has seen

  

  In one of contemporary history’s intriguing caroms, European politics just now is a story of how one decision by a pastor’s dutiful daughter has made life miserable for a vicar’s dutiful daughter. Two of the world’s most important conservative parties are involved in an unintended tutorial on a cardinal tenet of conservatism, the law of unintended consequences, which is that ...

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• 6 January

  GE should engage on asset sales

  

  New General Electric Co. CEO Larry Culp could help himself out by accelerating asset sales. Shares of the troubled industrial conglomerate climbed in late trading on January 4 after Bloomberg News reported Apollo Global Management was considering a bid for the company’s GE Capital Aviation Services jet-leasing business. A deal, if one were to happen, would underscore Culp’s willingness to ...

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• 6 January

  End the shutdown with a deal on Trump’s wall

  It’s depressing — but at the same time fitting — that the new Congress has come to town in the midst of another government shutdown. For the moment President Trump sees tactical advantage in extending his dispute with Congress over funding his “wall.” Most of the country would be grateful if he and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives came to ...

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• 6 January

  In Space, China has taken a big step but not the lead

  On January 2, China successfully landed its Chang’e-4 spacecraft on the moon’s far side — an impressive technological accomplishment that speaks to China’s emergence as a major space power. Understandably, some Chinese scientists are taking a victory lap, with one going so far as to gloat to the New York Times that “We Chinese people have done something that the ...

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• 6 January

  Yield curve is telling Fed to hold on interest rates

  

  Imagine if you could predict recessions, years in advance, more accurately than professional economic forecasters, just by looking at a few data points. Well, according to a 2008 paper by economists Glenn Rudebusch and John Williams, you can. The data you have to look at is what’s known as the yield curve — a technical term for the different interest ...

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• 6 January

  The IPO of China Tobacco will be far from smoking hot

  

  The Hong Kong IPO of China Tobacco International (HK) Co. is looking like a hard sell. The offshore unit of China National Tobacco Corp. is not only in a sunset industry that’s been under attack globally because of smoking’s link to cancer, it’s also found itself in the crosshairs of the US-China trade war. Add to that a forecast slump ...

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• 6 January

  Why internet censorship doesn’t work and never will

  

  Regulating speech is difficult even under the best of conditions, and the internet is far from the best of conditions. Its patchwork system of regulation by private entities satisfies no one, yet it is likely to endure for the foreseeable future. By way of explanation, consider a case in which authority is (mostly) centralised and the environment is (mostly) controlled: ...

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• 6 January

  Saudi Arabian banks set for 4-year high growth in 2019

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabian banks may report double-digit earnings growth this year as rising interest rates and increased government spending offset the risk of higher bad-debt charges. Even loans may expand faster after four years of declines led to a contraction in 2017. The government’s 2019 budget increased spending in the face of plunging oil prices. “More stimulus, business confidence, privatisation ...

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• 6 January

  Nordea finds no room on Euro Stoxx index

  

  Bloomberg The biggest Nordic bank is starting to feel a lot smaller. Nordea Bank Abp joined the euro zone in October by moving its headquarters to Helsinki from Stockholm. A month later, it learned it was losing its status as a global systemically important bank. Now, it appears Nordea is also too small to make it into the Euro Stoxx ...

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• 6 January

  Ghana settles banking sector cleanup

  

  Bloomberg Ghana completed a cleanup of its banking industry in which lenders were required to raise their capital and improve governance, with two-thirds of them meeting the new requirements, Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison said. The West African nation has “23 well-capitalised” banks, compared with 34 previously, which raised their holdings to at least 400 million cedis ($81.1 million), ...

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