December, 2018

• 5 December

  Ukrainian leader renews plea for Western action on Russia

  

  Bloomberg Ukraine’s leader renewed appeals to his nation’s allies in Europe and the US to punish Russia for a naval clash that’s reignited tensions between the two ex-Soviet neighbours. With initial talk of tighter sanctions now fading and Russia so far paying little cost for firing on Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait last month, President Petro Poroshenko reiterated calls ...

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• 5 December

  Macron has no good answer for angry voters

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump has put his finger on the challenge facing Emmanuel Macron. As small town protesters in yellow vests wreak havoc in Paris, Macron is trying to work out how to take the heat out of the situation without compromising his long-term plans for the economy and the environment. Trump suggested a different approach: ditch your green strategy and ...

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• 5 December

  Merkel allies fear ‘succession’ to tear CDU apart

  

  Bloomberg As Angela Merkel battled Europe’s multiple crises in 2014, Friedrich Merz was meeting with conservative critics to gripe about her leadership. Merz’s own political aspirations had long since been sidelined by the chancellor and his allies could tell it still rankled. On one occasion, his wife Charlotte vented their frustrations. “Friedrich, you would have done a much better job,” ...

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• 5 December

  Czech leader defies fraud probe scandal

  Bloomberg The Czech Republic’s billionaire prime minister fortified his support among potential voters, defying escalating tensions over a police investigation into whether he committed fraud. The ANO party led by Andrej Babis widened its lead in a survey conducted by pollster STEM last month when new allegations related to the fraud probe led to a failed no-confidence motion in parliament. ...

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• 5 December

  May loses control over Brexit in UK parliament war

  

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is locked in a power struggle with the British Parliament that looks set to determine the final shape of Brexit. May lost three key votes on a day of drama in the House of Commons, highlighting the weakness of her position as she tries to ratify the deal she’s struck with the European Union. ...

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• 5 December

  Tariff man’s trade war claims innocent victims

  

  In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump announced that he was a ‘Tariff Man,’ trumpeting the revenue raised by tariffs and declaring that import taxes would maximise the US’s economic power: As Paul Krugman pointed out, it’s a fallacy to think that foreigners are the only ones paying the tariff bill. US consumers pay as well. Believing that tariffs ...

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• 5 December

  Facebook should try crowdsourcing

  

  A recent New York Times investigation described how Facebook bungled its response to the misinformation that has proliferated on its platform. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged in an interview that the problems his company is grappling with “are not issues that any one company can address.” He’s right: The problem of fake news has become too big for any social ...

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• 5 December

  China’s central bank can step up a little faster

  It’s true that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is not independent, but the central bank of the world’s second-largest economy is outgrowing that excuse. There’s plenty it can and should do without explicit sign-off from above. Start by tackling what a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) paper calls low-hanging fruits. This is basic and important stuff like beefed-up forecasts, ...

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• 5 December

  Japan needs to change its attitude to foreigners

  Even as politicians in the US and Europe rage about foreigners supposedly swamping their shores, one of the world’s most insular countries — Japan — is on the verge of passing what might be its most sweeping immigration reform to date. Welcome as this would be, the plan isn’t sweeping enough. A bill approved by the lower house of the ...

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• 5 December

  Theresa May’s Brexit deal is a betrayal of Britain

  

  When Tony Blair and Boris Johnson unite in their condemnation of the ‘deal’ under which UK Prime Minister Theresa May proposes that the UK should leave the EU, you know something has gone badly wrong. The withdrawal agreement is less a carefully crafted diplomatic compromise and more the result of incompetence of a high order. I have friends who are ...

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