May, 2018

• 28 May

  Brazil pension fund turns into a $50 billion activist

  

  Bloomberg When BRF SA, the Brazilian food giant that produces everything from chicken to chocolate pies, reported a record annual loss for 2017, it took less than 48 hours for its second-largest shareholder to act. Previ, Brazil’s biggest pension fund, sent a letter in February demanding BRF Chairman Abilio Diniz convene a shareholder meeting to remove the entire board, including ...

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• 28 May

  Gas supply crunch thwarts EU’s plan to kill off coal power

  

  Bloomberg Europe wants its industry to burn more natural gas instead of coal to reduce global warming. The problem is, there isn’t enough gas at the right price. Depleted gas stores after the coldest winter since 2012, coupled with pipeline constraints on flows from Russia and Norway, have driven prices to their highest level in at least five years. The ...

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• 28 May

  Italy heads to new vote with Europe as campaign faultline

  

  Bloomberg Italian President Sergio Mattarella asked economist Carlo Cottarelli to form a government with new elections due as early as the fall, as populist leaders railed against the president and the European Union for blocking their bid for power. Cottarelli, 63, a former executive director of the International Monetary Fund, pledged Italy would stay in the euro and called for ...

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• 28 May

  Scottish leader pushes customs union with EU Brexit negotiator

  

  Bloomberg Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reiterated her goal for the UK to remain in the customs union and single market in a meeting with Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, in Brussels. Sturgeon’s aim was to ensure that the EU understands Scotland’s concerns, according to a statement from her office. She said in an interview with Politico ...

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• 28 May

  Spain’s divided opposition struggles with plan to oust Rajoy

  

  Bloomberg Spain’s Socialists are facing an uphill task in reconciling differences between opposition parties as they seek to garner support for dislodging Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. The no-confidence motion filed on May 25 by the Socialists, the largest opposition group, needs the backing of several other parties to succeed. The trust vote request, triggered by the sentencing last week of ...

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• 28 May

  Giuliani accuses Mueller of leading ‘rigged’ probe

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump’s lawyer again questioned the legitimacy of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, even as a possible interview between Mueller and the president looms. “We’re more convinced as we see it that this is a rigged investigation,” Rudy Giuliani said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Nation.” Asked if he ...

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• 28 May

  New Zealand goes cool on migrants when ‘needed most’

  Bloomberg On the waterfront of New Zealand’s largest city, a Chinese developer is building a five-star luxury hotel aimed at wealthy tourists. One hitch: there’s not enough local workers to finish it. To help complete Auckland’s NZ$200 million ($138 million) Park Hyatt hotel on time, Beijing-based Fu Wah International Group has been forced to fly out 138 carpet layers, painters ...

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• 28 May

  The China debacle

  

  President Trump’s education in global trade continues. Not long ago, he declared that trade wars ‘are good and easy to win.’ He knows better now. The administration’s performance in its latest trade talks with China has been ineffectual, instructive and (yes) humiliating. Let’s be clear. China is the one major country where an aggressive American trade policy is warranted — ...

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• 28 May

  Markets don’t care about your needs

  

  You may have reasonable expectations of what you can expect from your investments during the coming years and decades. But regardless of what your risk-adjusted return expectations are, the first rule of economics cannot be denied: There is no free lunch. I was reminded of this by a report that the League of California Cities wanted the state’s big public ...

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• 28 May

  Electric cars are feeling a little bit of competition

  

  Electric cars topped the 1 million sales milestone in 2017, a 57 percent increase over 2016. Chinese consumers alone purchased more than half a million electric cars. And Bloomberg New Energy Finance expects more than half of all new cars sold, and a third of the total light vehicles on the road, to be electric by the year 2040. But ...

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