April, 2018

• 9 April

  Turnbull loses 30th consecutive poll in blow to government

  

  Bloomberg Malcolm Turnbull’s government lost a 30th straight opinion poll on Monday — an uncomfortable milestone for Australia’s prime minister, who used the same measure as a justification for deposing his predecessor. The Liberal-National coalition has now trailed the main opposition Labor party in the closely watched Newspoll since shortly after scraping back into office in the July 2016 election. ...

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• 9 April

  Can US count on winning a trade war with China!

  

  Trade war! Those dread words are on everyone’s lips (and electronic equivalents) as President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping throw out a series of rapidly escalating tariff threats: President Donald Trump fired a shot at China’s plans to dominate strategic technologies, proposing tariffs on 1,300 goods from semiconductors to flamethrowers. China hit back hard today, targeting politically sensitive ...

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• 9 April

  How power firms can save an aging Japan

  

  Two years ago, Japan passed a milestone rare in world history except in times of war, famine or natural disaster: Its population began to shrink. And not only is it shrinking, but its average age is also rising. This trend is creating societal challenges, not least the phenomenon of elderly people passing away unknown, even unnoticed. This may not sound ...

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• 9 April

  Handle Panasonic with care after Tesla electric shock

  

  Hitching a ride on Tesla Inc. these days seems precarious at best, especially for its sole battery supplier Panasonic Corp. Shares of the Japanese company plunged as much as 9 percent after a spate of Tesla bad-news stories over the past few weeks. First, the US electric-car maker reported yet another fatal crash, then a shortfall in production targets for ...

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• 9 April

  Anti-China tilt in Australia is after all shortsighted

  From all the hysteria Down Under, you might think Australia is at risk of invasion — by Chinese cash. China’s economy certainly is increasingly influential, but the regulatory backlash from Canberra has all the makings of a self-inflicted wound. Australia has announced limitations on foreign purchases of power utilities and land. In case anyone missed the message, the man who ...

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• 9 April

  Trump’s South Korea trade victory will end in defeat

  

  Donald Trump said he got a ‘great deal’ in renegotiating America’s bilateral trade agreement with South Korea. This is the first trade pact Trump has successfully revised, and it reflects the intellectual core of his America First approach to trade: The US can use its great economic and geopolitical leverage to drive harder bargains with weaker powers. That approach appears ...

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• 9 April

  Asia’s largest hedge fund also makes iPhones

  

  In operation for more than 40 years, this outfit has grown to $106 billion in assets with investments in more than a dozen countries. Most of that is in China. Its returns probably wouldn’t have you celebrating — 12.8 percent last year on a return-on-equity basis, 4.6 percent if you’re looking at return on assets. But it has never posted ...

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• 9 April

  ECB has to do more than copy the Fed playbook

  

  Ewald Nowotny, the governor of Austria’s central bank and a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, said last week that “It’s no secret, we’re monitoring closely what the Fed did, and is doing.” Such sentiments are understandable, even desirable. After all, the Federal Reserve’s process of monetary policy normalization is unprecedented and, at least so far, ...

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• 9 April

  Deutsche Bank’s new chief faces familiar questions over strategy

  

  FRANKFURT / Reuters Christian Sewing must quickly come up with a coherent strategy for Deutsche Bank after the retail banking veteran was promoted to chief executive of Germany’s largest lender. Sewing, 47, was appointed after a crisis meeting to discuss how to end three years of losses. He replaces Briton John Cryan who failed to meet cost targets, and his ...

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• 9 April

  BOE may have a silent dissenter to rate hikes

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England may have a quiet dissenter among its ranks when it comes to the need for higher interest rates this year. In speeches, interviews and Parliament testimony, eight of the nine Monetary Policy Committee members, including Governor Mark Carney, have backed the view that tightening is warranted — and at a faster pace than previously thought. ...

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