March, 2018

• 13 March

  DRC opposition forms coalition to challenge Kabila

  

  Bloomberg Opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo formed a coalition that will back Moise Katumbi’s candidacy for president in elections scheduled for December. The announcement marks the start of what’s expected to be a series of declarations by candidates seeking to replace President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the central African nation for 17 years and is barred ...

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• 13 March

  Ethiopians flee to Kenya after army ‘mistakenly’ kills nine

  Bloomberg About 8,500 members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group fled to neighboring Kenya after the military said it “mistakenly” killed nine civilians and injured 12 others in a market town that straddles their border. The ethnic Oromo refugees, mostly women and children, began arriving in northern Kenya on March 10, Halkano Halake, spokesman for the governor of Marsabit county, said ...

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• 13 March

  Trump’s tariffs look like a self-inflicted wound

  

  “Trade wars,” President Donald Trump recently declared on Twitter, “are good, and easy to win.” But it’s questionable whether the president’s proposed tariffs — a tax of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum — will be a war or an act of friendly fire. As I recently wrote, tariffs are generally not a good way ...

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• 13 March

  Shinzo Abe’s greater political threat

  

  The deepening Moritomo Gakuen school land-sale scandal could put an end to Abenomics. Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso refused to step down on Monday after it was revealed staff at his ministry had ordered the alteration of documents linked to the sale of government-owned property to the nationalist school operator. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he wants Aso to take ...

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• 13 March

  Don’t be too relieved about Trump’s tax order

  

  Strange what qualifies as good news from the White House these days. President Donald Trump’s order on tariffs was more limited than first threatened and reassuringly vague. So yes, it could have been worse. Trump has given ground in the face of frantic representations from many Republicans and leaders of American business. “We’re going to be very flexible,” he says. ...

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• 13 March

  Chinese stocks offer hint at innovation prowess

  The potential for a trade war between the US and China may be intensifying, but don’t forget the innovation war. Although the US has stopped short of labeling China a “Strategic Competitor,” the Trump administration has effectively perpetuated the myth that China only excels by stealing intellectual property from others. Investors shouldn’t believe the rhetoric. With the world’s largest cashless ...

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• 13 March

  Macron’s eurozone reforms hit a German speed bump

  

  The expectations could not have been higher. After the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, there was hope that the euro zone could finally press ahead with an overhaul of its economic governance, which would make it more resilient in a crisis. The contours of the planned deal were very clear: Fiscally conservative countries, such as Germany, would agree to ...

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• 13 March

  Vietnam’s getting rich, and private equity is noticing

  

  From fish sauce to dairy, lumpy investment bets in Vietnam have typically been placed on the country’s teeming working class and its growing propensity to consume. Warburg Pincus has already been there and done that. The US buyout firm is now using its web of connections to wager on the nation’s new rich. The $370 million check it’s writing for ...

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• 13 March

  World’s poor need real homes, not grand monuments

  

  This year’s Pritzker Prize winner Balkrishna Doshi is best known for Aranya, a low-cost housing project in the central Indian city of Indore Here in the City of London, you can step out of Bank underground station and walk half a mile in any direction to see what Pritzker Prize-winning architects can do when they push themselves. At Bank intersection ...

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• 13 March

  PBOC gains more power in Xi’s regulatory overhaul

  

  Bloomberg China is giving its central bank the power to write the rules for the financial sector, as part of a swee-ping overhaul aimed at closing regulatory loopholes and curbing risk in the $43 trillion banking and insurance industries. The China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission will be mer-ged in the biggest industry overhaul since 2003. ...

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