August, 2017

• 23 August

  Bannon’s banishment has changed nothing

  If one scorpion is removed from a bag that’s busy with them, does Donald Trump begin to look like a president? Steve Bannon, who was jettisoned from the bag today, has always been the most mysterious member of Trump’s lumpen B-Team. Most of the other scorpions have readily identified portfolios. They work in the Department of Nepotism or the Ministry ...

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• 23 August

  Charlottesville and the problem of weak fascism

  

  There is no question that President Donald Trump’s shifting reactions to the domestic terrorism in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been odious. While he condemned the murder of Heather Heyer, his equivocations, hedges and moral equivalency in the last three days signal a quiet approval of white supremacists. “What about the alt-left?” This is particularly odious because of America’s shameful history of ...

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• 23 August

  Making the Treasuries market safe at speed

  

  One of the greatest responsibilities of US financial regulators is to preserve confidence in the market for our federal debt, the world’s deepest and most liquid financial market. There are $19.8 trillion dollars of federal debt outstanding today, of which the public holds $14.4 trillion. This debt finances the federal government, and it plays an irreplaceable role in financial markets—facilitating ...

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• 23 August

  Women got crowded out of computing revolution…

  

  Why aren’t there more female software developers in Silicon Valley? James Damore, the Google engineer fired for criticizing the company’s diversity program, believes that it’s all about “innate dispositional differences” that leave women trailing men. He’s wrong. In fact, at the dawn of the computing revolution women, not men, dominated software programming. The story of how software became reconstructed as ...

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• 23 August

  Euro gains as economy gathers pace

  

  Bloomberg The euro gained as European data boosted confidence in the region’s growth and a speech by ECB President Mario Draghi steered clear of any policy or currency comments to deter bulls. Gold and yen rose and stocks fell as remarks by President Trump provoked another bout of investor caution. The surprise increase in a gauge of euro-region manufacturing did ...

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• 23 August

  Small caps support Saudi; Egypt falls amid US aid denial

  DUBAI / Reuters Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed on Wednesday with Saudi Arabia finding support from smaller companies while property developers were strong in Dubai. The Riyadh index edged up 0.1 percent. Nine-tenths of the top 20 gainers were small to mid-sized stocks including Saudi Indian Co for Cooperative Insurance (Wafa), which added 1.6 percent after saying ...

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• 23 August

  US banks could see profit jump 20% with Trump deregulation

  

  Bloomberg The deregulation winds blowing through Washington could add $27 billion of gross profit at the six largest US banks, lifting their annual pretax income by about 20 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley would benefit most from changes to post-crisis banking rules proposed by Donald Trump’s administration, with pretax profit jumping 22 percent, according to estimates by ...

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• 23 August

  Record reserves turn costly cash pile for Indian central bank

  

  Reuters As India’s foreign-exchange reserves march towards the unprecedented $400 billion mark, its central bank faces a costly conundrum. To keep the rupee stable and exports competitive, it is having to mop up inflows that’s adding cash to the local banking system. Problem is, banks are flush with money following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation programme last year, leaving them ...

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• 23 August

  Central banks must be open-minded to meet challenges, says ECB’s Draghi

  

  Bloomberg Mario Draghi said that while central-bank actions over the last decade have strengthened the global economy, it is important to be open-minded in readying for future developments. In a speech that gave no specific signals on the European Central Bank’s current policy deliberations, the institution’s president stressed that officials must be “unencumbered by the defense of previously held paradigms ...

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• 23 August

  Bank Indonesia’s rate cut shows comfort with inflation outlook

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank surprised most economists by lowering interest rates, reflecting its relative comfort with the currency and inflation outlook. The benchmark rate was cut by a quarter point to 4.5 percent, with all but six of the 28 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicting it would stay on hold. Bank Indonesia reduced borrowing costs six times last year, making ...

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