August, 2017

• 15 August

  ‘Dual-citizenship’ fiasco embroils New Zealand

  

  Bloomberg Australia’s game of tit-for-tat party politics took a diplomatic turn on Tuesday, with New Zealand drawn into a row over whether Deputy Leader Barnaby Joyce should be thrown out of parliament amid revelations he has dual citizenship. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop accused New Zealand’s main opposition Labour party of conspiring to undermine Australia’s government by helping to expose Joyce ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  Odinga’s options run out as 4th bid to lead Kenya falters

  Bloomberg Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga’s chances of overturning the outcome of last week’s elections are fading, as he faces international pressure to take his allegations of vote rigging to court and the security forces crack down on his supporters. The US, European Union and African Union have all urged Odinga to seek legal recourse if he wants to challenge ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  The US can’t go it alone against North Korea

  

  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has defiance in his blood. It’s said his grandfather once asked what would happen if America defeated North Korea in war, to which his father answered: “If we lose, I will be sure to destroy the Earth. What good is the Earth without North Korea?” President Trump has decided to confront what’s probably the ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  Why countries like Macedonia need a benevolent protector

  

  Traveling through Macedonia this week led me to ponder the importance of a hegemon. More generally, many small, vulnerable countries—including Macedonia—will require an outside benefactor to secure their futures. A summary of Macedonian history doesn’t sound entirely promising. In the late 14th century, the region was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire. That boosted Macedonian development in some regards, but it ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  We’re still not ready for the next bank crisis

  The 10th anniversary of the financial crisis has prompted a lot of analysis about what we’ve learned and whether we’re ready for the next one. Pretty much everything you need to know, though, can be found in one chart: the capital ratios of the largest US banks. Capital, also known as equity, is the money that banks get from shareholders ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  Britain’s inexcusable dithering over Brexit

  The Brexit deadline of March 2019 creeps ever closer, and exit talks are under way—but Britain’s government still doesn’t know what it wants. This failure to set a clear goal, much less devise a strategy for achieving it, isn’t all that surprising, given the political mess caused by Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call an early election. It’s nonetheless ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  Modi is riding high. So why isn’t he doing more?

  

  In just a few years, Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have managed to ensure that they have practically no political rivals of consequence left. Four years ago, the map of India was a patchwork, with the BJP, its national rival the Congress, and multiple regional parties vying for supremacy at the state and federal level. Today, the BJP ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  Google’s work against bias is anything but over

  

  The firing of a Google employee for writing a memo that suggested women are biologically less equipped for engineering and management jobs has triggered a whole range of reactions, from those who strongly support the company’s action to those who see it as repression of free speech. Where you come out on this is partly a function of your assessment ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  Stock-market rally won’t last without some help

  

  This month marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the global financial crisis that set off the Great Recession. What the then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had characterized as a mere “$50 billion problem” morphed into a plunge in equity values with investors losing trillions of dollars, and a recession that caused unemployment to peak at 10 percent in ...

  Read More »
• 15 August

  US stocks fall despite fading threat of war with N Korea

  

  Bloomberg The dollar rallied and U.S. stocks nudged lower amid a receding threat of war with North Korea. Treasuries extended losses and the dollar rallied after US retail sales exceeded forecasts last month, boosting speculation the Federal Reserve might lift interest rates again this year. S&P index futures also gained after the data, while traditional havens including gold and the ...

  Read More »