July, 2017

• 4 July

  China’s Xi singles out Germany as global ally ahead of G20 summit

  

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping called for closer cooperation with Germany in shaping the global order, marking out Chancellor Angela Merkel as an ally on free trade at this week’s Group of 20 summit. “The strategic character of Chinese-German relations is steadily gaining in importance,” Xi said in an op-ed article published on Tuesday in German newspaper Die Welt, citing ...

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• 4 July

  Refugee, migrant flows from Libya to Europe on rise, finds UNHCR

  

  NEW YORK ­­­­ / WAM Movements by sea from Libya to Europe, despite being the most dangerous route for reaching the continent, have increased and there are indications that it will likely continue to do so, a new study by the United Nations refugee agency has revealed. According to ‘Mixed Migration Trends in Libya: Changing Dynamics and Protection Challenges’, a ...

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• 4 July

  N Korea test fires missile that could reach Alaska

  

  Bloomberg North Korea said on Tuesday it successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, a claim that brings the isolated state closer to its aim of building a device capable of hitting the continental U.S. with a nuclear warhead. The missile was a newly-developed ICBM that reached an altitude of 2,800 kilometers (1,740 miles) and was fired at its highest angle, ...

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• 4 July

  Serbia will choose EU if forced: PM

  

  Bloomberg If Serbia is forced to choose between closer ties with Russia and joining the European Union, it will side with the latter, the country’s new prime minister said. Ana Brnabic said she’d continue a path started by her predecessor, President Aleksandar Vucic, to make the country ready for EU membership by the time her term ends in 2020. Eastern ...

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• 4 July

  Mad at everyone!

  

  This is the summer of our discontent. As Americans celebrate July 4, they are mad at their leaders, mad at their government and mad at each other. A recent Pew poll finds that ‘public trust in government remains near historic lows.’ Just 20 percent of Americans trust the government to ‘do the right thing just about always or most of ...

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• 4 July

  Wall Street banks face another false Chinese dawn

  

  Wall Street banks, struggling with years of declining revenue from Asia, will be hoping two market-opening measures by China at the weekend finally spell a return to boom times. They’re likely to be disappointed. HSBC Holdings Plc’s achievement in becoming the first foreign bank to control a mainland securities joint venture, coupled with the launch of China’s bond-connect program with ...

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• 4 July

  Why Japanese investors should say oui again

  

  Japanese investors had a torrid time in the lead up to the French elections, offloading about 3 trillion yen ($26.5 billion) of French government bonds. But with net buying of the overseas notes in seven of the past eight weeks, according to Japan Ministry of Finance data, could they be returning? The recent jump in 10-year European bond yields provides ...

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• 4 July

  The dangerous simplicity of Trump

  President Donald Trump has always had a weakness for simple and fantastical fixes. Illegal immigration? Build a wall. Jobs moving overseas? Tax imports. Unemployment in Appalachia? Dig more coal. Rising medical costs? Repeal Obamacare. Trump’s gift for simple slogans served him well as a candidate. As president, however, it is failing him and endangering the country. When the Supreme Court ...

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• 4 July

  China bond connect has potential to shift PBOC policy

  

  China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Hong Kong coincided with the official start of the China Bond Connect program with Hong Kong that gives offshore investors another way to access the mainland’s $10 trillion debt market. Although the link between China’s mainland and offshore bond markets may look ceremonial, for the People’s Bank of China it could help set the ...

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• 4 July

  Toshiba’s trash becomes someone else’s treasure

  

  Toshiba Corp. forgot to add its cardboard box of bits and bobs to the corporate garage sale. The flailing Japanese group is in the process of selling its prized chips business for $20 billion in badly needed funds, having already hived off a medical device unit and nuclear power. And it continues to consider selling or taking public the Swiss ...

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