June, 2017

• 7 June

  Preparing for the next panic – or not

  

  When the next financial crisis hits — an event that may be years or decades away — we will learn whether this Congress and the president drew the right lessons from the 2008-09 financial crisis. Congress is arguing over whether government can avoid ‘bailouts’ of large financial institutions and still prevent a full-blown crisis. With all of President Trump’s trials ...

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• 7 June

  Brain drain from Southeast Asia poses obstacle to growth

  

  Nyl Patangan, a nursing graduate from the Philippines, left his native land in search of a better life. Now working in a Chicago hospital after a stint in Dubai, he’s supporting his parents back home and is buying his mother a Toyota Vios. A recent study by the Asian Development Bank shows that the number of immigrants with university degrees ...

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• 7 June

  Give US Senate’s blue slips a pink slip

  Some government traditions with no legal basis — pardoning turkeys, for example — are silly but harmless. Others are not. Among them is an arcane, century-old practice known as “blue-slipping,” under which a single senator can block a president’s judicial nominee. The country would be better off without it. When the president sends a candidate for the federal bench to ...

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• 7 June

  Democracy faces the enemy within

  We’re past the point of shifting blame. We know who gave us the presidency of Donald Trump, and it wasn’t Hillary Clinton or Jill Stein or James Comey. The culprit was democracy. Even if you defend democracy on the grounds that Trump lost the popular vote, it’s still a lame argument. After all, what kind of sensible political system generates ...

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• 7 June

  Paris accord and the reality of presidential power

  

  To critics of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, it may seem like presidential fiat is a very dysfunctional way to do foreign policy. How, exactly, is such overwhelming power consistent with checks and balances? How can one man, even if he is the president, single-handedly alter our international obligations? The short answer ...

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• 7 June

  Wal-Mart has a big problem landing, and it isn’t Amazon

  

  So far, it’s mostly been about Amazon. But Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has a new foe. And it’s one it has lost out to before in Europe. It mustn’t repeat the same mistakes in its homeland. The world’s biggest retailer has been investing heavily in e-commerce in an effort to catch up with Amazon.com Inc. And as my colleague Shelly Banjo ...

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• 7 June

  Astana Expo 2017: Doors open to the world

  

  As many as 115 states and 22 international organisations are going to take part in Kazakhstan EXPO 2017, the doors will be opened to the world on June 10. One of the largest international expos of the decade is held in Astana capital of Kazakhstan, which is the greatest achievement at the international level of Kazakhstan since its independence. EXPO ...

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• 7 June

  Flight to haven steadies, bank rescue spurs equities

  

  Bloomberg A measure of calm returned to markets on Wednesday, as investors started to reassess the risks surrounding a series of key events this week. Bank stocks powered equity gains after a troubled Spanish lender was rescued. Traditional haven assets steadied after Tuesday’s jump, with gold and Treasuries edging lower and the yen tempering an advance. European equities headed for ...

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• 7 June

  Qatar shares most volatile globally amid rising tension

  

  Bloomberg As an unprecedented diplomatic crisis spreads through the Gulf with Qatar at its center, one thing is certain: the country’s stock market has become the world’s most volatile. It’s difficult for investors to assess the impact to the country’s $135 billion stock market as the disagreements mark an unprecedented low in the relationship between the Arab countries, in particular ...

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• 7 June

  Santander to take over Popular as ECB says bank was failing

  

  Bloomberg Banco Santander SA agreed to buy Banco Popular Espanol SA for a nominal 1 euro ($1.13) after European regulators determined that the troubled lender was likely to fail and ordered it to be sold. Santander will raise about 7 billion euros through a rights offer to bolster Popular’s balance sheet, it said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. The ...

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