June, 2017

• 5 June

  Donald Trump’s big Paris mistake

  Any rational, responsible business leader, faced with an existential threat to his enterprise, would take steps to manage the risk. With his decision to leave the Paris climate accord, President Donald Trump is putting the lie to one of his central claims: that he would run the country like a business. The Earth is threatened with rising seas, violent weather ...

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• 5 June

  EU tax competition is unfair and inefficient

  

  European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stretched credulity when he told the European Parliament he had known nothing about Luxembourg’s sweet tax deals with large companies; he’d served as finance minister and then prime minister as the small country struck the deals. What Juncker knew aside, one might ask whether there is any other way for small nations to survive among ...

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• 5 June

  Corporate bonds key to understanding market volatility

  

  When it comes to market volatility, don’t discount the influence of U.S. presidents. According to the Presidential Cycle Theory, the highest stock market returns are achieved in the third year of a new administration. Volatility, though, rises in the first year before peaking later on, as new policies work their way through markets. Since Donald Trump was elected in November, ...

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• 5 June

  Buckley captained conservatism before it was hijacked

  

  In 1950, the year before William F. Buckley burst into the national conversation, the literary critic Lionel Trilling revealed why the nation was ripe for Buckley’s high-spirited romp through its political and cultural controversies. Liberalism, Trilling declared, was “not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition” in mid-century America because conservatism was expressed merely in ‘irritable mental gestures.’ ...

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• 5 June

  Qatar stocks drop most since 2009 over regional spat

  

  Bloomberg Qatar’s markets received a battering as four of the country’s Middle East neighbors cut ties in a row over its stance on Iran and extremists. The nation’s dollar bonds tumbled and contracts used to bet the Qatari riyal will weaken the most since 2009. More than four times the daily average of shares changed hands on the key stock ...

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• 5 June

  Quant manager of $6bn backs stocks hidden from front pages

  

  Bloomberg No news is good news. At least for investors seeking stable returns, it’s better to buy companies that aren’t in the spotlight. To exploit a so-called low-volatility anomaly, the head of quantitative equity management at BNP Paribas SA invests in stocks that seldom get any attention in the media. “People are attracted by companies where they get a lot ...

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• 5 June

  World Bank sees global growth picking up amid policy risks

  

  Bloomberg The World Bank (WB) kept its outlook for the global economy unchanged, forecasting a modest pickup in growth despite uncertainty about monetary policy and the risk of a surge in protectionism. The development lender projects the world economy will grow by 2.7 percent this year and 2.9 percent the next, the same as its January forecast. “Global activity is ...

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• 5 June

  Irish bankers ramp up taxpayer payback

  

  Bloomberg Ireland’s drive to recoup money from the bank rescue that almost bankrupted the nation is finally gaining pace. The Irish government started the process of selling 25 percent of Allied Irish Banks Plc, (AIB) after spending 21 billion euros ($23.5 billion) bailing out the lender following the 2008 financial crisis. In comments aired on Wednesday, Finance Minister Michael Noonan ...

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• 5 June

  China has made ‘huge progress’ on reforms

  

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said China has made “huge progress” on market reforms and he would like to increase his firm’s businesses in the nation. The New York-based JPMorgan is hoping to get a corporate bond license in China and would consider another joint venture in Asia’s biggest economy, Dimon said in an interview ...

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• 5 June

  PBOC surprises many with its tolerance for ‘market pain’

  

  Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has surprised many with its tolerance for market pain as it squeezes leverage in parts of the financial system. But rest assured, China won’t clamp down so hard it endangers President Xi Jinping’s goal to keep growth above 6.5 per cent, according to economists from Morgan Stanley, Mizuho Securities and Oxford Economics. “Some ...

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