May, 2017

• 30 May

  Denmark cuts $1bn off funding need as outlook improves

  

  Bloomberg Denmark’s center-right government raised its forecast for economic growth this year and predicted it will borrow less via bond markets as the public deficit shrinks. The minority coalition of Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen expects gross domestic product to expand 1.7 percent this year, faster than the 1.5 percent it forecast just last month, according to Economy Ministry documents ...

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• 30 May

  Swedish growth slows at start of 2017 as exporters struggle

  

  Bloomberg Sweden’s economy slowed at the start of the year as exports struggled to maintain momentum, dulling a housing-fueled investment and consumption boom in the largest Nordic economy. Gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter and expanded an annual 2.2 percent, Statistics Sweden said on Tuesday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated growth of 0.9 percent and 2.9 ...

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• 30 May

  Turkey applies to sell $8bn in debt abroad

  Bloomberg Turkey may sell as much as $8 billion in debt, according to a US regulatory filing, a sign the government may be preparing to ramp up borrowing as it seeks to plug a widening budget deficit. Turkey may offer the securities from “time to time in one or more offerings” and will use the proceeds for general financing purposes, ...

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• 30 May

  How to restore American self-reliance

  

  When in the Senate chamber, Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, sits by choice at the desk used by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. New York’s scholar-senator would have recognized that Sasse has published a book of political philosophy in the form of a guide to parenting. Moynihan understood that politics is downstream from culture, which flows through families. Sasse, a ...

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• 30 May

  Hong Kong and Moody’s are both wrong on China contagion risk

  

  After China, it’s Hong Kong’s turn to take Moody’s Investors Service to task. The city’s financial secretary wrote a blog post on Sunday to express his displeasure with the recent one-notch cut in Hong Kong’s sovereign rating to Aa2. More than the downgrade, what seems to have really irked Paul Chan are the 16 references to “links” and “linkages;” four ...

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• 30 May

  Exposing the obvious about GOP health-care bill

  The gory details of the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the House legislation to “repeal and replace” Obamacare are, in many ways, superfluous. The bill’s flaws, substantive and otherwise, have long been evident. Less clearly understood, though equally disturbing, is the larger political context. That’s not to say the particulars of the CBO report, released Wednesday, are irrelevant: far from ...

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• 30 May

  Modi’s outmoded idea of India

  Three years after he was elected, Prime Minister Narendra Modi looms over India’s political scene like no other leader in the country’s recent history. And his critics must explain why his mass appeal seems unimpaired, despite his increasingly authoritarian ways and growing failures. Modi is far from realizing his promises of economic and military security. Pakistan-backed militants continue to strike ...

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• 30 May

  Universal basic income could work in Italy

  

  Universal basic income (UBI) schemes are often rejected out of hand as too expensive. In some countries, however, paying every resident a basic income sufficient for survival could actually result in budget savings. That’s the surprising conclusion in a fresh policy brief from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD decided to contribute to the basic income ...

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• 30 May

  Markets don’t trust banks, and they’re right

  

  Almost a decade after a crisis that nearly brought down the global financial system, markets still aren’t showing much confidence in banks. It’s a troubling phenomenon that U.S. and European leaders ignore at their peril. It’s understandable that, after years of wrangling and thousands of pages of new rules, regulators might want to consider their mission accomplished. They have changed ...

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• 30 May

  Losing faith in free trade will make America poorer

  

  Robert Lighthizer’s nomination as U.S. trade representative made the steel industry happy. Both the Steel Manufacturers Association and the American Iron and Steel Institute put out statements lauding the choice, with the latter citing his “dedication” to the steel industry. U.S. Steel Corp has been Lighthizer’s most prominent client as a lawyer in recent years. Lighthizer’s confirmation earlier this month ...

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