Bloomberg European Union (EU) governments are trying to forge a consensus over how to provide aid to the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With France and, crucially, Germany proposing a jointly-financed recovery fund to help the region cushion the blow from the steepest recession in living memory, the outcome of the talks could determine the bloc’s future direction ...
Read More »Peak fossil fuels is next test for Russia’s battered economy
Bloomberg The economy of the world’s biggest energy exporter is heading for its deepest slump in more than 10 years due to the fallout from the coronavirus. A bigger crisis may be just around the corner. Analysts at the Kremlin-funded Skolkovo Energy Center warned this month that the nation faces years of economic stagnation as demand for its carbon-heavy exports ...
Read More »Work to begin soon on Australia plan to export solar power to S’pore
Bloomberg Survey work will soon begin on an ambitious plan to export power from a giant solar farm in Australia to Singapore via a 3,800 kilometre (2,360 mile) undersea cable. The Sun Cable project, which is backed by Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and Fortescue Metals’ founder Andrew Forrest, has awarded a contract to Perth-based Guardian Geomatics to conduct a route ...
Read More »Latin American power giant eyes big bet on green energy
Bloomberg Electricity utility Interconexion Electrica SA is expanding its network of power transmission lines in Latin America to provide a backbone for the increase in renewable energy in the region. ISA, as the company is known, will be “aggressive†in bidding on lines connected to renewable generation, which can be funded by the sale of sustainable debt, CEO Bernardo Vargas ...
Read More »Oil’s sudden rebound exposes Achilles’ heel of shale
Bloomberg Oil prices have surged more than 75% in the US this month. But don’t expect a quick rebound in supply from shale explorers. The quick turnaround in oil markets is exposing the shale industry’s big weak spot: Lightning-fast production declines. Shale gushers turn to trickles so quickly that explorers must constantly drill new locations to sustain output. And they ...
Read More »Do the US and Russia want to contain China?
The Trump administration sent a characteristic mixed message on arms control: It announced a plan to quit the “Open Skies†agreement with Russia, even as it proclaimed its eagerness for a wider arms-control process that would include both Russia and China. Many analysts focussed on the treaty withdrawal as a sign of worsening relations with Russia, but I think there’s ...
Read More »China’s crypto is all about tracing
The coronavirus has disrupted the world in very large ways. While that battle has been waged, however, another event has almost been missed: the birth of a new kind of fiat currency, which could forever reshape the relationship between money, economic power and geopolitical clout. An official Chinese digital yuan, more than five years in the making, is now in ...
Read More »China’s tech spending won’t buy dominance
Big spending numbers are being thrown around in China, once again. This time, it’s trillions of yuan of fiscal stimulus on all things tech. The plans are bold and vague: China wants to bring technology into its mainstream infrastructure buildout and, in the process, heave the economy out of a gloom due only partly to the coronavirus. But will this ...
Read More »Pandemic is exposing the limits of science
The 2008 financial crisis led the public to discover the limits of economics. The Covid-19 pandemic risks having the same effect on scientists and medical doctors. Since the start of the outbreak, citizens have struggled to get clear answers to some basic questions. Consider masks, for example: The World Health Organization said early on that there was no point in ...
Read More »Ryanair warns workers on 600 surplus Spanish jobs
Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc executives preparing for thousands of job cuts warned employees in Spain that the collapse of air travel had left the discount airline with more than 600 surplus pilots and cabin crew in the country. The Irish carrier estimates it has an excess of 266 pilots and 351 cabin crew, people director Darrell Hughes said on a ...
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