Bloomberg Oil’s rally above $50 a barrel is running out of steam after Libyan production returns, bringing the focus back to OPEC. Futures in New York extended losses after dropping 0.7 percent on Monday, following a 5.5 percent jump last week. While OPEC output fell by 200,000 barrels a day in March, the decline was helped by cuts in ...
Read More »Ichthys to start shipping LNG early 2018
CHIBA / Reuters Inpex Corp’s $37 billion Ichthys Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) project will start shipping ultra-light crude known as condensate by end-2017 and LNG shipments next year, one of the partners in the development said on Tuesday. The comments from Total Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne suggest further slippage in a project that has in recent months ...
Read More »China’s ‘new Shenzhen’ plan spurs speculative rampage
Bloomberg It didn’t take long for news that China would set up an economic zone near Beijing to touch off an investor frenzy. Within 24 hours of Saturday’s announcement that the government would create the Xiongan area in Hebei province — in the same spirit that Shenzhen and Shanghai’s Pudong was built — hordes of prospective buyers had thronged ...
Read More »Coal India shipments lag target at least 5th year
Bloomberg Coal India Ltd., the world’s biggest miner of the fuel, missed annual production and shipment targets for at least the fifth year despite reporting record volumes for both. Output grew 2.9 percent to 554.1 million tons during the year ended March, while shipments rose 1.6 percent 543.2 million tons, missing the target of 598.6 million tons for each, ...
Read More »Trump, US science spending pays off bigly
President Donald Trump has released a budget plan for federal discretionary spending (which doesn’t include interest on the national debt or entitlement programs like Social Security). It has a few things to like, but it’s alarming for its deep cuts to U.S. government support of science and technology. Although Trump’s document is titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to ...
Read More »The taxman cometh for Credit Suisse’s private banking
As an international tax-evasion probe ensnares Credit Suisse Group AG, the bank says it has a “zero-tolerance†policy that’s more than just talk. Its weekend charm offensive flagged cash invested in compliance and risk controls, as well as business sacrificed by weeding out irregular clients. But whatever happens in this case, it’s likely that the cost of transparency ...
Read More »Nuclear power is worth saving
Last week’s bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Co. is yet more evidence, if anyone needed any, that the economics of nuclear power are not good. Like coal, nuclear energy can’t compete against cheap natural gas and ever-cheaper renewables. Unlike coal, however, nuclear energy is a crucial tool in the fight against climate change. So the public subsidies that benefit the ...
Read More »Gibraltar should not be Brexit bargaining chip
The dust-up over Gibraltar is a prelude to how bumpy the road to Brexit deal would be. The rocky 2.6 square mile enclave has been a British territory for the last three centuries. But Spain has long sought to regain control of Gibraltar, an area of 32,000 people on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Now Gibraltar, which ...
Read More »What’s driving the US trade deficit with China?
US President Donald Trump has warned that discussions with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Florida this week will be “very difficultâ€, in large part because of disagreements over trade. But before Trump can shrink America’s lopsided trade deficits—with China or anyone else—he must first recognize what’s driving them. Unlike in the past, most deficits today have little to ...
Read More »New currency peg no panacea for Iceland
Iceland has provided a fascinating case study for economists. Now that it has impressively battled to restore economic and financial well-being, Finance Minister Benedikt Johannesson appears to be toying with a new experiment for the krona, the country’s currency. His thinking is being driven by the recent volatility of the exchange rate. But it also is informed by a ...
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