French Trade Minister: Call TTIP Off

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/30/2016 06:15:00 PM
No translation required, eh? The mood towards trade is well and truly souring among the United States' negotiation counterparts for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Just a day or two ago, the German trade minister said that the negotiations should be halted already since nothing was happening. We made mention of the French as among those particularly opposed to it on the grounds that the ever-sensitive French agricultural sector would be hurt. All the while, the French would supposedly gain few reciprocal benefits in accessing the US market. Well, here we have the French trade minister now calling...
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After TPP Impasse, TTIP Failure is Close at Hand

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/28/2016 05:55:00 PM
With US ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in huge trouble, we receive word that things are even worse with the proposed US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At least an international deal was hammered out with the TPP. With the TTIP, its negotiations have already stalled, leading German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel frankly assessing that these negotiations have failed: The free trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States have failed, but “nobody is really admitting it”, Germany's Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has said. Talks over the so-called Transatlantic...
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£4M Per Olympic Medal: UK's Cost of Success

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 8/26/2016 03:59:00 PM
The United Kingdom's unprecedented feat at the 2016 Rio Olympics--winning more medals [67] in the event following the one they hosted [65 at London 2012]--has not gone unnoticed. Far more populous China is contemptous, having been beaten into second place overall going by gold medals won. Near-neighbor and constant reference point France [in 7th place] regards the UK's performance with a mixture of disdain and envy (as usual). But what are factors went into it beating more populous competitors with presumably more talent to draw on and cash to spend--especially freed of democratic constraints on public expenditures like...
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Remembering When Concordes Flew to Venezuela

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/21/2016 03:57:00 PM
Remembering when Venezuela wasn't a Chavista hellhole: Of Concordes and oil wealth. The international humiliation of Venezuela illustrates how far it has fallen in the global pecking order in terms of economic significance. A few months ago, I wrote about how international airlines have begun dropping flights from Caracas paid for in local currency since the government is not exchanging (near worthless) bolivars into foreign exchange--namely, US dollars. Contrary to what is happening to the rest of the world, international flights to Venezuela are disappearing fast. Once a gateway to the region, it's now shunned by most...
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How Brexit May Slow Global Overfishing

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/16/2016 03:43:00 PM
The fish trade fell in 2015 for the first time in a long time. Will Brexit affect 2016 and beyond? Here's another of those stories in which a global economic slowdown is helpful to the cause of environmental preservation. Like reduced global carbon emissions in the wake of the global financial crisis, Brexit may be aiding another environmental cause: slowing overfishing. You see, the UK is both a major consumer and exporter of fish--the world's most-traded food commodity. Brexit impacts not only consumer demand in the UK itself as Britons feel the impact of reduced incomes, but UK fish exports to the EU may be hit as well...
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Financial Sensationalism + Mathlexia = 'Business Insider'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 8/15/2016 07:27:00 AM
Markets CRASHING daily! The B-i-e-b-s!! Olympic swimmer jillionaires!!! Welcome to Business Insider. I try to avoid reading Business Insider as much as possible since its level of intellectual sophistication and journalistic integrity make it the Breitbart of financial reporting--about on par with Zero Hedge for a near-analogue. The founder of Business Insider, of course, is a known fabulist of near-Trumpian proportions, Henry Blodget, who is best known for flogging stocks he personally described as "crap" during the height of the dot-com bust. He was banned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission from the industry...
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Fortress Brexit: PRC Asks UK to Honor $23B Nuke Plant Deal

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/12/2016 12:53:00 PM
The best laid plans for the PRC to build nuke plants in the UK go astray after Brexit. The United Kingdom's referendum outcome to separate itself from Europe may arguably portend a move towards greater economic isolationism from the rest of the world. While some Brexiteers portray the move as an opportunity to strike deals with non-Europeans unshackled from the fetters of having to move together with 27 other European states, we shall wait and see. Certainly, the early evidence is not altogether promising. One of the supposed benefits of going it alone for the UK is to take advantage of closer ties with fast-growing Asian...
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Negativity's End: Japan & Central Bank 'Disarmament'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/07/2016 05:46:00 PM
The world may be out of the negative bond yield hole sooner than you think. Just a few days ago, commentators were portraying the world economy's future as one of never-ending declines in interest rates as central banks the world over experimented with zero interest rate policies (ZIRP) or, if those didn't work, negative interest rate policies (ZIRP). To encourage lending, borrowing and investment--or depress the value of one's currency, it's been left largely unsaid--they had to resort to such extreme measures since, well, everyone else was doing it. However, there has been an obvious problem with this argument: what...
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Asia Pivot? Singapore Warns US on TPP Non-Ratification

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 8/03/2016 03:16:00 PM
You have been warned: Singaporean PM Lee puts Obama on notice regarding US TPP non-ratification. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is in imminent danger of becoming a non-entity in a manner all too familiar to observers by now: The Yanks rope you into protracted and therefore expensive international negotiations held all around the world. After years and years of negotiations, a deal may even be inked. Then, when the time comes for signatories to these treaties or international trade deals to ratify them at home, the Americans are unable to deliver despite being those who thought up and championed them all along. Exhibit A...
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Trump + Business Savvy + Political Craft = Bloomberg

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 8/01/2016 05:11:00 PM
The guy in the middle has far more more stature than the one in the red cap. What's the world coming to when one of the United States' main political parties has nominated a xenophobic, Islam-bashing failed businessman with four bankruptcies being his most notable entrepreneurial achievement? His lack of business savvy is only matched by his status as a political neophyte, having never held elected office before. Plain and simple, this guy is a loudmouth braggart with very little to show for in either business or politics. And so it came to pass that one Michael Bloomberg made a speech at the Democratic National Convention...
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