7/23 Issue
Armed conflicts around the world continued this week. Commenting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Eugene Robinson writes in the Washington Post, “I am simply stating the obvious: Nobody really wants to make peace.” While the U.S. should try to minimize outright violence, he says, “realistic U.S. policy in the Middle East should assume that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will continue indefinitely.” The Financial Times, too, calls the conflict a “desolate picture” that “rarely varies much,” suggesting that there remains only one way out of the bloody stalemate: “Palestinians need a state of their own.”
The conflict in Ukraine, meanwhile, has taken on a new dimension with the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The New York Times writes that whoever is responsible is “a war criminal.” Investigation of the crash site, however, has been hampered by “Russian-backed rebels who have controlled the incompetent searches.” The result? New pressure is on European leaders to “enforce more stringent sanctions against Russia if it fails to cooperate.” But Europe has reason to be tepid about such sanctions. The Washington Post reports on a recent study that warns that if Russia were to cut off natural gas exports, “Winter demand could not be satisfied” in Europe. If now forced to react, Europeans “may be facing a cold winter.”
Elsewhere in the world, Australia faces its own energy-related challenges as it tries to balance environmental and economic concerns. The New York Times reports that a tax on corporate carbon emissions there has been repealed. While critics say this move makes Australia “the first country to reverse progress on fighting climate change,” Prime Minister Tony Abbot called the defunct tax “a $9 billion handbrake on our economy.”
But perhaps pro-economic and pro-environment forces need not always be opposed. Euromoney writes that “For an asset class that accounts for less than 1% of the corporate bond market, green bonds have been attracting an awful lot of attention,” noting, however, that “just how motivated this [invested] money is by the green nature of the bonds…. is unclear.”
And environment aside, the U.S. economy continues to drag its feet. The Economist writes that “evidence is mounting that America’s potential growth rate has plummeted…. Solving the short-term problem means boosting demand…. But to pep up long-term growth, America also needs to address the supply side. In particular, it needs more workers and faster increases in productivity.”
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To see the overseas media’s takes on these and other developments, you can browse the Global News highlights in app or at http://www.irken.jp/gn/. Links to the original sources are provided above, but please note these are frequently updated. Links that were valid at publication may later be broken.
New York Times (July 22)
“The comments from European leaders have been clear and tough, but words will count for little unless European Union foreign ministers enforce more stringent sanctions against Russia…. After the downing of Flight 17 and the brutish handling of the victims, it is time for Europe to hold Mr. Putin to his words.”
Euromoney (July Issue)
Though they currently account for “less than 1% of the corporate bond market, green bonds have been attracting an awful lot of attention…. The Climate Bonds Initiative confidently predicts that total issuance could reach $40 billion by the end of this year and increase to $100 billion in 2015.”
The Economist (July 19)
The weak recovery continues in the U.S. with many economists estimating potential growth of 1.75%-2.0%. “Evidence is mounting that America’s potential growth rate has plummeted…. Solving the short-term problem means boosting demand, so the Federal Reserve should keep interest rates low. But to pep up long-term growth, America also needs to address the supply side. In particular, it needs more workers and faster increases in productivity.”
Tags: Federal Reserve, Growth, Interest rates, Productivity, Recovery, U.S., Weak, Workers
Washington Post (July 18)
“Energy politics underlie the explosive Ukraine crisis, as Europeans weigh U.S. calls for tougher sanctions against the ability of Russia to disrupt gas supplies this winter.” Despite the roll out of stronger penalties by Washington, the Europeans were dragging their feet, “a sign that many of its governments fear Moscow’s energy leverage more than U.S. displeasure.” With the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight, Europe may finally be forced to react and Europeans “may be facing a cold winter.”
Tags: Crisis, Downing, Energy, Europe, Gas supplies, Leverage, Malaysian Airlines, Penalties, Politics, Russia, Sanctions, U.S., Ukraine, Washington, Winter
Financial Times (July 17)
The current fighting between Israel and Hamas “looks like a new episode in a wearisomely familiar feud.” But the ongoing tragedy must be brought to an end. “Israel cannot remain oasis of peace in a region on fire.” The “Palestinians need a state of their own.”
Washington Post (July 17)
“Israelis and Palestinians may someday make peace. But the assumption should be that it won’t happen soon — perhaps not in our lifetimes.”
New York Times (July 17)
Australia became the first country to repeal a carbon tax, and “opposition politicians and environmentalists in Australia reacted with dismay…saying that it made Australia the first country to reverse progress on fighting climate change.”
7/16 Issue
“To win their fight for the status they deserve, the BRICS must choose their targets more shrewdly” asserts Bloomberg, referring to the impending creation of their own new currency reserve fund and development bank. “Neither invention is much needed, but for the inventors, this is beside the point.”
Also in need of shrewder target setting, writes the Los Angeles Times, is the United States with its surveillance program that is causing many Germans to “view America as a militaristic rogue state.” A growing rift between the countries could “deliver a blow to American national security that no amount of secret information could possibly justify.”
Within the United States, there is also a need for perspective in California, which, the New York Times reports, is experiencing a historic drought, though “you wouldn’t know it” by looking at the state’s water consumption.” Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration needs to “think a lot bigger” and “focus on longer-term policies that encourage people to alter their lifestyles and businesses to change how they operate.”
82 shootings in 84 hours in Chicago called attention to the magnitude of another U.S. crisis. This was “not in some far-flung war zone but on the streets of a major U.S. city,” the Washington Post notes, nor was it “the only city to experience gun violence over the holiday weekend.” “We can only hope that the bloody numbers help in tipping the balance toward eventual enactment of common-sense gun laws.”
In USA Today, Bill Gross, founder of PIMCO, also argues for perspective and common sense to guide “our economic future,” instead of “the race for short-term corporate profits.” “Income equality is good for business,” but wages are down to 42.5% of GDP. “Minimum-wage law increases, while seemingly anti-capitalistic and undemocratic, might be necessary for the common good — workers and corporations alike.”
The Wall Street Journal takes up the related issue of the proliferation of part-time work offering “lower pay, diminished benefits and little job security.” Although 288,000 jobs were reportedly created in June, this is not the whole picture, since 523,000 full-time jobs were actually lost. “There’s no point pretending that the sky is blue when so many millions can attest to dark clouds.”
And Japanese electronics firms may be owning up to their own dark clouds, The Economist writes, after “years of denial that surgery was needed” while continuing to “obsess about fancy hardware…. and failing to spot consumers’ changing tastes.” New business reorientation is a good step, but “visionary leaders” are still lacking. “It will take a lot more than a few whizzy new gadgets to fix the Japanese electronics firms.”
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To see the overseas media’s takes on these and other developments, you can browse the Global News highlights in app or at http://www.irken.jp/gn/. Links to the original sources are provided above, but please note these are frequently updated. Links that were valid at publication may later be broken.
Bloomberg (July 15)
“Cross-border private capital is so readily available for good emerging-market borrowers that multilateral lenders such as the World Bank are having to explain why they’re needed any longer. To justify their existence, they’re trying to recast themselves as repositories of development expertise.” With the BRICS poised to create their own new currency reserve fund and development bank, the proposed institutions look anachronistic. The BRICS just “don’t need their own bank.”
Tags: Borrowers, BRICS, Capital, Cross-border, Currency reserve fund, Development bank, Emerging market, Lenders, World Bank
