The Economist (March 31)
“Just six words suffice to sum up President Donald Trump’s approach to trade …make threats, strike deals, declare victory.” But this will not create a victory. “Even if conflict is averted and China gives ground… the result will be a bad one for the world, and for America. That is partly because of Mr Trump’s character. If he thinks he has won one fight, he is likelier to start another. It is also because his policy is founded on wretched economics and dangerous politics.”
Tags: China, Conflict, Dangerous, Deals, Economics, Politics, Threats, Trade, Trump, Victory, Wretched
Business Times (March 28)
Kim Jong Un’s visit to Beijing “is only the latest sign of moving geopolitical plates over the Korean stand-off. Following spiralling tensions in the peninsula in 2017 over the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes, 2018 has brought unexpected, and what could yet prove remarkable, diplomatic respite that has seen a mini-rapprochement between North and South.”
Tags: Beijing, Diplomatic, Geopolitical, Kim, Korea, Missiles, Nuclear weapons, Rapprochement, Stand-off, Tensions
Reuters (March 27)
Oil prices are holding firm, “supported by concerns that tensions in the Middle East could lead to supply disruptions, although further rises expected in U.S. crude output loomed over markets.”
Tags: Crude, Firm, Middle East, Oil, Output, Prices, Supply disruptions, Tensions, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (March 27)
“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un paid a surprise visit to China this week, in his first known foreign trip since taking power in late 2011.” With upcoming U.S. and South Korean summits approaching, “analysts say the trip appears to be an effort to mend fences with Beijing, as Washington stakes out a tougher line on denuclearization talks planned for May.”
Tags: Analyst, China, Denuclearization, Kim, North Korea, South Korea, Summits, U.S.
New York Times (March 26)
Rather than “a sign of rising self-assuredness,” President Trump’s recent actions reveal the president to be “growing increasingly irascible as his sense of desperation surges. The world is closing in on Trump and he is in an existential fight for his own survival. This is precisely what makes him so dangerous.” He is becoming a growing “threat to the country.” The U.S. presidency brings “awesome power, and Trump will harness and deploy it all as guard and guarantee against his own demise.”
Bloomberg (March 26)
“Tokyo bulls can’t buy a break. Just as the economy shows signs of life, they’re ensnared in a global equity meltdown that on Friday alone lopped $200 billion from the price of shares.” The threat of a trade war, a sell off by foreign investors and the surging yen are “all starting to dent sentiment for Japan, where bears had previously been hard to find.”
Tags: Bears, Bulls, Economy, Foreign investors, Global equity, Japan, Meltdown, Sell-off, Sentiment, Shares, Surging yen, Tokyo, Trade war
The Economist (March 24)
“Constitutionally Mr Putin cannot stand in 2024, and from now on political life will be dominated by the question of succession and expectation of his departure.” There is likely to be a generational sea change as the children and grandchildren of the glasnost and perestroika (openness and restructuring) sown by Gorbachev come to the fore. There will no doubt be tension. Putin’s very “own survival and preservation of the system he now presides over will be his sole objective.”
Tags: Constitution, Generational, Glasnost, Gorbachev, Perestroika, Putin, Sea change, Succession, Survival
Gizmodo (March 23)
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch “has more lost and discarded plastic inside it than previous surveys suggested—like, a lot more. And it’s still growing.” A recent study published in Scientific Reports suggest it “is filled with 79,000 metric tonnes (87,000 tons) of plastic, which is between 10 to 16 times higher than previous estimates…. Disturbingly, plastic pollution inside the GPGP ‘is increasing exponentially and at a faster rate than in surrounding waters.’”
Tags: Disturbing, Estimates, Exponentially, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Growing, Plastic, Pollution
CNN (March 23)
“The thickening legal morass around the President involving the three sex-related lawsuits threatens to deepen his legal exposure and add to the incessant chaos that whirls around the White House.” If the suits “are allowed to go forward they could eventually force the President to provide depositions. Given his demonstrated tendency not to always tell the truth he would potentially risk perjuring himself under oath, thereby taking a case from the civil to the criminal realm.”
Tags: Chaos, Criminal, Depositions, Lawsuits, Legal exposure, Morass, Perjury, Sex, Threat, Trump, Truth
Institutional Investor (March 22)
“In 2017, private equity and private debt funds raised $560 billion, 10 percent above what was raised the year before. Real estate investors, however, got the message that valuations may be stretched. Fund raising for property declined to a level last seen in 2013.”
Tags: Debt, Fund raising, Funds, Investors, Private equity, Property, Real estate, Stretched, Valuations
