Newsweek (March 29)
“As a master of misdirection, Donald Trump is exceedingly good at shifting our attention away from things that matter. With a single tweet, he can magically shift the news narrative in an entirely new direction….President Trump’s greatest rhetorical magic trick, however, has been to create the illusion that he won the Presidency of the United States without the aid of the Russian government.
Tags: Attention, Illusion, Magic trick, Misdirection, Presidency, Rhetorical, Russia, Shifting, Trump, Tweet, U.S.
BBC (March 29)
“It is certainly the case that not all of our MPs, still less our citizens, would have been reaching eagerly for the bell ropes, had this been Brexit day, as scheduled. Particularly in Scotland.” Instead, “on this non-Brexit day, we might consider the more fundamental issues which have brought us to this impasse,” especially the UK Government’s miscalculation that “the EU would back down at the last moment, as is customarily the case.” Though “the EU has capitulated in the past to dissenting member states, “the UK is on the way out” and “its clout, consequently, is reduced.”
Tags: Capitulated, Citizens, EU, Government, Impasse, Miscalculation, MPs, Non-Brexit day, Scotland, UK
Deutsche Welle (March 29)
“Brexit has already taken down two prime ministers. In 10 days, a crisis summit in Brussels will determine whether the United Kingdom deserves one last chance or it is ultimately preferable to choose a hard Brexit and a miserable but quick end to the endless misery of this unending drama.”
Tags: Brexit, Brussels, Crisis summit, Endless, Hard Brexit, Miserable, Misery, UK
Bloomberg (March 28)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to create a “New Turkey,” but this is leaving “millions unmoored” as the “massive shift away from agrarian lifestyles” destabilizes “the country’s food supply and cost many their livelihoods.”
Tags: Agrarian, Erdogan, Food supply, Lifestyles, Livelihoods, President, Shift, Turkey, Unmoored
Financial Times (March 26)
“Ten years ago, you knew where you stood with your energy suppliers. Oil companies sold road fuel, while utilities supplied electricity and gas. Today those lines of demarcation are blurring: utilities can fill up your car and oil companies want to keep your lights on.” This will make for a “period of intensified competition and instability, as companies that were previously able largely to forget about each other are now forced to battle for dominance.”
Tags: Blurring, Competition, Electricity, Energy, Fuel, Gas, Instability, Intensified, Oil, Suppliers, Utilities
Reuters (March 25)
“Downbeat data from the US and Europe, combined with a cautious tone from the Federal Reserve, frightened investors last week. The first inversion in the US bond yield curve since 2007 also heightened concerns, by raising fears of a recession in the world’s largest economy.”
BBC (March 24)
“All over the world cities are grappling with apocalyptic air pollution but the capital of Mongolia is suffering from some of the worst in the world. And the problem is intrinsically linked to climate change. The country has already warmed by 2.2 degrees, forcing thousands of people to abandon the countryside and the traditional herding lifestyle every year for the smog-choked city where 90% of children are breathing toxic air every day.”
Tags: Air pollution, Apocalyptic, Cities, Climate change, Countryside., Herding, Lifestyle, Mongolia, Smog, Toxic air
CNN (March 24)
While Prime Minister May “is a focus of anger at home, opinion abroad is also worsening. From a distance, Britain’s long-esteemed political establishment appears to be crumbling, one of the original architects of modern democracy floundering in archaic and arcane process. Much as the British empire eroded publicly with nowhere to hide, the nation’s humiliation over Brexit has staggered center stage.”
Tags: Anger, Brexit, Crumbling, Democracy, Empire, Floundering, Humiliation, Long-esteemed, May, Opinion, UK
Pensions & Investments (March 22)
“For decades, South Korea’s most powerful tycoons ran their companies with little regard for minority shareholders. Then came Paul Singer. The hedge fund titan’s activist campaigns…have trained a spotlight on the corporate governance failures and complex ownership structures that saddle South Korean stocks with some of the world’s lowest valuations.” His defeat at Hyundai Motor “is unlikely to derail the nascent shift toward more accountability at the business groups that dominate Asia’s fourth-largest economy.”
Tags: Accountability, Activist, Corporate governance, Hedge-fund, Hyundai Motor, Minority shareholders, Paul Singer, South Korea, Valuations
Wall Street Journal (March 20)
“Global investors, who have enjoyed an excellent start to 2019, received some unsettling news from FedEx Corp.” The “weak results from the shipping giant bode poorly for the global economy, and investors don’t seem ready for a slowdown.”
Tags: FedEx, Global, Investors, Shipping, Slowdown, Unsettling news, Weak results
