Washington Post (April 18)
“The report of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is not what the American public had been led to expect.” As a next step, “the House Judiciary Committee must hear directly from Mr. Mueller.” They also need access to the complete, unredacted report. Ultimately, lawmakers will “face a difficult balancing act between the many valid reasons to regard impeachment as a last resort, and their responsibility to ensure that no one is above the law.”
Tags: Access, Impeachment, Last resort, Lawmakers, Mueller, Responsibility, Special counsel, Unredacted report
Newsweek (April 17)
“The Mueller Report will be interesting for what it tells us about the evidence Congress will be considering in determining whether to impeach Donald J. Trump for obstruction of justice.” Most of “the offenses, including the felony campaign crimes we already know Trump has been accused of by federal prosecutors, are more serious than the offenses the Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton for not long ago.”
Tags: Clinton, Congress, Evidence, Felony, Impeach, Mueller Report, Obstruction of justice, Prosecutors, Trump
Financial Times (April 16)
“More than a third of Russians cannot afford to buy two pairs of shoes a year, and 12 per cent use an outdoor or communal toilet at home,” according to Russias statistics agency, Rosstat. These and other findings underscore “deepening economic gloom as tepid growth, five years of falling real incomes, high inflation, rising taxes and cuts to social handouts squeeze people.”
Tags: Afford, Economic gloom, Handouts, Inflation, Real incomes, Russia, Shoes, Statistics, Taxes, Tepid growth, Toilet
Investment Week (April 16)
“Too much excitement can easily lead to too much capital chasing too few ideas. This pushes up valuations and ruins the investment opportunity.” In the last 15 years, Tesla has revolutionized the automotive industry, but investors may do better with less glamorous automakers. “Tesla will lose its lead.” Its “early technological lead” will close over time “because history has shown that technology differentiation in the auto industry does not persist.”
Tags: Differentiation
Wall Street Journal (April 16)
“The full extent of the destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, surely the most beloved of all Gothic buildings, will not be known for some time, but for world culture it is a catastrophe.”
Tags: Beloved, Culture, Destruction, Gothic, Notre Dame, Paris
Salt Lake Tribune (April 14)
The Trump administration has “no plan” to address the immigration crisis. “This president has done nothing but rant about his own failures both privately and publicly…. It is not hyperbole to say that the nation, through its top executive, has cast aside law and order in favor of despotism. The problem is that this president is not even a good despot.”
The Economist (April 13)
Though relatively new, Central Bank independence has become sweeping. “In a single generation billions of people around the world have grown used to low and stable inflation and to the idea that the interest rates on their bank deposits and mortgages are under control.” Increasingly, it looks like that independence may be a short-lived. Today, the success of central banks “is threatened by a confluence of populism, nationalism and economic forces that are making monetary policy political again.”
Tags: Bank deposits, Central banks, Independence, Inflation, Interest rates, Mortgages, Nationalism, Populism
New York Times (April 13)
“Brexit is not doable because it makes no sense, whatever the prime minister’s scattershot efforts or offers to resign. You can hoodwink people—but not if you give them three years to reflect on how they were hoodwinked before doing the deed the hoodwinking was about. The British cannot actually go through with something that will lower their incomes, make them poorer, lose them jobs, drain investment, expose their market to trade deals over which they would have no say, and—just an afterthought—lead to the breakup of Britain.”
Tags: Brexit, Hoodwink, Incomes, Investment, Jobs, Market, PM, Scattershot, Trade deals
Chicago Tribune (April 11)
“Long ago, Julian Assange wore out his welcome at Ecuador’s London embassy.” He finally “got his eviction notice Thursday…. Ecuador’s decision to hand Assange over had been a long time coming—too long. He was the embassy Guest Who Wouldn’t Leave. Now, finally, Assange has moved on to new lodgings — for the time being courtesy of the British authorities.”
Tags: Assange, Authorities, Ecuador, Embassy, Eviction notice, London, UK, Welcome
CNN (April 11)
“Investors will be in wait-and-watch mode until polling ends and India’s new leader is elected on May 23. Whoever wins, business is unlikely to get the kind of boost seen in the last five years…. Still, analysts expect India to remain open to global investors no matter who is at the helm. And the country’s huge market of 1.3 billion people may simply be too tempting to pass up.”
