7/30 Issue
Attention remained focused on the crisis in Ukraine this week. The Los Angeles Times suggested that the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 might spur international action. Before, calls to escalate sanctions against Russia were impeded by “Europeans’ desire to protect their business with Moscow,” but now, “Putin has a problem he didn’t have a week ago: Europe’s politicians and public are watching.”
The Financial Times writes, however, that new efforts by the EU to increase pressure on Russia have “swiftly opened up divisions among the bloc’s 28 member states.” For the EU to give a coherent response to Russia’s actions will require “a willingness to compromise and some clear thinking.” But in the meantime, the Wall Street Journal writes, “Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine continues as usual…. He won’t change until he concludes that the cost of his aggression is too high to sustain. So far the costs have been minuscule, and Mr. Putin is reacting with predictable contempt.”
One might question, however, just how sensitive to such costs Mr. Putin is. The Economist reports that “the cost to Russian investors of Vladimir Putin’s rule” may be as high as one trillion dollars. This calculation stems not directly from sanctions, but “from the fact that investors regard Russian assets with suspicion.”
Economic woes, of course, are not limited to Russia. The New York Times writes that, as part of efforts to increase to women’s workforce participation, “which Japan needs to spur economic growth,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called on businesses to put more women in management positions. But this solution may not fit the problem: “only one in 10 working women say they want to be promoted to management.”
In the U.S. economy, on the other hand, “positive inflation momentum is apparent from both the top down and the bottom up,” writes Institutional Investor. Improving employment may lead to wage growth, while unique events that have depressed inflation, such as the sequester and the strength of the dollar, are unlikely to be issues going forward.
Finally, Euromoney named UBS “Bank of the Year.” “Less than three years ago, UBS was written off as one of the ultimate victims of the financial crisis. The bold decisions taken then by a new chief executive and his management team make it today a bank that others seek to emulate.”
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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.
