Washington Post (June 8)
“Trump is waging a trade war in the dumbest way possible.” In the best of times, “trade wars are neither good nor easy to win…. Every side loses, experiencing lost jobs, crippled businesses and higher prices for consumers.” Trumps tariffs are now estimated to result in 16 lost U.S. jobs for every job gained in the aluminum/steel industry: a painful, self-inflicted wound. Moreover, the counterpunches of our trading partners “are likely to draw more blood.” With the “already announced $40 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs on U.S.-made products,” Canada, the EU, Mexico, Russia, India, Japan and Turkey have “fine-tuned the art of minimizing their own pain — and maximizing ours.”
Tags: Aluminum. Steel, Businesses, Canada, Consumers, Counterpunches, Dumbest, EU, India, Japan, Lost jobs, Mexico, Prices, Russia, Tariffs, Trade war, Trading partners, Trump, Turkey, U.S.
Washington Examiner (June 1)
“With President Trump’s incredibly foolhardy decision Thursday to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union, the probability grows of an economic crash this fall.”
Investment Week (April 27)
The European Union’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPS) regulation “is aimed at helping retail investors better understand and compare the key features, risks, rewards and costs of different products through a short Key Information Document (KID).” However, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) “has expressed he is ‘concerned’ about the new PRIIPS legislation, highlighting literature requirements ‘are not providing useful context’ while there is evidence it is causing US funds to withdraw from Europe.”
Tags: Bailey, Context, Costs, EU, FCA, KID, PRIIPS, Regulation, Retail investors, Rewards, Risks, US funds, Useful
The Guardian (March 19)
“As the disastrous impact of leaving the EU becomes clearer, UK citizens should be allowed another say.” Some forecasts estimate that it will take “at least 20 years before the UK economy stabilises after Brexit.” And the London School of Economics “found that all EU countries will lose income after Brexit. The overall GDP fall in the UK is estimated at between £26bn and £55bn, depending on the negotiated settlement. In the most pessimistic scenario, the cost of Brexit could be as high as £6,400 for each household.”
Tags: Brexit, Disastrous, EU, GDP, Impact, London School of Economics, Settlement, UK
The Guardian (January 10)
“It has been evident for many months that the government is bluffing, and is developing no substantive contingency plans…. The government pretends that Brexit isn’t happening when the facts do not suit it; refuses to confront the realities staring it in the face; and reacts furiously when the EU declines to imitate its constructive ambiguity, failures of communication and outright delusion.”
Tags: Ambiguity, Bluffing, Brexit, Contingency plans, Delusion, EU, Government, UK
Business Insider (January 4)
“Of all the risks facing financial markets in 2018, none is perceived to be greater than a hard Brexit from the European Union. That’s the overwhelming view of HSBC’s client base with a whopping 76% nominating this as the greatest risk facing financial markets this year.”
Tags: 2018, EU, Hard Brexit, Risks. Financial markets, UK
The Economist (September 23)
“Tensions over China’s industrial might now threaten the architecture of the global economy. America’s trade representative this week called China an ‘unprecedented’ threat that cannot be tamed by existing trade rules. The European Union, worried by a spate of Chinese acquisitions, is drafting stricter rules on foreign investment. And, all the while, China’s strategy for modernising its economy is adding further strain.”
Tags: Acquisitions, China, EU, Foreign investment, Global economy, Strain, Tension, Threat, Trade rules, U.S.
Investment Week (September 13)
“UK asset managers have listed numerous concerns surrounding the UK’s upcoming split from the European Union including staffing, delegation and passporting issues.” In jeopardy stands “the UK’s position as the largest asset management centre in Europe” and some European clients have already said “they had chose to contract with managers in other jurisdictions rather than face uncertainty surrounding contracting with a UK-based entity.”
Tags: Asset managers, Clients, EU, Jeopardy, Passporting, Staffing, UK, Uncertainty surrounding
Reuters (August 6)
“Watching the slow-motion crash of Britain’s exit negotiations with the European Union is a disconcerting experience. A state that once ran a global empire is looking second-rate.” Realism has all but been abandoned. “The government’s implausible expectations about what it may be able to achieve” reveal a “dismaying lack of historical and strategic understanding about how Britain lost its clout outside the European club more than half a century ago.”
Tags: Brexit, Clout, Crash, Disconcerting, EU, Expectations, Global empire, Implausible, Negotiations, Realism, Strategic, UK, Understanding
Bloomberg (August 29)
“Brexit is beginning to look like a classic case of a mountain giving birth to a mouse” and, except for losing its say in EU affairs, little is likely to change. “The U.K. will simply lose its vote in the EU. The rest will remain as it is now for an indefinite period during which a new trade deal will be discussed in the standard EU fashion — slowly, deliberately, with each of the 27 EU countries working through its own agenda until there’s a consensus.”
Tags: Agenda, Brexit, Consensus, Deliberate, EU, Slow, Trade deal, UK
