Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) on Sunday warned that current U.S. foreign policy could have negative consequences for years because the Syrian people would “take revenge” if the United States decided not to take military action to oust President Bashar Hafez al-Assad. During an interview…
Is income inequality beyond fixing?
A critical concern of our time is not simply our high levels of income inequality and their negative impact on opportunity and mobility. It’s how inequality and immobility become entrenched in the system—how they replicate.In a nation like ours, where the flow of money into politics keeps getting stronger, one way this occurs is through the political preferences of the wealthy. Of course, at any point in our history, the disproportionate policy influence of the wealthy has been a serious problem for our democracy. But in today’s America, two factors intensify this threat: the increased concentration of economic resources, and the increased access those resources have to the political system.There’s yet another piece to this puzzle, however, kind of a riff off the old F. Scott Fitzgerald line about the rich being different from the rest of us (i.e., besides “they’ve got more money”). What are the political preferences of the wealth and how do they differ from those of the rest of us?Continue Reading… … Read More
Market Buzz: Downhill slide
Russian stocks ended Wednesday’s session in the red. The MICEX lost 1.22%, while the RTS dropped 2.12% on negative sentiment on the major foreign markets as well as sliding oil prices. Europe also closed sharply lower on April 17. The Stoxx Europe 600 index slumped 1.5% to close at 283.73 – the lowest close of 2013. The reason for such negative movement was the statement from Germany’s Bundesbank. President Jens Weidmann announced that eurozone’s economic recovery could take a decade, adding to investors’ worries about global growth.The Frankfurt DAX dropped steeply by 2.34% to 7,503.03 on rumors that the country may be facing a sovereign downgrade. Paris’ CAC 40 lost 2.35% to a four-month low of 3,599.23. The FTSE 100 in London slid by 1.01 % to 6,244.21.The US markets also demonstrated weak performance on Wednesday closing sharply lower. Weaker-than-expected corporate earnings reports from the likes of Bank of America and JPMorgan and a 5.5% drop in Apple shares together with worries in Europe dragged the US indices down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.94% to 14,618.59 points. The S&P 500 dropped by 1.43% to 1,552.01, while the NASDAQ Composite lost 1.84% to 3,204.67.Asian markets mostly declined Thursday on falling commodity prices and weak earnings in the US. A drop in some technology stocks like Apple also added to the negative sentiment. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average gave up 0.4%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.7%, and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.3%.Mainland China and Hong Kong demonstrated moderate growth at one stage on economic update indicating an improvement in foreign investment inflow to China. However, soon the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng turned back to slide 0.3% and 0.2% accordingly.Oil continues to lose positions with Brent losing 0.13% to $97,5 and WTI down by 0.08% to $86.90. … Read More
Samsung admits to posting fake user reviews on the web
Officials in Taiwan are investigating claims that Samsung paid people to post favorable reviews about their products online while at the same time offering up negative feedback on rival HTC’s products. The investigation launched after the Fair Trade Commission received numerous complaints on the matter. … Read More
US publishes 18 names on Magnitsky list as Moscow warns of response
The SDN list published on the US Treasury Department website includes the names 18 people from Russia and the CIS countries, who are blacklisted under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.The law commonly known as the Magnitsky Act imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky and in other human rights abuses in the country. The 37-year-old Magnitsky died in a Moscow pre-trial detention center in November 2009.Russia will respond with an ‘anti-Magnitsky law’ in two days’ time, the Head of the State Duma International Relations Committee Aleksey Pushkov said on Friday, adding it will be “proportionate” to the US list.Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that the timing of the publication of the US blacklist was extremely poorly chosen, considering forthcoming visit of the US National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon. Lavrov also told reporters that if the list is published, Russia would react accordingly, and that the US side is aware of this.“In our response we will abide by the rules of parity. We will not publish anything substantially different in terms of the numbers [of names] published by the American side,” the Foreign Minister indicated.Despite sending a “negative” signal, the White House acted “more reasonably” than the US Congress by choosing to publish a shorter list, Aleksey Pushkov said.The Obama administration “has chosen not to go for a severe political confrontation with Moscow,” particularly prior to Thomas Donilon’s visit to Russia, Pushkov judged. Had the extended version of the list been published, and had it included high-level government figures, Donilon’s visit would have been “doomed to failure,” he said.Donilon, who is expected to hold bilateral talks on the anti-missile shield in Europe, the Korean peninsula crisis, and the Syrian conflict, is also bringing a “secret message” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Pushkov.Top Russian officials have repeatedly blasted the Magnistky Act as an attempt to subvert the laws of a sovereign country, and also to exploit a human tragedy for political ends.Earlier reports said the list would include the names of the 16 Russian officials “directly responsible” for Magnitsky’s death according to the US version of events, as well as two other persons not connected to the Hermitage Capital case.An original version of the ‘Magnitsky list’ included 60 names, with some proposing to extend it to some 280 blacklisted citizens of Russia. The latest – and the largest – variation was handed to the Obama administration by Congressman James P. McGovern, who threatened to lobby for a harsher law, should the White House shrink the document in question. … Read More
Market Buzz: Russian shares to fall on crude oil
April 11 was a brutal day for Russian markets, with the MICEX index dropping 1.7% to 1,401.73 by market close, the lowest since November 29. The RTS fell by 1.43%, likewise in negative territory. Crude oil – Russia’s largest export – also retreated yesterday. Russia’s biggest natural gas exporter Gazprom fell 2% to 126.80 rubles. Rosneft fell 1.6% just before market close to 222.22 rubles, hitting its lowest midday trading level since October 23. The ruble has gained slightly against the dollar, trading at 30.86. Today, Norilsk Nickel will release their 2012 financial statement, which Russian traders will eye closely. Russian company MMK will also publish its 2012 financial after a weak Q4 performance. European markets fared much better than their Russian counterparts, closing in the black. UK stocks soared for the fourth day in a row with the FTSE 100 climbing 28.77 points to 6,416.14 at London close. The German DAX closed at 7,810.63, gaining 0.78%, and the Spanish IBEX closed at 8,136, up 23.10 points, and is still trading well on Asian floors, up 0.28%. US markets saw slight gains. After a record high performance on April 10, American indices continued their upward trajectory: The Dow is up 0.09% to 31.86, the NASDAQ Composite rose 0.09% and the S&P 500 performed well, up 5.64 points to 1,593.37. The most highly anticipated market news from the US today will be the publication of macroeconomic data at 16:30 MSK. Asian stocks reached a 20-month low as the yen strengthened against the dollar. Following the Bank of Japan’s aggressive new stimulus plan, the dollar is now approaching the 100-yen mark. Japan’s TPX index dropped 1.03 points, its first decline in eight days. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index has risen 0.08%, Japan’s Nikkei is down 0.71% and the Shanghai Composite has decreased 0.26%. Both crude and light oil are down. Brent is at 104.17, down 0.03%, and WTI is at $93.16 per barrel, down 0.31%. … Read More
First deflation in over 40 years hits Greece, reminder of recession reality
The Hellenic Statistical Authority released data Tuesday in an official press release.The deflation is linked strictly to the consumer sector, as service providers have been forced to cut their prices due to an overall decline in consumption. As Greece enters year 5 of recession, people just aren’t buying.The telecommunications sector, for example, has deflated by 5.1%, and the health Consumer Price Index (CPI) has dropped by 4.6%. Other industries have remained unaffected or have even increased.CPI hasn’t changed drastically compared to February 2013, with the exception of clothing and footwear, which has jumped up 33.4%.The deflationary trend is expected to continue for several months before stabilizing, according to Michael Massourakis, chief economist at Alpha Bank.“If we don’t see further tax or energy price increases, the recent decline in labor costs will have a negative impact on prices,” said Massourakis.For some, the news doesn’t come as a surprise, and is a ripple effect an economy that has been rapidly contracting since 2008. ”It’s more of a surprise that it [deflation] did not happen sooner,” said Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics, describing falling prices as a “double edged sword”. Does Greekness have to be a weakness?Consumer prices aside, Greece has shown a comprehensive price increase of 2.5%, but analysts are really fixated on the 0.2% deflation criterion.This minute economic shift has met mixed reactions in Greece, which has experienced constant inflation, and not deflation, since 1968.Deflation in consumer price index is excellent news for Greek exporters, who can gain a competitive edge in the export market, and also behooves cash-strapped consumers, whose purchasing power has slightly increased.The falling prices are distressing for government officials, because if they continue on a downward trajectory, it means Greece will amass more debt, and force lenders into steeper losses.The CPI is often used as an economic indicator, a sort of ‘test’ of how effective government economic policy is, and, it seems, Greece isn’t passing.”Given the still dire economic environment, we expect consumer price inflation to remain negative during the rest of the year,” said Diego Iscaro, economist at IHS Global Insight.State of the StateThe country has been in economic turmoil since crisis hit 2008. All the numbers coming from Greece are ominous. GDP is shrinking, and has fallen by 22% in the last 5 years and is expected to drop another 4.5% as Greece enters its 6th year of recession.Unemployment is 27% and a portion of the labor force has already left in search of work. The economy is propped up on over 100 billion euros of EU aid.Greece is “in a critical situation”, according to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras … Read More
