Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, Poverty demoralizes. A man in debt is so far a slave; and Wall-street thinks it easy for a millionaire to be a man of his word, a man of honor, but, that, in failing circumstances, no man can be relied on to keep his integrity. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wealth Liberty Blitzkrieg readers know that I’ve been extremely critical of […]
Gawd bless yer Mary Poppins. And gawd bless producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh for having the foresight more than 40 years ago to see that the 1964 film would make the perfect stage musical. Well, in the words of the super nanny herself: ‘practically perfect’. Thanks to that foresight, the theatre-lovers of the UAE have the opportunity until May 25 to enjoy this brilliant show being performed at […]
Theresa May appeared on course for an overwhelming general election victory after the Conservatives made sweeping gains in local elections, with Labour forced into retreat and the UK Independence party suffering an almost complete wipeout. The prime minister’s decision to fight a “Brexit election” and to adopt populist tactics in picking a fight this week with Brussels appeared to reap immediate dividends in the local polls, which […]
It has been a stressful day for oil traders. After rebounding from the six-month lows hit early Friday morning, oil prices are showing little sign of settling down, bouncing around between decent gains and slight declines. At publication time, Brent crude was completely flat for the day at $48.38 per barrel. WTI, the US benchmark, was down 0.15 per cent at $45.45. Oil prices have been hit […]
The pace of US job growth bounced back last month from a weak performance in March, underscoring the Federal Reserve’s view that the economy’s choppy first-quarter performance was probably a blip. The US economy added 211,000 jobs in April, compared with Wall Street expectations of 190,000. Payrolls for March was revised down to just a gain of 79,000 jobs, compared to an earlier estimate of 98,000. Meanwhile, […]
ANKARA A Turkish court on Friday rejected an appeal by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia against a government decision to block access to its website, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, a case that has heightened concerns about censorship in Turkey. An Ankara court rejected the appeal from the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, Anadolu said. It quoted the court as saying that while freedom of speech was […]
The US Department of Justice is investigating Greyball, a software tool used by Uber to show a misleading version of the app to regulators, adding to the company’s woes. While still preliminary, the investigation could embroil the San Francisco-based transportation company in another legal battle, at a time when Uber is already fighting accusations of patent infringement in court. Valued at $62.5bn by investors, Uber has been […]
The Australian dollar and Norwegian krone are vying for the ignominious title of worst-performing major currency today as commodity prices tumble. Following a stumble in oil prices in Asia on Friday that took Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate to their lowest since November, the krone (pictured above) suffered a sharp fall and surpassed the Aussie dollar as the worst among major currencies. The krone was down […]
“Something is off,” warns RBC’s head of cross-asset strategy Charlie McElligott in the introduction to his latest market noting that the swing in US fiscal policy optimism is coming at a critical time as the China’s liquidity tightening is spooking the reflation story. SUMMARY: Movement on US fiscal policy is currently driving US rates and equities higher, counteracting the tremendous negative implications of this ‘Chinese tightening / […]
Spotify and a host of European internet businesses have called on Brussels to crack down on what they see as troubling practices by the likes of Apple and Google. Big internet platforms “can and do abuse their privileged position”, according to a letter signed by the chief executives of Spotify, music streaming rival Deezer and German start-up investor Rocket Internet among others. Although the letter to the […]
Throw them into the bay, or throw them into jail? Those were two possible replies to a poll set up by a user on Twitter. He wanted to know how to deal with “treacherous journalists” – the journalists in question were reporters working for the Panamanian daily newspaper La Prensa. The paper’s newsroom lies just 7.2 miles away from the offices of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm […]
Commodities futures in China are diving further, led by another large drop in the price of iron ore to a six-month low. Iron ore futures were down by their daily limit of 8 per cent on the Dalian Commodity Exchange at Rmb458.5 ($66.48). Yesterday, futures were down by as much as the daily limit, before easing to close 5.3 per cent lower. Dalian coking coal futures were […]
The US energy industry has morphed from 2016’s big winner to the bottom of the heap this year in a slide that has accelerated as oil prices fell on Thursday to the lowest level since November. Energy stocks listed on the S&P 500 index dropped 1.9 per cent on Thursday. The fall brings the sector’s decline this year to 12.1 per cent, the biggest drop of the […]
May 4, 2017 by: Katrina Manson in New York Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican on his first foreign trip as US president in an effort to unite a coalition against Islamist terrorism and Iran and extract more from traditional allies. The travel plans mark a departure from US foreign policy norms, which usually see new presidents visit neighbouring Canada or Mexico within a month of taking office. […]
I’m a firm believer in always seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty, for seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and so on. When people congratulate me for taking the positive view, I say I’m not – it’s simply all a matter of perspective. Take my country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of the richest countries in the history of the world, […]
Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday rounded off the strongest set of quarterly results from “big oil” for over two years, even as a fresh slide in crude prices raised doubts over the sustainability of recovery from one of the deepest downturns in industry history. Earnings from the Anglo-Dutch group in the first three months of this year more than doubled from the same period of 2016. This […]
One of the EU’s most senior officials has called for a ceasefire in the verbal hostilities over Brexit with Theresa May, warning that looming talks could become “impossible” if calm is not restored. The intervention by Donald Tusk, European Council president, marks a concerted effort to defuse escalating tension between Brussels and London after the UK prime minister accused EU officials of trying to sabotage her election […]
Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles that highlight digital tools for journalists. You can read the others here. This week, my colleague Ren LaForme shares a tool readers shared with him. Got any great tools journalists should be using? Let Ren know! Interested in the transformation of local news? Join the conversation in our weekly newsletter, Local Edition. So what are we […]
US Treasuries came under pressure across the curve on Thursday, following a round of solid economic data and indications that the Federal Reserve is willing to look past the slowdown in economic growth at the start of this year. The 10-year yield was up 0.043 percentage point (4.3 basis points) at 2.363 per cent. Meanwhile, the policy-sensitive two-year yield ticked up 2.81 bps to 1.322 per cent. […]
Better known for his role in Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, Dev Patel has proven equally adept at drama and comedy. Patel joined the cast of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, as well as starred alongside acting royalty in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. This year, he’s starring alongside Jeremy Irons in The Man Who Knew Infinity, and Lion, with Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. Lion is based […]
Or at least not just about the Panama Papers. This election is about saving journalists their jobs. You see, the thing is, this really was the government that kept on giving. And I’m not referring to the just announced minimum wage increase which we will get in two years time, nor the hundreds of employees who have just started working with government and have been immediately given […]
Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are poised for a high-stakes vote on healthcare reform on Thursday that could decide whether the president will achieve one of the key elements of his domestic legislative agenda following a rough first 100 days in office. After three months of roller-coaster efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — the healthcare law known as Obamacare that was […]
By Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander | PARIS PARIS Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron clashed over their vision of France’s future, the euro and ways of fighting terrorism in an ill-tempered televised debate on Wednesday before Sunday’s run-off vote for the presidency. The two went into the debate with opinion polls showing Macron, 39, with a strong lead of 20 percentage points over […]
China has rapidly emerged as the leading issuer of green bonds, spurring excitement among the green finance community that they will help the world’s largest emitter reduce its choking pollution. But although the amount raised is carefully tracked, how the money is being spent is less clear. China issued $36bn of green bonds in 2016, up from almost none the year before, and analysts expect it to […]
