Since at its core, yesterday’s 1-page “tax plan” was a Goldman creation, who better to explain what Trump offered than Goldman Sachs itself, which it did overnight in a far lengthier note from its chief Washington analyst Alec Phillips. Here is Goldman with an elaboration of the handful of bullet points contained on the much anticipated one page, extended to 6 pages. Q&A on the President’s Tax […]
By Jeffrey Heller | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM The Palestinian Authority told Israel on Thursday it will no longer pay for the electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, Israeli officials said, a move that could lead to a complete power shutdown in the territory whose two million people already endure blackouts for much of the day. The decision was another sign of a hardening of Palestinian Authority policy towards its […]
Betting big on Amazon and selling the shares of traditional retailers has been a blockbuster trade for some time. Now, a small but growing number of hedge funds are wagering that the next leg of the woes afflicting bricks and mortar retailers in the US will unfold dramatically for those shopping mall owners who have largely so far been considered immune. The level of bets against some […]
LONDON British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told voters not to dismiss opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a harmless “mutton-headed old mugwump” but rather to see him as a serious threat to the economy and national security. In his first intervention in the campaign ahead of a snap election due on June 8, the Conservative politician argued that it would be disastrous for Britain if veteran leftist […]
The big announcement of the really, really big Trump Tax Plan with the “biggest tax cuts in history” came out bigly on Wednesday, as Trump promised. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, Trump’s latest tax team, beamed proudly as they presented their baby. The stock market took a deep breath, then looked at their brainchild and completely petered out. First, let me say, I clearly have nothing to recant […]
By Mica Rosenberg and Dan Levine | NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO Even if President Donald Trump wins an appeal of a court ruling blocking his executive order on sanctuary cities, arguments made by the government in the case could permanently harm its efforts to cut off federal funding to targeted cities, some legal experts say. Trump’s original order, issued on Jan. 25, stated that cities […]
A Malta magistrate is investigating explosive claims of money laundering and corruption that have put New Zealand in the middle of a global cash trail from the family of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev. President Aliyev’s daughter, Leyla Aliyeva, is alleged to have channelled more than $1.5 million to senior figures of the Malta government, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s wife. These include alleged payments to Panama companies […]
Donald Trump has decided not to pull the US out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, agreeing instead with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts to “proceed swiftly” with negotiations to update the agreement, according to the White House. The move came in hastily arranged calls between the three leaders after news leaked that the White House was considering unveiling an executive order on Saturday that would have […]
By Phil Stewart and David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Trump administration said on Wednesday it aimed to push North Korea into dismantling its nuclear and missile programs through tougher international sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and remained open to negotiations to bring this about. The U.S. stance, which appeared to signal a willingness to exhaust non-military options in spite of repeated warnings that “all options are on […]
By Luc Cohen | LA MATANZA, Argentina LA MATANZA, Argentina Billboards in Buenos Aires province’s working-class La Matanza district trumpet a soon-to-be completed bus lane alongside the face of the district’s mayor, an ally of former populist President Cristina Fernandez. Although it was originally conceived when Fernandez was president, the 2 billion-peso ($129.24 million) “Metrobus” lane is being paid for by centre-right President Mauricio Macri’s government and […]
President Donald Trump’s top economic team unveiled what they called the biggest tax cut in US history, proposing a sharp reduction in corporate taxes and a simplification of individual rates they said would unleash economic growth. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said the proposal would slash corporate taxes from 35 per cent to 15 per cent and include a “one-time” cut-rate tax to induce companies to repatriate […]
The Iraqis do not have the luxury of conducting a siege: Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has told his generals that dragging out the Mosul operation, now in its seventh month, would work only to the advantage of the Islamic State, which many in the West call ISIS or ISIL, but the Iraqis call Daesh. Continue reading the main story This was not the mission that American military […]
Artist’s impression of a diamond quantum sensor Image: David A. Broadway/cqc2t.org Researchers at the University of Melbourne (UoM) have announced a boost to the development of future electronics, producing imagery of electrons moving in two-dimensional graphene. In the above image, the spotlight-like shine below the diamond represents light passing through the diamond defect and detecting the movement of electrons. Electrons are shown as red spheres, trailed by […]
In the month of April, two different verdicts from two different cases were passed in two very different courts in Pakistan. Two different men were on trial accused of two different crimes. One was let off easy for now, while the other was declared as guilty as guilty could be. Safe to say both verdicts were the cause of consternation and confusion. One of course, was the […]
ESPN on Wednesday went through with a long-awaited round of layoffs that will trim about 100 commentators from the sports network’s payroll as cord-cutters and digital media upstarts continue to disrupt the broadcaster’s business model. Among those laid off are on-camera personalities that have become familiar faces on the network’s coverage of hockey, football and baseball and writers for ESPN’s digital platforms. ESPN President John Skipper announced […]
Tax Foundation: Not what it seems? The other big player, the Tax Foundation, is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that researches state and federal tax policies, and meets with lawmakers, citizens, and journalists to provide expert advice on tax policy. The group’s mission is to “improve lives through smarter tax policy,” according to the foundation’s website. Smarter tax policy, the foundation argues, includes making the tax code […]
By Michael Shields | ZURICH ZURICH Swiss voters look set to decide for a second time whether to impose curbs on immigration from the European Union after the cabinet proposed on Wednesday allowing a straight yes-or-no referendum on an issue that still bedevils ties with the EU. In a 2014 referendum, voters narrowly backed upper limits and quotas to reduce immigration from the EU, amid concerns that […]
Over the years, we’ve seen technologies push the envelope on reality. When the Iranians shot off a bunch of missiles in 2008, for example, it was quickly discovered that they fired only one missile and just Photoshopped the rest in. More recently, on social media, it can be difficult to know fact from fiction. Now we have Lyrebird, a Montreal-based startup that says it can […]
No president likes being judged on his first hundred days in office, not least Donald Trump. It is, he tweeted last week, a “ridiculous standard” by which to be measured, even though he also claimed to have accomplished “a lot”. With his 100th day in the White House falling on Saturday, investors have more nuanced ideas. For much of 2017 financial markets have doubted the global “Trump […]
By Marton Dunai | BUDAPEST BUDAPEST Anti-government protesters have filled Budapest’s streets in recent weeks, but divisions within the opposition and weak support outside the capital mean they are unlikely to herald a serious threat to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in next year’s election. Triggered by a law targeting an international school founded by liberal U.S. financier George Soros, the rallies have galvanised broader public anger against […]
Modest dress is enjoying a renaissance. Fashion brands are increasingly embracing the long-held view shared by those in region that style does not have to equate to revealing a lot of flesh. Building on the foundations of sensuality over sexuality, and demure over décolletage, the West is finally catching up with the Middle East in terms of tasteful dressing. Women in the Middle East have long expressed […]
With little macro data overnight (aside from a modestly disappointing Australian CPI print), offset by an ongoing of corporate profits (this is the single busiest week for corporate earnings in more than 10 years), today everyone’s attention will be focused on three things to come out of Washington: taxes, healthcare, spending. And while we did our best to summarize what is known and unknown last night, this […]
This piece originally appeared in Local Edition, our newsletter following the digital transformation of local news. Want to be part of the conversation? You can sign up here. What do you need to unlearn to stay in journalism? This week, two journalists named almost exactly the same thing. That’s not rare, but it struck me as interesting because they’re at such different points in their career. Here’s what they […]
Credit Suisse has launched a SFr4bn ($4bn) share issue and said it will abandon plans to list its Swiss division in an attempt to draw a line under capital fears that have dogged the bank since chief executive Tidjane Thiam took over two years ago. Investors expected the bank’s quarterly earnings on Wednesday to feature only limited news on its much-anticipated capital plans since it is not […]
