Under pressure from Wall Street and the White House, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates on Wednesday for a second straight meeting, but declined to signal if it would continue to drop rates in the future.
Related: Ilhan Omar condemns Trump for spreading 'lies that put my life at risk'
Continue reading...Mario Draghi says bank will reboot quantitative easing in month Lagarde succeeds him
The European Central Bank has announced a fresh stimulus package in an attempt to prevent the fragile eurozone economy from grinding to a halt, with an interest rate cut and plans to pump €20bn (£19bn) a month into the financial markets.
In one of his final acts in his ECB presidency, before Christine Lagarde takes charge in November, Mario Draghi said governments across the eurozone needed to take greater steps to reboot growth by ramping up public spending or cutting taxes.
Continue reading...President tweeted about the firing after reports emerged Bolton opposed Trump plan to hold peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David
Trump has taken the stage at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference and appears to (so far) be sticking to the teleprompter.
He has touted the importance of HBCUs and celebrated his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, as a champion for the institutions.
Trump is expected to soon start speaking at the National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference. The president was scheduled to take the podium at 2:15 p.m. E.T. but is apparently running behind.
Continue reading...French economist’s Capital and Ideology expands on themes in Capital in the 21st Century, which sold 2m copies
Six years after being catapulted to fame with a blockbuster about the concentration of wealth, the French economist Thomas Piketty has returned with an epic new book on capitalism.
Abiding by the rule that every bestseller demands a follow-up, Capital and Ideology expands on the themes sketched out in Capital in the 21st Century, which sold 2m copies worldwide after its publication in 2013.
Continue reading...Prices are at record levels and demand is growing for fishermen north of the border after China imposed tariffs on live lobsters
Long hours, rolling ocean swells, and the occasional spring snowstorm are all part of the job for Francis Morrissey.
“It’s bred into you from the time you’re a child: you either like the ocean or you don’t,” said the fisherman and business owner from the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. “Even when I’m in the office, I wish I was out there.”
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of business, economics and markets as factories in Europe’s largest economy stutter
Eurozone growth came in unchanged on its third estimate: 0.2% growth in the second quarter of the year.
A minor beat on the headline year-on-year growth rate, remaining at 1.2% against 1.1% expectations, but otherwise no shocks.
Labour has confirmed that it will not vote for an election on Monday even if a bill intended to stop a no-deal Brexit passes before then.
If we vote to have a general election, then no matter what it is that Boris Johnson promises, it is up to him to advise the Queen when the general election should be. And given that he has shown himself to be a manifest liar, and someone who has said that he will die in a ditch rather than stop no deal, and indeed his adviser, [Dominic] Cummings, has been swearing and shouting at MPs saying they are leaving on 31 [October] no matter what, our first priority has to be that we must stop no deal and we must make sure that that is going to happen.
Related: Brexit: Labour confirms it will not vote on Monday for early election - live news
Continue reading...Chinese exports worth $125bn will face new taxes from 1 September, while China places levy on oil as agreement becomes more distant
China and the United States have begun imposing additional tariffs on each other’s goods in the latest escalation of their bruising trade war that has sent shockwaves through the global economy.
A new round of tariffs took effect from 0401 GMT on Sunday, with Beijing’s levy of 5% on US crude oil marking the first time the fuel has been targeted since the world’s two largest economies started their trade war more than a year ago.
Continue reading...The fund browbeats poor countries into accepting neoliberal measures that exacerbate inequality and economic distress
When people think of the damage that wealthy countries – typically led by the US and its allies – cause to people in the rest of the world, they probably think of warfare. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died from the 2003 invasion, and then many more as the region became inflamed.
Related: Brexit: EU ‘would block trade deal if Britain reneged on bill’
Continue reading...Investors seek safe havens such as US treasuries and gold as the superpower standoff shows no sign of being resolved
Shares in Australia and across Asia Pacific have fallen sharply amid a new flare-up of US-Chinese trade tensions.
Despite a senior Chinese leader saying Beijing wanted to resolve the dispute with “calm negotiations”, indices were deep in the red on Monday.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has admitted he may rethink his deepening trade war with China after criticism from fellow world leaders at the G7 summit in Biarritz. Asked at a working breakfast with Boris Johnson if he had had second thoughts about the standoff, the president replied: 'Yeah, sure. Why not? … I have second thoughts about everything'
Continue reading...The G7 thought it had solved Africa’s problems, but rising child poverty is a ticking time bomb
Time was when Africa dominated gatherings of the G7. In the period between two summits held in the UK – Birmingham in 1998 and Gleneagles in 2005 – the talk was of little else. There was public activism and it led to political action.
In part, that was because the big developed countries were enjoying a spell of low-inflationary growth and could look beyond their own problems to see a bigger picture. There was the occasional financial panic, but the G7 thought the problems of economic management had largely been solved and all that was needed was a bit of tinkering by technocratic central bankers.
Continue reading...President ‘hereby orders’ US firms to seek alternative locations and suggests Fed Chair is an ‘enemy’
Donald Trump escalated his attacks on China on Friday, bumping up tariffs on Chinese imports and ordering US companies to leave China.
Trump’s announcements on Friday – all on Twitter – came after the president launched another blistering criticism of the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, asking: “Who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or [China’s] Chairman Xi?”
Continue reading...On Friday the US president ‘hereby ordered’ companies to halt business with China, among other attacks – how did we get here?
Even by Donald Trump’s standards his Twitter rant attacking China on Friday was extraordinary. In a series of outbursts Trump “hereby ordered” US companies to stop doing business with China, accused the country of killing 100,000 Americans a year with imported fentanyl and stealing hundred of billions in intellectual property.
The attack marked a new low in Sino-US relations and looks certain to escalate a trade war already worrying investors, manufacturers and economists who are concerned that the dispute between the two economic superpowers could trigger a recession.
Continue reading...Move puts additional 5% and 10% on imports in latest tit-for-tat between top two economies
China has unveiled retaliatory tariffs against about $75bn (£60bn) worth of US goods, putting up to 10% on top of existing rates in the latest tit-for-tat in the dispute between the world’s top two economies.
The salvo from China on Friday comes after the US unveiled tariffs on an additional $300bn of Chinese goods, including consumer electronics, scheduled to go into effect in two stages on 1 September and 15 December.
Continue reading...Climate emergency and population growth blamed for deteriorating water quality, with ‘cocktail of chemicals’ changing as countries become richer
The planet is facing a mounting and “invisible” water pollution crisis, according to a hard-hitting World Bank report, which claims the issue is responsible for a one-third reduction in potential economic growth in the most heavily affected areas.
The study, which assembled the world’s largest database of water pollution, assesses how a combination of bacteria, sewage, chemicals and plastics suck oxygen from water supplies and transform water into poison for people and ecosystems.
Continue reading...Representative Ben Ray Luján, the assistant House speaker, endorses opening an impeachment inquiry, Politico reports
Representative Ilhan Omar has promised to post a live stream of her imminent press conference with Representative Rashida Tlaib on the topic of their being banned from travel to Israel and Palestine in her Twitter feed here.
snap
The debunked study you’re referring to was based on 21 undecided voters. For context that’s about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted. https://t.co/0zHnWvGjSv
Continue reading...Bundesbank says summer’s slump in exports is expected to continue into the autumn
Germany’s economy is heading into recession after the country’s central bank warned that a slump in exports during the summer was likely to continue into the autumn.
The Bundesbank said a downturn in orders for cars and industrial equipment in the second quarter of the year was likely to continue in the third quarter, leaving the economy on the brink of a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.
Continue reading...The US president’s talk of a ‘large real estate deal’ says a lot about his view of the world
Greenland, and more specifically its purchase by the US, is being actively discussed in Donald Trump’s Oval Office. But what exactly is it that makes one of the world’s most desolate places such an attractive proposition?
For the president, it is the real estate deal of a lifetime, one that would secure a land mass a quarter the size of the US and cement his place in US history alongside President Andrew Johnson, who bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, and Thomas Jefferson, who secured Louisiana from the French in 1803.
Continue reading...Beijing has alarmed investors by threatening counter-measures against the US, threatening to escalate the trade war
Earlier:
Update: Britain’s FTSE 100 has hit a new six-month closing low.
The blue-chip index just closed 80 points lower at 7,067, a drop of 1.1%.
Time for a quick recap
Financial markets remain volatile today, as fears of an economic downturn hit stock prices and drive bond prices to new record highs.
Related: Online shoppers and Amazon Prime Day lift UK retail sales
If President Xi would meet directly and personally with the protesters, there would be a happy and enlightened ending to the Hong Kong problem. I have no doubt! https://t.co/eFxMjgsG1K
Continue reading...Signs of a global economic slowdown roiled the markets on Wednesday as shares dived and investors fled to bonds with such intensity that short-term yields rose above longer-term ones for the first time since the crisis of a decade ago – an inversion many market-watchers saw as a strong signal of an approaching recession.
Related: Inverted curve proves White House has won its battle with the Fed
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