he problem is instead more ideological, as Berlin's policy of having no fiscal deficit — which, in Germany, is known as the "black zero" — is extremely popular among a large sector of the electorate.
Okay - that is really cool. If only it was truly a priority in the United States as well...
the European Union, International Monetary Fund and U.S. officials criticized Germany for dragging its feet on a stimulus package
Interesting! I recall that the stimulus in Europe was performed significantly after the United States, but wasn't aware that Germany was dragging its feet.
Trump has conveyed publicly that he at least wants negotiations to cover Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program, in contrast to Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
It would be hilarious if we get a NAFTA part 2, where Trump negotiates a "new" and "better" deal with Iran that is essentially the same as what was under the Obama administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump would have to go against his own instincts and relent on sanctions pressure in return for mere de-escalation. If this attempt flops, Iran can apply the lessons from the summer in using military threats to break the stalemate.
It certainly appears that Trump is very comfortable with applying economic pressures, but not military pressure.
Iran has exposed U.S. President Donald Trump's extreme reticence toward war
I wonder if this has anything to do with the election...
Even if the United States agrees to a partial relaxation of its ban against Huawei, China will move full steam ahead to accelerate indigenous semiconductor development and software alternatives to its Western competitors.
Yep, this makes sense. One of the potential negative ramifications of the US/China trade war is accelerating China's independence from the United States and allies. Reducing this lever in the future.
Seoul's decision is a response to Tokyo's announcement on Aug. 2 that it would remove South Korea from its national security "white list" on Aug. 28.
Tokyo claimed that South Korea was exporting chemicals to North Korea - doesn't seem likely to me. These chemicals are also used in developing semi-conductors, which is a significant portion of South Korea's economy. Vox implied that this was due to historical relations between South Korea and Japan. Apparently South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that Japan would have to pay reparations for South Korean forced labor during WW2.
My guess is that this has to do with competition between the countries versus anything historical in nature.
he’s been serious about reining in wasteful spending, targeting debt and the deficit, and supporting free trade.
All good things to me!
These international disputes are only bound to become more heated and more complicated as the repercussions of climate change start to fully take shape.
This is rather interesting. Beyond threatening citizens, climate change also has geopolitical ramifications. Melting of the polar icecaps will free up oil reserves, rare earth metals, and trade routes. Denying climate change will negatively influence the United States arctic strategy.
Washington fears giving its global rival Beijing more control over strategic mineral reserves, as well as weakening Greenland's historic status in the North Atlantic security architecture.
This was mentioned in the Caspian Report too: that Greenland is essentially part of North America, given how close it is relative to Iceland and the rest of Europe.
the first major breakthrough after the Cold War was in aviation, with trans-polar commercial routes undergoing testing by the late 1990s and expanding rapidly in the early 2000s.
Interesting - didn't know that they flew commercial planes above the Arctic!
This is driving more far-flung countries like China to stake their claim in the new economic and strategic opportunities that melting ice is gradually uncovering.
This reminds me of the Caspian Report where Shirvan mentioned that China has classified themselves as a "near arctic" country in attempts to lay claim to the Arctic opportunities.
This topic of the Caspian Report was Trump's statement that he wanted to by Greenland. Shirvan stated that Greenland is of strategic importance and has a supply of rare earth metals which threaten China's monopoly.
That has left the door open for dozens of proprietary data providers who are competing for a growing field of financial and multinational clients, global central banks and government agencies around the world.
Might be an area of opportunity for Experian...
n August, another representative of the body said its survey of the country’s labor force was relatively reliable, scientific and accurate.
Transparency and reliability are both needed for a healthy economy. Reliability, because it's safer to invest when the investor can count on a certain rate of return within a certain risk threshold. Similarly, transparency is required in order for the investor to properly assess the risk of the asset.
China appears to be sacrificing transparency to project strength, but in doing so undermine their reliability.
The People’s Bank of China reduced the amount of money commercial banks have to hold in reserve, enabling lenders to finance projects.
Reducing the amount that the banks need to hold in reserve may help with stimulating growth, but it also increases the risk of the banks failing. That said, I don't know how much Chinese banks need to hold in reserve relative to the United States.
Update: Just looked and China reduced their reserve requirements to 13%. They've done this a few times - in October 2018, they lowered the reserve rate from 15.5% to 13.5%. In contrast, the United States is at 10%.
Manufacturing is being hit really hard
Gotta wonder if this is a result of the tariffs...
alternative data—from energy consumption to photos taken from space—for a more accurate reading.
Interesting seeing the word Alternative Data used outside of the credit space.
New working definition of Alternative Data: Drawing conclusions using information that is historically not factored into the decision making process.
hostility toward China will continue to well up among Hong Kongers so long as the central authorities make incremental moves to integrate the city.
I'm curious whether China will try more subtle tactics in the future - and I'm wondering if the extradition bill may have initially considered subtle at the time, given that it was introduced shortly after the Taiwan Extradition Bill.
It's being reported that China has begun to use Social Media to influence perceptions abroad, and there isn't any reason why they can't/aren't using it in Hong Kong. Using Social Media manipulation obfuscates the actions of China - it's difficult to point your finger at an online activity and clearly prove that it's an action by China.
Doing a quick search, it appears that the majority (75%) of Hong Kong citizens use Western social media platforms (FB, Whats App, etc). Whereas only 45% use Chinese platforms. A tactic China can use is using incentives to migrate HK onto Chinese platforms. Western Platforms remove activity from state actors. Chinese Platforms will not. In addition, they can use AI/ML to influence HK to be pro-China
Hong Kong's leaderless protest movement
I'm reminded of the occupy Wall Street movement that petered out due to a lack of central leadership - at least that's what the documentary Hypernormalization claimed to cause it.