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☆ Opinion | Words Over Deeds: Why Biden Isn’t Pressuring Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Aaron David Miller | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

One could be forgiven for thinking that President Biden’s tough words on the Israel-Hamas war in his State of the Union address and his MSNBC interview on Saturday was the beginning of a much more critical U.S. policy toward Israel. Nonetheless, far from presaging a major shift in policy, the president’s words and the vice president’s meeting were more likely part of the now familiar passive-aggressive approach the administration has deployed against the most extreme right-wing government in Israel’s history. But he has consistently refused to impose any serious consequences on Israel. The “I’m unhappy with Israel but won’t do much about it” policy is Mr. Biden’s policy — driven by the president’s pro-Israel sensibilities, politics and the policy choices he faces in dealing with the current war. At the same time, Mr. Biden surely knows that there are costs both at home and abroad for allowing Mr. Netanyahu to run roughshod over U.S. interests and values.

Persons: Biden’s, Kamala Harris’s, Benny Gantz, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Netanyahu, Biden, I’m Organizations: MSNBC, West Bank, Palestinian Locations: Israel, Gaza, presaging

☆ Losing Ground, Ukraine Seeks New Positions Around Avdiivka
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Marc Santora | More About Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainian soldiers are withdrawing even further from positions around the shattered town of Avdiivka after advancing Russian forces breached a critical supply line and threatened to encircle scores of Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian military officials and soldiers said on Thursday. Dmytro Lykhovii, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces fighting in the area, said the Ukrainians were “maneuvering” and “sometimes withdrawing to more advantageous positions and sometimes repelling enemy advances.”He also said military commanders had set up a backup logistical route to the town to transport much needed supplies to Ukraine’s beleaguered troops. The battle, Mr. Lykhovii said, was dynamic and changing by the hour as the two sides engaged in fierce urban combat. But his comments suggested the fighting had taken another ominous turn for Kyiv’s forces, potentially presaging their withdrawal from a town reduced to ruins by months of horrendous bombardment.

Persons: Dmytro Lykhovii, Lykhovii Organizations: Ukrainian Locations: Avdiivka

☆ MacroMavens' Stephanie Pomboy sounds the alarm on corporate bankruptcies, warning it could herald financial catastrophe
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Joseph Wilkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Economist Stephanie Pomboy has warned of the economic risks signaled by rising corporate bankruptcies in the US. First-half US corporate bankruptcies surged to the highest level since 2010, per S&P data. "It's really something, listening to johnny-come-latelys parroting my talking points on corporate bankruptcies (which none of them saw coming 6 mo's ago). If they did, they'd be calling for a fiscal & monetary response that makes 2008-9 look like peanuts," Pomboy wrote. This is not the first time Pomboy has raised concerns of looming economic and market risks in 2023.

Persons: Stephanie Pomboy, Mavens, they'd, Pomboy Organizations: Service, P Global Market Intelligence, Valley, Bed, Lordstown Motors, Mediamath Holdings, Federal Reserve Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ This classic recession indicator just hit its lowest level since 1981—here's what it means for you
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

So when the yield curve does make headlines, it's generally because it's setting off some alarm bells among market watchers. In general terms, that means short-term bonds are paying higher interest rates than long-term bonds. An inverted yield curve is a classic signal that a recession is on the horizon. An inverted yield curve makes the math unprofitable for banks in many cases. But in another sense, an inverted yield curve presaging a recession is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Persons: It's, Megan Horneman, Sam Stovall, doesn't, Stovall, Banks Organizations: Verdence Capital Advisors, Federal Reserve

☆ Energy Tax Credits, Meant to Help U.S. Suppliers, May Be Hard to Get
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Lydia Depillis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The law offers tax credits that could cover up to 70 percent of a renewable energy project’s cost if it checks several boxes meant to support American workers and communities. The resulting frustration is emblematic of the current stage of climate action: an eye-straining haze of technical rule-making that reflects a tension between urgency and ensuring that the benefits of the energy transition are widely shared. Wally Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the Treasury, expressed confidence that in combination, the rules would strike that balance. “It isn’t about any one rule, it’s about an ecosystem of rules that have been created under the I.R.A. that put us in a position to go from a country that had underinvested in the clean energy transition to being at the head of the pack.”

Persons: Biden, —, Wally Adeyemo, Mr, Adeyemo Organizations: Treasury Locations: United States

☆ The Immigrant Experience in a Danish Butter Cookie Tin
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Raksha Vasudevan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Now the brand has established dominance: For customers around the world, its blue tin, with its elegant cursive lettering and quaint Danish farmhouse, is inseparable from the experience of the cookies themselves. So, while that early disappointment should have made me wary, the Royal Dansk tin became a hypnotic object for me. Every few days, I opened the blue tin, as if there might be one last cookie to assuage my sadness. We were not unique in our attachment to the blue tin: It’s ubiquitous in many Asian and Latino households. As generations of immigrants know, there is no topping the Danish Butter Cookie tin as an all-purpose repository.

Organizations: Royal Dansk Locations: India, Royal, Danish, Canada

Observers often disagree at the time whether the economy is already in recession, and sometimes afterwards whether a recession has occurred or just a “soft patch” in an otherwise uninterrupted business cycle expansion. But the same surveys show the much larger service sector still reporting marginal growth, keeping the economy as a whole out of recession so far. Chartbook: U.S. economic indicatorsThe Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) service sector index stood at 51.9 in April (with more businesses reporting expanding activity than contraction) compared with a manufacturing sector index of just 47.1. In April, the ISM services index was in only the 15th percentile for all months since 1997 compared with the manufacturing index in only the 9th percentile. If the manufacturing sector has already fallen into recession, the services sector is only just avoiding it at the moment.

☆ Coinbase, crypto industry hope new Supreme Court doctrine is silver bullet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

But the agency will have to provide a more detailed response if Ripple, Coinbase or crypto groups that have filed friend-of-the-court briefs pushing major questions doctrine arguments manage to pique a judge’s interest. Former Coinbase manager Ishan Wahi expanded on the major questions theory last February in his motion to dismiss the SEC’s insider trading case. Under the major questions doctrine, they said, the SEC does not have the requisite Congressional authority to regulate digital assets. Coinbase’s contention in that paper, released last Thursday, is all-encompassing: The major questions doctrine, according to Coinbase counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell, “forecloses” regulation of the trillion-dollar crypto industry. But if the SEC moves ahead with a case against Coinbase, the major questions doctrine could turn out to be, well, a major question.

☆ The High Seas Treaty, Explained
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Haphazard Authority On Ocean Resources | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Global News Changing Tides The first international agreement to protect the world's oceans aims to create “international parks” in the high seas. The high seas represent 95% of the world’s total habitat by volume, but the nautical world remains largely unexplored. “A sentiment we often encountered was that there’s not much in terms of biodiversity out there in the high seas,” he said. MPAs that already exist mostly occupy exclusive economic zones and only make up about 3% of the high seas. A 2016 Pew study on mapping governance in the high seas showed 19 governing bodies with a high seas mandate.

☆ Nigeria’s New Leader Faces Challenges on Economy and Credibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Gabriele Steinhauser | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Bola Tinubu won the election with the support of a fraction of Nigeria’s 210 million people. Bola Tinubu , the veteran political fixer who won Nigeria’s presidency after campaigning with the catchphrase “It’s my turn,” will take the reins of Africa’s largest economy under a cloud of accusations that he doesn’t have the mandate he claims. More than 87 million Nigerians had collected voter identification cards ahead of Saturday’s election, but according to the country’s electoral commission, only 25 million actually cast their votes in a process marred by violent incidents and delays at polling stations and a chaotic tallying of votes. Both main opposition candidates have pledged to challenge Mr. Tinubu’s victory in court, presaging what could be a prolonged period of uncertainty at a time when Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is already struggling with a crush of security problems and a fall in oil production, the government’s main foreign revenue source.

☆ Russia’s economy is hurting despite Putin’s bluster
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Russia’s economy did weaken as a result. “The Russian economy and system of government have turned out to be much stronger than the West believed,” Putin said in a speech to Russia’s parliament Tuesday. The bloc, which dramatically reduced its dependence on Russian natural gas last year, officially banned most imports of Russian crude oil by sea in December. Russia’s oil problemIn fact, Russia’s export revenue from oil rose last year. On the declineThe International Monetary Fund still expects Russia’s economy to expand by 0.3% this year and 2.1% the next.

☆ Brazil's rural boomtowns ensure Bolsonarismo's future
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Gabriel Stargardter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

REUTERS/Gabriel StargardterCATANDUVA, Brazil, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The small city of Catanduva in the rural farm belt of Sao Paulo state has been ahead of the political curve in Brazil. The residents of Catanduva, who have benefited from robust Chinese demand for Brazilian commodities, are now fully behind Bolsonaro. Since Sahao stepped down in 2005, the PT has spent nearly two decades locked out of power at Catanduva's city hall. Across Sao Paulo, countless PSDB mayors and state lawmakers have, like Father Oliveira of Catanduva, thrown in their lot with Bolsonaro. Bassitt, the farmer, said the conservative values of rural, small-town Brazil were now the driving force in national politics.

CHICAGO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Tighter U.S. monetary policy has begun to be felt in an economy that may be slowing faster than expected, but the full brunt of Federal Reserve interest rate increases still won't be apparent for months, Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard said Monday. Still, the Fed vice chair gave no indication that economic weakness was at a point where it would change Fed plans to continue raising interest rates. "Uncertainty remains high, and I am paying close attention to the evolution of the outlook as well as global risks," that could stress financial markets Brainard said. Still "monetary policy will be restrictive for some time to ensure that inflation moves back to target over time," Brainard said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea RicciOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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