In Other News – May 15, 2020
President Trump has amped up anti-Chinese rhetoric over the past week, floating several potential measures to punish China for the coronavirus pandemic, including demands for reparations, scuttling the trade deal, and forcibly delisting Chinese companies from U.S. stock indices. Any of these steps would represent the extreme end of the foreign policy spectrum, and none […]
In Other News – May 8, 2020
The European Commission forecasts a 7.4% drop in economic growth this year, which would mark the worst contraction for the continent since World War II, dwarfing the 4.5% contraction of the 2009 recession. And the EC has warned that its forecast may underestimate this year’s actual drop in GDP. Italy, Spain, and Greece are expected […]
In Other News – May 1, 2020
China has scheduled its delayed National Party Congress meeting for May 22, signaling confidence that Covid-19 is sufficiently contained and setting the stage to announce post-pandemic stimulus measures and this year’s economic growth target. China is likely to take aggressive measures to juice its economy, which is positive news for the U.S. economy, especially for […]
In Other News – April 24, 2020
Oil prices in the U.S. turned negative this week, signaling the depth of the demand shock caused by the Great Lockdown. While prices ticked up again yesterday, partly on news that raised the risk of U.S.-Iran conflict in the Middle East (see below), there remains a real possibility that prices will go negative again as […]
In Other News – April 17, 2020
The International Monetary Fund forecast in its April 2020 World Economic Outlook that global GDP will shrink by 3% this year, the worst contraction since the Great Depression. Dubbing this period the “Great Lockdown”, the IMF said this downturn will be far more serious than the one that followed the 2008 financial crisis, which resulted […]
In Other News – April 10, 2020
Mexico was the lone holdout yesterday on an OPEC+ deal to collectively cut oil production by 10 million barrels a day (b/d) in May and June to stabilize oil prices, and today says it reached a production cut deal with President Trump whereby the US would compensate for a portion of the cuts that Mexico […]
In Other News – April 3, 2020
President Trump issued a warning (via twitter) to Iranian-backed private militias in Iraq that they will “pay a very heavy price” for carrying out a planned “sneak attack” on U.S. interests in the country. He later indicated in a press briefing that the U.S. is open to a deal with Iran, but that it is […]
In Other News – March 27, 2020
The U.S. government indicted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on narco-trafficking conspiracy charges this week. U.S. federal prosecutors charged Maduro with leading a violent drug cartel that has flooded the United States with cocaine for decades. U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that Maduro’s government is “plagued by criminality and corruption,” and the State Department announced […]
In Other News – Friday, 3/20/2019
With COVID-19 dominating headlines – from infection rates to border closures to economic fallout and bailout – important stories that would have once been front-page news have been pushed to the bottom half of A6. Here is a roundup of some significant global developments you may have missed this week: Joe Biden has emerged as […]
