Massive Chinese investment is a boon for Pakistan

NEVER mind that the two countries’ slogan factory has always been based in China, or that it started off with some truly clunky products. What matters is that Communist China and Pakistan have a joint venture churning out declarations of friendship that date back almost to the two states’ respective founding, some seven decades ago. China and Pakistan have long hailed each other as “all-weather friends”, or “iron brothers” as close as “lips and teeth”. The mutual bond is, leaders from both countries affirm, “higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the deepest ocean, and sweeter than honey”.

And then, from China, come the lover’s gifts. Never has Pakistan been so wooed. The original promised dowry, of $46bn in Chinese grants and soft loans for infrastructure projects, has only grown, to $62bn. This munificence is dubbed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), launched amid fanfare in 2015, on a visit to Pakistan by President Xi Jinping.

Most of the...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2eK4it1
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Cambodia’s government is preparing for elections with repression

There goes another opposition leader

THE newsroom of the Cambodia Daily is littered with piles of proofs, pens without lids, an empty bottle of Tabasco sauce, a cat frolicking under the strip lighting—but no journalists. The country’s most prominent independent newspaper printed its final edition on September 4th, after the authorities suddenly presented it with an unpayable tax bill of $6.3m. The move forms part of a fierce new campaign against the government’s detractors ahead of elections due in July. Cambodia’s democracy, if not dead, is dying.

The largely foreign journalists of the Cambodia Daily managed to cover one last important story. Early on September 3rd Kem Sokha (pictured), leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the country’s main opposition, was arrested for treason with the help of 100 police. He now languishes in the miserable confines of a remote prison near the border with...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2j6R3I1
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Bangladesh’s GDP per person is now higher than Pakistan’s

WHEN Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan in 1971, it was much poorer than the country it left. Industry accounted for only 6-7% of its GDP, compared with over 20% in Pakistan. The battle for independence had killed or displaced millions, damaged roads and railways, and severed ties with Pakistan’s bankers and industrialists (including the owner of one of the world’s biggest jute mills). Even before the war, Bangladesh had been trampled by another apocalyptic horseman: a cyclone killed hundreds of thousands in 1970. The country’s independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, complained that West Pakistan had not promptly shared its bumper wheat crop or “given a yard of cloth for our shrouds”.

Last month revealed a remarkable turnaround. Bangladesh’s GDP per person is now higher than Pakistan’s. Converted into dollars at market exchange rates, it was $1,538 in the past fiscal year (which ended on June 30th). Pakistan’s was about $1,470.

Strange as it may sound,...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2eK2YGR
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

North Korea’s nuclear test has left the South wanting nukes too

THE runaway pace of North Korea’s nuclear development has confounded predictions and diverted the attention of world leaders. It is also meddling with one North Korean grandmother’s retirement plans. Ri Chun Hee, a veteran broadcaster at Korean Central Television, was promised a rest in 2012, after 41 years gleefully reading out propaganda. The 74-year-old would only return for significant announcements. Yet these now come most weeks. North Korea has already tested 22 missiles this year. On September 3rd Mrs Ri was back, claiming the regime had tested a hydrogen bomb (see article). It was, she declared with trademark exuberance, the “perfect” explosion.

Mrs Ri is not the only cold war relic that could be put back into service as a result of the test. Some South Koreans want America to show its support by moving nuclear...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2j9ckRB
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

How North Korea’s missiles improved so quickly

KIM JONG UN, North Korea’s leader, has made no secret of his goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile with enough range to destroy cities in America. What has confounded many experts is the speed at which his engineers are getting there. Only last year the consensus was that they would not succeed before 2020; now the target seems achievable within a year.

If North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, on September 3rd, was of a two-stage nuclear device small enough to fit on a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), as it claims, that marks a big advance over the previous nuclear test a year ago. The regime claimed that test, too, was of a two-stage device (also known as a thermonuclear or hydrogen bomb), in which an initial nuclear explosion is used to amplify a second one. But estimates of its yield (explosive power) varied between 10 and 30 kilotons, which even at the higher end is too little for a hydrogen bomb. David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2eK4bxB
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

A state-led massacre triggers an exodus of Rohingyas from Myanmar

Many more did not make it

ACROSS the border, inside Myanmar, columns of smoke can be seen rising at dawn; each evening dusk reveals the fires at their bases. All week villages have been burning in northern Rakhine state, home of the Rohingyas, a persecuted Muslim minority. Refugees have been fleeing to Bangladesh across rice paddies, along muddy mountain paths and in boats over the Naf river, which divides the two countries. They are fleeing systematic violence from the Burmese army and armed mobs of Rakhines, another local ethnic group. The UN has counted 164,000 who have already arrived in Bangladesh; many more are thought to be on their way.

At the end of the Myanmar-Bangladesh Friendship Road, backed against the border fence near the town of Ghumdum, is a rapidly growing, makeshift camp holding some 5,000 new refugees. A Bangladeshi border guard points to a nearby hillock where a fire is raging; he says the Burmese army is burning down houses. Nurul Islam, a...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2j7gbOP
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

A Healthy Dose of Profits at Cigna

Cigna has produced great growth and with pricing power and protection from government rules should keep growing.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2f6LOng
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Muslims in Egypt are trying to preserve its Jewish heritage

Let my people be remembered

IN BUT a few years one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities will have disappeared. No more than 20 Jews are thought to remain in Egypt, compared with at least 80,000 before the second world war. Half a dozen live in Cairo—four of them in care homes. But Magda Haroun (pictured), a sprightly 65-year-old, wants to keep their memories alive. She has formed an association, Drop of Milk, dedicated to preserving Egypt’s Jewish heritage. Of its 20 active members, she is the only Jew.

Some members have Jewish fathers who converted to Islam to avoid expulsion under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s former dictator, an aggressive Arab nationalist. Others married Jews. Most simply want to preserve Egypt’s pluralist past. “We’re reopening a page of history that was deleted from our textbooks,” says Amir Ramsis, who directed a documentary about Jews in Egypt.

There are 12 synagogues left in Cairo. Many are in...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2xRBmb4
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Why Germany’s Social Democrats have no hope

IF GERMANY’S centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have a future, it probably looks like Carsten Schneider. The dynamic 41-year-old MP grew up in a tough Plattenbau, or communist-era tower block, but says he was made by the local school: “That’s social democracy,” he tells a crowd in Weimar. “The risk of poverty is especially high among single parents,” he explains, “and 90% of the time that is single mothers.” He goes on to describe how he successfully pushed to raise the age limit for certain sorts of child benefit payments. Polite applause greets him.

Around the corner, amid the sausage stands of Weimar’s bustling marketplace, voters seem unappreciative. Asked about the SPD, one woman sipping a beer replies: “They are not so bad…but they bring too little. They don’t have enough imagination to get things done.” “Too obstinate”, adds her neighbour.

The SPD has been in a “grand coalition” with Angela Merkel’s Christian...Continue reading

from Europe http://ift.tt/2f6bQqL
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Big Bank Plays Regulatory Hopscotch

Nordea is moving its headquarters from Sweden to the eurozone, where the bank hopes for better tax and capital treatment.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2vOMBUg
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

How to Gauge Whether Irma Will Be an Insurance Catastrophe

Hurricane Irma could be the costliest hurricane ever for insurers. But it may take a loss of more than $100 billion to turn the industry’s tide of more capital and weaker returns.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2xQSjSM
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

China's Bad Banks Show It Still Has a Big Bad Loan Problem

The latest results from distressed debt-buyer Cinda Asset Management belie the healthy picture painted by recent Chinese bank earnings.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2wKNSZW
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

A Stock to Ride Two Hot Tech Trends

Samsung SDI will get a boost from Apple’s use of sharp new iPhone screens and from its electric cars in its battery business.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2vMUBVM
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Hurricanes Push Fed off Course

Economic slowdown caused by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma will be enough to keep central bank from raising rates as expected in December

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2xaGnOF
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Why the Bank Rally Is Over

For bank stocks, a host of factors from interest rates to loan growth are all looking worse.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2gGGZkF
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Some good news from Italy

AT THE end of each summer Italian business leaders, politicians and journalists mingle with foreign guests at the Ambrosetti Forum in the Villa d’Este by the shores of the lovely Lake Como. This year, the breezes off the lake carried something not scented in almost a decade: a whiff of optimism about the Italian economy.

GDP in the second quarter was up by an annual 1.5%, and on September 5th the government’s statisticians said that leading indicators pointed to “a reinforcement of the prospects for growth”. The previous week, they had sounded a less positive note, reporting that the unemployment rate had risen from 11.2% in June to 11.3% in July. But even that held a kernel of promise. The unemployment rate measures the proportion of job-seekers out of work, and in July some 115,000 Italians became job-seekers. Not all found jobs, which is why the unemployment rate went up. But those who did pushed the total number in work to more than 23m for the first time since...Continue reading

from Europe http://ift.tt/2xarYSJ
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

The French president acts on his promise to overhaul jobs laws

WHEN he launched his political movement last year, Emmanuel Macron said that he wanted to “unblock” France. Four months after he was elected president, his government on August 31st unveiled its first piece of legislation designed to do just that. It is a labour reform, consisting of 36 measures, which should help to loosen the labour code, encourage job creation and make it easier for firms to manage their headcount in France. “After decades of mass unemployment,” said Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, “nobody can seriously say that our labour law favours job creation.” The reforms, he said, would “make up for lost decades.”

The changes are wide-reaching and impressive, and rest on a number of guiding principles. One is that industrial relations must be devolved to the level of the firm. Employers will get more freedom to negotiate working time and salaries within their firm, rather than having to stick to branch-level agreements. France’s rate of...Continue reading

from Europe http://ift.tt/2xPqWsC
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Harvey's Destroyed Cars Give Auto Industry Hope

Why insurers’ losses from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could be Detroit car makers’ gains.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2w6lXla
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

China's Most Dangerous Bank

Investors love China Merchants but the bank looks vulnerable as Beijing cracks down on aggressive tactics.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2wG4EuD
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

President Trump winds down DACA

“DACA will continue to exist in Chicago,” promises Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, half an hour before President Donald Trump’s administration announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, known as DACA. Ending DACA is morally, politically and economically wrong, says Mr Emanuel, the grandson of a Jewish immigrant who as a boy of 13 fled the pogroms in his native Moldova. For Mr Emanuel it makes no sense to end an initiative that has helped hundreds of thousands of young people to work legally, drive legally, study and obtain health insurance.

DACA gives children who arrived in America illegally as minors without papers a renewable, two-year reprieve from deportation. Applicants must have been younger than 31 on June 15th 2012, when DACA started, and must have arrived in America before their 16th birthday. They have to be at school or university, high-school graduates or honourably discharged from the army. All are vetted for criminal history and whether they pose a threat to national...Continue reading

from United States http://ift.tt/2eJh5zz
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

United Technologies's Big Bet Leaves Investors on the Runway

United Technologies’ deal to buy Rockwell Collins will create an airplane parts supermarket. Benefits to shareholders aren’t clear.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2j0dWgb
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

To to Play a Stronger Europe, Buy Spain

Spanish stocks look like a rewarding way of playing a stronger eurozone.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2w37Qg8
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Don't Ignore Big Pharma's New Breakthrough

A major clinical breakthrough at two large pharmaceuticals companies didn’t get much attention from Wall Street. That means opportunity for investors.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2xM0D6A
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Hurricane Harvey might have made it easier to pass a budget

THE federal budget process is the last thing on the minds of residents of Texas as they deal with the catastrophic consequences of Hurricane Harvey. But the storm’s timing has upended Congress’s budget agenda. It would now look callous for Republicans to follow through on the $876m in cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that they were planning to vote on before the storm hit. Similarly, the National Flood Insurance Programme will surely be funded sufficiently beyond September 30th 2017, when its current allotment expires. Crucially, the storm has also provided an opportunity to avoid a damaging budget crisis. 

Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, says that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, a limit on government borrowing, by September 29th, America will be unable to pay all its bills—an all-but-unthinkable event. Less scary, but still important, is the need to avoid a government “shutdown” after September 30th, when the budget for the federal government expires (the last shutdown was in 2013)....Continue reading

from United States http://ift.tt/2iWvREI
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

China's Big Banks Still Have a Credibility Gap

Strong first-half results for the likes of ICBC and Bank of China mask several ongoing problems.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2xLQPZY
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Why Markets Don't Care About North Korea---Yet

Markets still aren’t very good at pricing political risk—particularly of the catastrophic variety.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2x7oXm3
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

For the ECB, There's Only So Much Time to Play For

The European Central Bank has emphasized persistence and patience on its monetary policy. But with the path of its bond-purchase program set only until the end of December, the pressure to lay out 2018 plans is building.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2wyDPHf
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Indigestion in China's Economy Spells Trouble for Coal

After a red-hot 12 months, China’s industrial economy is slowing again. That spells trouble for heavily indebted coal firms like Yanzhou Coal, and could mean renewed stress on China’s rickety financial system next year.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2vDedeR
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Why Delphi Could Become a Tech Takeover Target

Automotive parts supplier Delphi is transforming itself into a pure play on the digital car.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2xHEgz8
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Uptick for Smartwatches Ahead

Smartwatches haven’t exactly proven to be must-have devices yet, but lower prices and expanded functions may convince more consumers to strap one on.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2x2YCFY
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Thailand’s hopes of democracy are receding

Cheers for a distant idol

WHEN Yingluck Shinawatra, a former prime minister of Thailand, fled the country a few days ago, she left more than an empty chair in the Supreme Court behind. On August 25th she had been due to hear the verdict in a case against her for negligence in a rice-subsidy scheme she ran while in office that cost the government around $16bn. Though she was ousted in a coup in 2014, Ms Yingluck had remained a symbolic figure for opponents of the junta. The generals will not be sorry she has gone.

The scene at the courthouse—and Ms Yingluck’s absence from it—epitomised the shambles that Thai politics has descended into. When she failed to turn up, the judge said he did not believe her lawyer’s claim that she was ill and demanded her arrest. Despite Ms Yingluck’s poor record in office, and a very heavy police presence, many thousands of her fans turned up at the courthouse hoping to catch a glimpse of her (one of them is pictured, after...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2glBwQb
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Recent court rulings in India suggest justice is improving

THE wheel of Indian justice is famously slow and wobbly. It also rolls in odd directions. In the 1970s the Supreme Court, which is meant to uphold India’s constitution, endorsed emergency laws that denied citizens any recourse against unlawful arrest. Last year it anachronistically ordered cinemas to play the national anthem before every screening, and moviegoers to stand to attention each time. Yet in recent weeks Indian courts have delivered a series of important judgments that, taken together, push the country firmly in a more liberal direction.

Most dramatically, on August 28th a judge in the northern state of Haryana sentenced Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a flamboyant guru-cum-action-star, to 20 years in prison for the rape of two female acolytes. Such “godmen” often seem to be beyond the reach of the law, with their wealth, devoted followings and close ties to politicians. Mr Singh had been openly wooed by senior figures in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. They...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2esp2Jq
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

An army crackdown sends thousands fleeing in Myanmar

ALONG the grassy banks of the Naf river, tearful families wait with bags and bundles as they attempt to flee Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh. They are scared to return to their homes in the western state of Rakhine after Muslim militants attacked 30 police posts and a military base on August 25th. They fear the army will butcher Muslim Rohingyas in return.

Hostility to Rohingyas, a minority in largely Buddhist Myanmar, has repeatedly led to bloodshed in recent years. People of several faiths have died in the turmoil. The emergence of a new, sophisticated group of Rohingya militants is likely to exacerbate the violence. More than 100 people have been killed in just a few grisly days as troops have hunted for the insurgents.

The 1m Rohingyas who live in Rakhine have long suffered persecution. Most are denied citizenship and therefore have little access to education or health care. They are the world’s largest community of stateless people. Strict laws govern...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2glBAiT
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Japan is alarmed and outraged by North Korea’s missile test

WHEN the alarm sounded from loudspeakers in the streets and his mobile telephone around 6am on August 29th, Saburo Ito thought it was a warning about an earthquake. But when he read that a North Korean missile was passing overhead the 72-year-old taxi driver panicked and ran out into the garden. The instruction to “evacuate to a sturdy building or basement” was all but forgotten. “I had no idea what to do or where to go,” he says.

Japanese have been oddly sanguine about military threats, even as China has grown more powerful and North Korea has tested ever more capable missiles and atom bombs. Japanese refer to this state of mind as heiwaboke, meaning roughly to take peace and security for granted.

Such complacency may have been shaken by the North Korean missile that passed over Hokkaido before crashing into the sea about 1,200km to the east. “North Korea’s reckless action is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to our nation,” said...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2eslEyf
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

How Donald Trump weakens America’s influence in Asia

IF AMERICA is the biggest loser from the election of Donald Trump, can Asia not claim at least second place? Many policymakers and Asia hands argue so. In just seven months Mr Trump has swung “a wrecking-ball into the complex and long-standing machinery” of America’s relations with the Asia-Pacific region, writes T.J. Pempel of the University of California, Berkeley. Such a view is widely shared across Asia: that American leadership, which has underpinned the regional order since the second world war, is in peril under Mr Trump.

The list of concerns is long. Not only is the American president unpredictable. He lacks intellectual engagement in foreign policy and disdains diplomacy itself, except when it is conducted via bombastic tweets. He has ended America’s commitment to multilateral trade in Asia, pulling it out of negotiations for a 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade grouping encompassing two-fifths of world trade. Economists say this deal would have made all...Continue reading

from Asia http://ift.tt/2gltV3V
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Racist behaviour is declining in America

THE “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville on August 12th and President Donald Trump’s apparent inability to condemn neo-Nazis has fanned fears that his presidency will be accompanied by a rising tide of racism. There were already worrying signs of that: of 1,094 ‘bias incidents’ monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors right-wing extremists, between November 2016 and February 2017, more than a third of perpetrators were said to have mentioned Donald Trump, his campaign slogans or policies. And the centre suggests the number of hate groups in America, which had dropped between 2011 and 2014, began to climb again during the election campaign. But while race discrimination is still significant and widespread, it is declining—and Mr Trump's accommodation of white supremacists will not be enough to reverse the tide. 

Research by Leonardo Bursztyn of the University of Chicago and colleagues suggests that Mr Trump’s November win has certainly helped embolden white supremacists to go public. Before...Continue reading

from United States http://ift.tt/2eqmVSM
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Is there a wage growth puzzle in America?

TODAY’S labour market report showed that the American economy created 156,000 net new jobs in August. That was a bit less than expected, but payrolls are still growing comfortably faster than the working-age population. Despite having created over 2m jobs in the last year, pushing unemployment below 4.5% for the last five months, wage growth remains muted, at around 2.5%, compared to more like 3.5% the last time unemployment was comparably low. In a recent article for the print edition, I anlysed one potential explanation for weak wage growth: retirements of high-earnings baby-boomers.

Scott Sumner has taken issue with the premise of my piece. He...Continue reading

from Economics http://ift.tt/2gpHZtg
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Wait Before Investing in Music Industry's Recovery

Upbeat results from the world’s largest music company aren’t enough to make parent company Vivendi an appealing investment.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2eLCh54
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

A Jobs Pause That Refreshes

The labor market may be cooling just enough to put the Federal Reserve’s mind at ease about slack in the economy, making further rate increases in 2017 much less likely.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2vQRzef
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Kenya’s high court annuls the presidential election

IN KENYA, as in many African countries, when government spokesmen say that the judiciary is independent, foreigners tend to be sceptical. They may be less so in future. On September 1st the supreme court in Kenya ruled that the country’s disputed presidential election, which took place on August 8th, will have to be held again within 60 days. The decision could prove to be a watershed in Kenya’s development into a functioning, modern democracy. But in a country where elections are hard-fought and the results usually disputed, sometimes violently, it could equally herald a new round of uncertainty and chaos.

The court’s complete ruling has not yet been released. But the panel of judges did not decide that Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent and apparent winner, actually lost. Nor have they endorsed the opinion of Raila Odinga, Mr Kenyatta’s opponent in the election, that the vote was “hacked” and that the official results were phoney. Instead, the judges seem to have been...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2wt9cCT
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

The jihadists of Islamic State are fighting for their survival

IT IS less a chaotic rout than a tactical retreat, but suddenly Islamic State (IS) is losing ground quite fast. At both ends of its self-proclaimed caliphate, the jihadist group is ceding territory. It quietly withdrew from Tal Afar, the largest Iraqi city still under its control, on August 27th.

Simultaneously, hundreds of IS fighters and their families emerged from their caves in the Qalamoun mountains, astride Lebanon’s border with Syria, and boarded buses heading east. Trapped between Syrian and Lebanese forces on the ground, and Russian bombardment from the air, they gave up after a weeklong battle.

Increasingly, the jihadists are being squeezed into a ribbon along the Euphrates valley. Having lost the Iraqi city of Mosul, and on the retreat in the Syrian city of Raqqa, their last redoubt is likely to be the city of Deir ez-Zor, in eastern Syria. But here, too, they are vulnerable: the Syrian army retains control of two enclaves on the western edge of the...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2esly9R
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

As Islamic State withers, the alliance against it is fraying

DOWN the Euphrates river, halfway between Deir ez-Zor and Syria’s border with Iraq, lies Dura Europos, an ancient metropolis where the Parthians of Persia sparred with the Roman Empire for control of the Middle East. History, it seems, is repeating itself. As Islamic State (IS) withers, America’s coalition is racing to secure the same stretch of river, before Iran and its allies.

Never have America and its allies had such a hold on Syrian territory. In the north, America has worked with the Kurds to carve out a self-governing region. From there it provides support for Kurdish and Arab forces pushing down the northern bank of the river. Its Syrian proxies have fanned out in pockets around the border with Jordan, from Deraa to north of al-Tanf, a coalition base.

But like their Parthian forebears, Iran and its allies have the upper hand. The Syrian army, backed by Iran’s Quds Force, and Shia and tribal militias are pressing on Deir ez-Zor, with the help of...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2gltMxp
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Congo and Angola: a tale of two kleptocracies

Dokolo, a man with a manifesto

IN THE nightclubs of Kinshasa, the raucous capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, adverts are everywhere for Congolese beer. From Primus, one of the biggest brands, with its label in the colours of the national flag, to Mützig, a German-themed lager, there is a choice that would be enviable in other African countries. The brews are typically served in intimidating 750ml bottles. Yet these days, ask for a beer and you are as likely to be given a can of Cuca, a less appealing Angolan fizz. It is not just beer: walk through a Kinois supermarket and every other product seems to be from Angola.

For over a year Angolan goods have flooded into Congo—so much so that on August 28th the government announced that it would try to ban the imports. Congolese businessmen complain that they cannot compete with Angolan traders, because their aim is not to make a profit, but to acquire dollars (access to which is restricted in Angola). Yet...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2esoYJG
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Ethiopia is struggling to make housing affordable

ELEVEN years ago Elsa, a middle-aged widow, won the lottery. The prize was not cash, but the deed to a spacious, three-bedroom flat in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Today she lives there with her four adult children. The deed, now laminated, hangs proudly on her wall.

Elsa is a beneficiary of Ethiopia’s public-housing scheme, one of the most ambitious in Africa. Since it began in 2006, some 250,000 flats have been built and transferred to people in Addis Ababa and other towns. Like Elsa, they are nearly all winners of a computerised lottery, which allocates flats as they become available. The government aims to build 50,000 a year in the capital over the next decade.

In theory, the programme should just about pay for itself. All land in Ethiopia is state-owned, which reduces upfront costs. Beneficiaries make a down payment to the government ranging from 10% to 40% of the price of the flat, which is set by the state. They then pay off the rest over a ten-...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2glBtnt
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

The grasscutter shows why it is hard to stop bushmeat hunting

The irresistible allure of rat on a platter

THE cane rat, a large, blunt-nosed version of its urban cousin, looks docile enough. But it has a taste for fingers. “You need skill to be able to handle them,” says Francis Ababio, who teaches students how to rear the rodents, also known as grasscutters, at Kwadaso Agricultural College in Kumasi, Ghana’s second city. Grasscutter meat is a delicacy in the country’s cities and a part of rural diets. Digested grass found in its stomach is also said to make delicious soups.

Most grasscutter meat still comes from the wild. But conservationists and officials are trying to curtail bushmeat hunting because of concerns that it is wrecking the environment and upending food chains. The Ebola outbreak in 2014 dented demand, but some 579m forest mammals, from monkeys to porcupines, are eaten every year in central Africa, according to the UN. A study by Goethe University Frankfurt found that 39% of forests in the Congo...Continue reading

from Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2esp1Fm
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Meg Whitman Has a Different Mess to Clean Up

Hewlett Packard Enterprise faces many challenges, including earnings next week and the question of why its CEO was looking elsewhere.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2gol4yj
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Sell the Swiss Franc if You Think the World Is a Better Place

The Swiss franc has been slow to react to the brighter picture for the eurozone economy.

from WSJ.com: Markets http://ift.tt/2wsEb24
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Of Indian banknotes cancelled last year, 99% are accounted for

ON NOVEMBER 8th 2016, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, stunned its 1.3bn people by announcing that most banknotes would soon become worthless. Indians then queued for weeks on end to exchange or deposit their banned money at banks. The comfort for the poor was that the greedy, tax-dodging rich would suffer more, as they struggled to launder their suitcases full of cash by year-end.

Not so. A report from the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on August 30th suggests that of the 15.4trn rupees ($241bn) withdrawn—roughly 86% of all banknotes by value—15.3trn rupees, or 99% of them, have been accounted for. Either the “black money” never existed or, more likely, the hoarders found a way of making it legitimate.

Defenders of the scheme say it is merely one plank of a wider fight against informal economic activity and corruption. Banks have enjoyed an influx of cash. Digital payments are up (from a low base), as issuance of replacement notes has not caught...Continue reading

from Economics http://ift.tt/2wmen9n
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

The gap between India’s richer and poorer states is widening

COUNTRIES find it easier to get rich once their neighbours already are. East Asia’s growth pattern has for decades been likened to a skein of geese, from Japan at the vanguard to laggards such as Myanmar at the rear. The same pattern can often be seen within big countries. Over the past decade, for example, China’s poorer provinces have grown faster than their wealthier peers. India is different. Far from converging, its states are getting ever more unequal. A recent shake-up in the tax system might even make matters worse.

Bar a few Mumbai penthouses and Bangalore startup offices, all parts of India are relatively poor by global standards. Taken together, its 1.3bn people make up roughly the third and fourth decile of the world’s population, with an income per person (adjusted for purchasing power) of $6,600 dollars. But that average conceals a vast gap. In Kerala, a southern state, the average resident has an annual income per person of $9,300, higher than Ukraine, and...Continue reading

from Economics http://ift.tt/2vJHwb0
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT

Foreign jurisdictions try to lure legal business from London

National treasures

LOFTILY as they may disdain the profit motive, Britain’s judges are, on a national level, money-spinners. English law is often specified as the one under which commercial contracts are to be interpreted and enforced. And disputes often end up being heard in British courts. But, like any business, the law is competitive, and other jurisdictions want to snatch a share of this market. London is mounting its defences.

It has several hard-to-beat advantages: the use of English; a reputation for fairness; the centuries of precedent that lend predictability. Richard Caird, a partner at Dentons, a global law firm, notes that a foreign company can expect an impartial decision in an English court, even if it is pitted against a British firm. Over 70% of cases in the English commercial courts involve a foreign party. In 2015, Britain had a £3.4bn ($5.2bn) positive balance of payments on legal services.

One way for other financial centres,...Continue reading

from Economics http://ift.tt/2wlKdmz
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT