Month: August 2018

For Mazen Rahhal, a shop owner in a bustling district of Beirut, Lebanon’s economy has seldom felt more precarious. In one store, he sells clothes at a fraction of their previous price. Another, which he rented to a rival business, now lies empty. Years of gradual stagnation have in 2018 merged with several newer trends: high interest rates, falling house prices and questions about the currency at a moment of profound uncertainty as politicians wrangle over forming a new government. For Lebanese businesses and people, economic unease and the lack of a government to take firm control over policy — some three months after they voted in a general election — have become ceaseless sources of worry. “We are struggling just to manage the costs we have to pay: from electricity, employee wages, everything,” said Rahhal. His family has owned shops on Hamra Street, the main business thoroughfare of west Beirut, since the 1970s. As Lebanon rebuilt after its 15-year civil war ended in 1990, there was a period of economic growth, and as in its 1950s and 60s heyday, it drew Gulf Arab tourists ready to open their wallets as they escaped the stifling summer heat of home. But problems were never far away. In 2005 prime minister Rafik al-Hariri was assassinated, opening up wide divisions over the roles of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, and of powerful neighbor Syria. Syria’s own war since 2011 has aggravated those rifts, while cutting off much of Lebanon’s overland trade and scaring off …

US Weakens Environmental Controls on Coal Production

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration weakened environmental controls on coal production Tuesday, overturning national regulations set by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. The Environmental Protection Agency said it will now allow individual coal-producing states to set their own rules for carbon emissions rather than have to adhere to an overall country-wide standard. The plan is subject to a 60-day comment period before it is finalized. The action marks a fulfillment of a 2016 Trump campaign pledge to boost the fortunes of coal companies and coal-producing states. It came hours before the president headed to a political rally for a Senate candidate in West Virginia, the second biggest U.S. coal production state, where he was expected to promote the plan. During his successful run for the White House, Trump supporters in coal states often held signs saying, “Trump Digs Coal.” The EPA decision is Trump’s latest effort to topple Obama’s environmental legacy, following his withdrawal of the U.S. from the 2015 international Paris climate control accord championed by the former president. At the time that he revoked U.S. participation in the agreement, Trump said, “I was elected by the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” The EPA said its new rule is designed to replace Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan that targeted greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants and sought to shift power production away from coal to abundant natural gas supplies in the U.S., along with wind and solar energy. Trump’s EPA called the Obama rules “overly prescriptive and burdensome.” …

UK, EU Give Glimmer of Brexit Optimism Amid No-Deal Warning

British and European Union negotiators expressed cautious optimism Tuesday that they would reach a deal to prevent a disorderly U.K. exit from the bloc, saying talks will be intensified and take place “continuously” over the next few crucial months. After meeting U.K. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab in Brussels, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said differences remained between the two sides on future economic relations and maintaining an open border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. Barnier said the challenge “for the coming weeks is to try and define an ambitious partnership between the U.K. and the EU, a partnership that has no precedent.” Raab said there were “significant” issues to overcome, but that if both sides showed ambition and pragmatism, an agreement could be reached by October. That’s the deadline the two sides have set themselves for a deal on divorce terms and the outlines of future trade, so that it can be approved by individual EU countries before Brexit day on March 29. But negotiations have got bogged down amid infighting within British Prime Minister Theresa May’s divided Conservative government about how close an economic relationship to seek with the EU after Brexit. Last month the government finally produced a plan, proposing to stick close to EU regulations in return for free trade in goods and no customs checks on the Irish border. But to some EU officials that smacks of cherry-picking benefits of EU membership without the responsibilities — something the …

Small Firms Thrive as Customers Seek More Unique Clothing

Claudio Belotti knows he cut the denim that became the jeans Meghan Markle wore on one of her first outings as the fiancee of Britain’s Prince Harry. That’s because he cuts all of the fabric for Hiut Denim Co., a 7-year-old company that makes jeans in Cardigan, Wales. Belotti is a craftsman with 50 years of experience that gives his work a personal touch — something that’s not quite couture but not exactly mass-produced either. “There’s a story behind each one,” Belotti said. “You’re paying for the skill.” Customer demand for something unique is helping small companies like Hiut buck the globalization trend and set up shop in developed countries that had long seen such work disappear. While international brands like H&M and Zara still dominate the clothing market, small manufacturers are finding a niche by using technology and skill to bring down costs and targeting well-heeled customers who are willing to pay a little more for clothes that aren’t churned out by the thousands half a world away. Profits at smaller national clothing firms grew 2 percent over the last five years, compared with a 25 percent decline at the top 700 traditional multinationals, according to research by Kantar Consulting. Their success comes from promoting their small size and individuality, said Jaideep Prabhu, a professor of enterprise at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School. “It’s a different kind of manufacturing,” he said. “They are not the Satanic mills. These are very cool little boutiques.” …

Курс гривні щодо долара на міжбанку стабільний

08/21/2018 sellbiz

Після значного понеділкового посилення гривні торги 21 серпня відбуваються без значних коливань, свідчать дані сайту «Мінфін», який відстежує події на міжбанківському валютному ринку. Станом на 13:00 спостерігається рівновага попиту і пропозиції, курс купівлі становить 27 гривень 69 копійок, продажу – 27 гривень 72 копійки. Національний банк оприлюднив довідкове значення курсу гривні до долара США на 12:00 – 27 гривень 69 копійок, від офіційного курсу на 21 серпня він відрізняється лише на десяті й соті частки копійки. Гривня щодо долара 20 серпня зміцнилася на 20 копійок, свідчать дані на сайті Національного банку України. Це було перше зростання української національної валюти, починаючи з 9 серпня. Фахівці назвали посилення гривні ситуативним і пов’язують його з тим, що 20 серпня – «останній день активних бюджетних проплат у більшості клієнтів». …

Hard to See, Hard to Breathe: US West Struggles with Smoke

Smoke from wildfires clogged the sky across the U.S. West, blotting out mountains and city skylines from Oregon to Colorado, delaying flights and forcing authorities to tell even healthy adults in the Seattle area to stay indoors. As large cities dealt with unhealthy air for a second summer in a row, experts warned that it could become more common as the American West faces larger and more destructive wildfires because of heat and drought blamed on climate change. Officials also must prioritize resources during the longer firefighting season, so some blazes may be allowed to burn in unpopulated areas. Seattle’s Space Needle was swathed in haze, and it was impossible to see nearby mountains. Portland, Oregon, residents who were up early saw a blood-red sun shrouded in smoke and huffed their way through another day of polluted air. Portland Public Schools suspended all outdoor sports practices. Thick smoke in Denver blocked the view of some of Colorado’s famous mountains and prompted an air quality health advisory for the northeastern quarter of the state. The smoky pollution, even in Idaho and Colorado, came from wildfires in British Columbia and the Northwest’s Cascade Mountains, clouding a season that many spend outdoors. Portland resident Zach Simon supervised a group of children in a summer biking camp who paused at a huge water fountain by the Willamette River, where gray, smoky haze obscured a view of Mount Hood. Simon said he won’t let the kids ride as far or …

South Africa’s Land Bank: Land Expropriation Could Trigger Default

South Africa’s state-owned Land Bank said on Monday a plan to allow the state to seize land without compensation could trigger defaults that could cost the government 41 billion rand ($2.8 billion) if the bank’s rights as a creditor are not protected. Land Bank is a specialist bank providing financial services to the commercial farming sector and other agricultural businesses. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Aug. 1 that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is forging ahead with plans to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, as whites still own most of South Africa’s land more than two decades after the end of apartheid. Land Bank Chairman Arthur Moloto said in the company’s 2018 annual report that the bank has approximately 9 billion rand of debt, which includes a standard market clause on “expropriation” as an event of default. Moloto said if expropriation without compensation were to materialize without protection of the bank’s rights as a creditor, it would be required to repay 9 billion rand immediately. “A cross default clause would be triggered should we fail to pay when these debts fall due because of inadequate liquidity or lack of alternative sources of funding,” Moloto said. “This would make our entire 41 billion rand funding portfolio due and payable immediately, which we would not be able to settle. Consequently, government intervention would be required to settle our lenders.” Moloto said the bank was generally funded by the local debt and capital markets, and more …

Born Out of the Financial Crisis, Bull Market Nears Record

The bull market in U.S. stocks is about to become the longest in history. If stocks don’t drop significantly by the close of trading Wednesday, the bull market that began in March 2009 will have lasted nine years, five months and 13 days, a record that few would have predicted when the market struggled to find its footing after a 50 percent plunge during the financial crisis. The long rally has added trillions of dollars to household wealth, helping the economy, and stands as a testament to the ability of large U.S. companies to squeeze out profits in tough times and confidence among investors as they shrugged off repeated crises and kept buying. “There was no manic trading, there was no panic buying or selling,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Cresset Wealth Advisors. “It’s been pretty steady.” The question now is when the rally will end. The Federal Reserve is undoing many of the stimulative measures that supported the market, including keeping interest rates near zero. There are also mounting threats to global trade that have unsettled investors. For such an enduring bull market, it shares little of the hallmarks of prior rallies. Unlike earlier rallies, individual investors have largely sat out after getting burned by two crashes in less than a decade. Trading has been lackluster, with few shares exchanging hands each day. Private companies have shown little enthusiasm, too, with fewer selling stock in initial public offerings than in previous …

Paul Allen’s Space Firm Details Plans for Rockets, Cargo Vehicle

The space company of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on Monday unveiled details of medium-lift rockets and a reusable space cargo plane it is developing, injecting more competition into the lucrative launch services market. With its rockets, Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems is trying to cash in on higher demand in the coming years for vessels that can put satellites into orbit. But his vehicles will have to compete domestically with other space entrepreneurs and industry stalwarts such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and United Launch Alliance — a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Seattle-based Stratolaunch, founded by Allen in 2011, said in a news release its launch vehicles will make satellite deployment “as easy as booking an airline flight,” though the first rocket launch is not slated until 2020 at the earliest and the massive airplane it is building to deploy the rockets is still in pre-flight testing. Rather than blasting off from a launch pad, Stratolaunch’s rockets will drop at high altitude from underneath the company’s six-engine, twin-fuselage airplane — the largest ever built by wingspan. That launch method is similar to the one being developed by billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Stratolaunch’s plane is designed to carry a rocket and payload with a combined weight of up to 550,000 pounds (250,000 kg), on par with what a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket can launch from the ground. Timing is everything Around 800 small satellites are expected to launch annually beginning around 2020, more than double the annual average over the …

Floating Farms Could See Vegetables Grown at Sea

Population growth and rising sea levels will increase pressure on our farmlands to grow more food. But one British design graduate is hoping to combat that sobering trend with her concept of a floating farm at sea. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. …

Saudi Health Minister Says No Signs of Disease Outbreaks at Hajj

Nearly 2 million pilgrims from around the world gather this week near the Muslim holy city of Mecca for the annual Hajj. Worshippers crowd in close quarters often eating and sleeping outside, which may put them at risk for illness. Saudi Arabia’s health minister says the Kingdom is ready. Arash Arabasadi reports. …

Trump Ready to Ease Rules on Coal-fired Power Plants

The Trump administration is set to roll back the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s efforts to slow global warming, the Clean Power Plan that restricts greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. A plan to be announced Tuesday would give states broad authority to determine how to restrict carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The Environmental Protect Agency announced late Monday that acting administrator Andrew Wheeler planned to brief the news media by telephone Tuesday on what the administration is calling the “Affordable Clean Energy” rule — greenhouse guidelines for states to set performance standards for existing coal-fired power plants. President Donald Trump is expected to promote the new plan at an appearance in West Virginia on Tuesday. The plan is also expected to let states relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades, according to a summary of the plan and several people familiar with the full proposal who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the plan publicly. Combined with a planned rollback of car-mileage standards, the plan represents a significant retreat from Obama-era efforts to fight climate change and would stall an Obama-era push to shift away from coal and toward less-polluting energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar power. Trump has already vowed to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement as he pushes to revive the coal industry. Trump also has directed Energy Secretary Rick Perry …

Foreign Automakers Oppose Trump NAFTA Plan as US-Mexico Talks Resume

Foreign-brand automakers with U.S. plants do not support Trump administration rules to raise the amount of local content in North American-made vehicles, a group representing companies including Toyota, Volkswagen AG and Hyundai has told key U.S. lawmakers. Talks between Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are due to resume on Tuesday in Washington to try to resolve remaining bilateral issues so that Canada, which has been sidelined for weeks from the negotiations, can return to the bargaining table. The automakers’ position was in a previously unreported Aug. 16 letter from their “Here for America” group to top trade-focused members of Congress. The letter could raise resistance to a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement from lawmakers in southern states, where foreign manufacturers have built auto plants. “We remain concerned that, without further clarifications, assurances and modifications, many of those companies producing vehicles in multiple states will not be in a position to support legislation implementing a NAFTA 2.0,” the group said in the letter, signed by John Bozzella, president of the Association of Global Automakers. Automotive experts have said that some foreign brand automakers with smaller North American manufacturing footprints and fewer U.S. research and development staff may have difficulty meeting the more stringent content requirements for years. The group said its members, which also include Honda, Daimler, BMW, Nissan, Kia Motors, Subaru, and Volvo, a unit of China’s Geely Automobile Holdings , account for nearly 50 percent of U.S. vehicle production. Detroit supportive At …

Study: Heat Waves, Rains May Become More Severe as Weather Stalls

Scorching summer heat waves and downpours are set to become more extreme in the northern hemisphere as global warming makes weather patterns linger longer in the same place, scientists said Monday. They said there was a risk of “extreme extremes” in North America, Europe and parts of Asia because man-made greenhouse gas emissions seemed to be disrupting high-altitude winds that blow eastward in vast, looping “planetary waves.” “Summer weather is likely to become more persistent — more prolonged hot dry periods, possibly also more prolonged rainy periods,” said Dim Coumou, lead author of the study at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. “Both can lead to extremes” such as heat, drought, wildfires or flooding, he told Reuters of the findings in the journal Nature Communications, based on a review of existing scientific literature. Many parts of the northern hemisphere have experienced baking heat this summer, with wildfires from California to Greece. Temperatures topped 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) even in the Arctic Circle in northern Europe. The stalling of weather patterns could threaten food production. “Persistent hot and dry conditions in Western Europe, Russia and parts of the U.S. threaten cereal yields in these breadbaskets,” the authors wrote. They linked the slowdown in weather patterns to the Arctic, which is heating at more than twice the global average amid climate change. The difference in temperature between the chill of the Arctic and warmth further south is a main driver of winds that blow weather systems …

Trump Demands Fed Help on Economy, Complains About Interest Rate Rises

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he was “not thrilled” with the Federal Reserve under Chairman Jerome Powell for raising interest rates and said the U.S. central bank should do more to help him to boost the economy. In the middle of international trade disputes, Trump in an interview with Reuters also accused China and Europe of manipulating their respective currencies. American presidents have rarely criticized the Fed in recent decades because its independence has been seen as important for economic stability. Trump has departed from this past practice. The president spooked investors in July when he criticized the U.S. central bank’s over tightening monetary policy. On Monday he said the Fed should be more accommodating on interest rates. “I’m not thrilled with his raising of interest rates, no. I’m not thrilled,” Trump said, referring to Powell. Trump nominated Powell last year to replace former Fed Chair Janet Yellen. U.S. stock prices dipped after Trump’s comments to Reuters and the U.S. dollar edged down against a basket of currencies. Trump, who criticized the Fed when he was a candidate, said other countries benefited from their central banks’ moves during tough trade talks, but the United States was not getting support from the Fed. “We’re negotiating very powerfully and strongly with other nations. We’re going to win. But during this period of time I should be given some help by the Fed. The other countries are accommodated,” Trump said. The Fed has raised interest rates twice this year and is …

China to Keep Providing Aid to Pacific for Sustainable Development

China will continue to provide aid to Tonga and other countries in the Pacific to help them achieve sustainable development, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, amid a mounting debt problem in the region. Tonga’s prime minister on Friday backed down on calls for Pacific island nations to collectively lobby China to forgive their debts, after a source said China had complained about the plan. Tonga is one of eight island nations in the South Pacific carrying significant debt to China, and had started building support to press China to cancel repayments. Pacific nations were due to discuss the plan at a forum of regional leaders scheduled to be held in the tiny island nation of Nauru early next month, Tongan Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva told Reuters on Thursday. Pōhiva said in a statement on Friday that “after further reflection” he believed the forum was not the proper platform to discuss Chinese debt, and that Pacific nations should each find their own solutions. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he noted Pōhiva’s statement of “clarification” and his positive appraisal of ties with China. “I would like to stress that China and Tonga are strategic partners of mutual respect and common development,” Lu told a daily news briefing in Beijing. “China will continue to provide support and assistance to Tonga and other Pacific island countries in achieving sustainable development to the best of its ability,” he added, without elaborating. A recent Reuters analysis of the financial books of South Pacific …

With Inflation Soaring, Venezuela Prices Shed Five Zeros

Venezuela on Monday slashed five zeros from prices as part of a broad economic plan that President Nicolas Maduro says will tame hyperinflation but critics call another raft of failed socialist policies that will push the chaotic country deeper into crisis. Streets were quiet and shops were closed due to a national holiday that Maduro decreed for the first day of the new pricing plan for the stricken economy, which the International Monetary Fund has estimated will have 1 million percent inflation by year end. The price change comes with a 3,000 percent minimum wage hike, tax increases meant to shore up state coffers and a plan to peg salaries, prices and the country’s exchange rate to the petro, an elusive state-backed cryptocurrency. Economists say the plan, which was announced last Friday, is likely to escalate the crisis facing the once-prosperous nation that is now suffering from Soviet-style product shortages and a mass exodus of citizens fleeing for other South American countries. Venezuelans were skeptical the plan will turn the economy around. “I can’t find a cash machine because all the banks are closed today,” said Jose Moreno, 71, a retired engineer in the central city of Valencia, complaining of chronically dysfunctional public services. “There’s no money, there’s no water, there’s no electricity – there’s nothing.” After a decade-long oil bonanza that spawned a consumption boom in the OPEC member, many citizens are now reduced to scouring through garbage to find food as monthly salaries currently amount to a few …

US Trade Office Holds Hearings on Plans for More Tariffs Against China