Why open borders should be the West’s peaceful response to Russian aggression March 26, 2014 Western nations have responded to Russia's annexation of Crimea with moral condemnation and a series of sanctions against individuals with close ties to the Kremlin. On 21 March, the EU extended visa restrictions to a further 12 individuals. Later today Barack Obama will meet with EU leaders to discuss a response to Russia's actions, after [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 20 May 2014 May 19, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES EU banks face debt sale clampdown European regulators are seeking to clamp down on the sale of debt by banks to their own retail customers, amid fears savers do not realise the risks posed by such assets. The European Banking Authority is concerned about the sale of bank debt that could be bailed [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 09 May 2014 May 8, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Apple in talks for $3.2bn Beats deal Apple will acquire Beats’ streaming music service, which launched this year, and its audio equipment business, which includes its brand of headphones and audio equipment. The Beats management team will report to Mr Cook, sources said. Apple and Beats did not comment. The deal is likely [...]
Ukraine will only be the start April 21, 2014 Traders set to increasingly feel the pinch from flare-ups in petro-states FOR ANY traders not paying close attention to energy markets, recent events will have come as a rude awakening. Brent crude shot up from just above $104 per barrel in February to over $109 at the end of last week, while energy firms embroiled [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 13 May 2014 May 12, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Allergan: Valeant bid would hit R&D Allergan has launched a robust defence against a near-$50bn bid by rival drugmaker Valeant and activist investor Bill Ackman, warning that a takeover would crush research and severely impair its ability to sell its products, including Botox. Allergan also said it had doubts about the viability of [...]
UK energy fears rise after Russia warns it may end gas discounts March 3, 2014 CONCERNS about the security of the UK’s energy supply heightened over the weekend, as escalating political troubles in Ukraine cast uncertainty over gas shipments. Ukraine provides a key pipeline for transporting Russian gas into Europe, but a bitter dispute over the country’s ties has led Russia to issue several warnings that Ukraine may lose a [...]
Putin doesn’t need to invade Ukraine to get what he wants April 16, 2014 THE SIMMERING crisis in Ukraine has just been brought to a boil again. Pushed to the point of no return, the fledgling government in Kiev has at last responded to Russian provocations, for the first time deploying troops, aircraft, and armoured carriers in the east of the country. Kiev has explicitly labelled this an “anti-terrorist [...]
Putin fears an EU fracking bonanza – but environmentalists don’t have to May 29, 2014 RUSSIA and China agreed on a $400bn, 30-year deal last week, wherein Gazprom will deliver 38bn cubic metres of natural gas a year to China. This will exacerbate the EU energy crisis, but the bloc still seems intent on ignoring the only obvious solution – fracking – and fidgets at the margins with renewables. Large [...]
Bottom Line: Three stocks that stand to lose big from the escalating market chaos March 3, 2014 1 BPTHE MOST exposed to Russia of the FTSE’s energy majors slumped 2.28 per cent yesterday despite a similar rise in the cost of brent crude. A hotly contested deal in 2012 saw BP take on a 19.75 per cent stake in Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft – whose shares dropped 4.1 per cent in [...]
Globalisation isn’t keeping us safe – it’s blunting our punishment of Putin March 30, 2014 CALAMITIES often serve a useful purpose in foreign policy, overturning intellectual sacred cows that – until they so dramatically reveal themselves as unfit for purpose – pass for received wisdom. The long-held leftish shibboleth of interdependence presently seems ripe for the chopping block. This cherished nostrum declares that, since countries’ economic affairs are intertwined, mainstream [...]