Venezuela, Brexit, Trade, Oil, Jamie Dimon, US Soccer, Cannes Film Festival
Marc Ross Daily
May 8, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
Marc Ross Daily = Global Business News at the Intersection of Politics + Policy + Profits
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TOP FIVE
✔️ US asks Organization of American States to suspend Venezuela
✔️ Boris goes to war with May over her 'crazy' Brexit trade plan
✔️ China president’s top economic adviser to visit Washington
✔️ Oil prices hit $70 a barrel for first time since 2014
✔️ Dimon lays out 100-year China vision with trade spat on horizon
GEOECONOMICS
AP: US asks Organization of American States to suspend Venezuela
The U.S. has announced new sanctions on three Venezuelans and 20 companies with ties to President Maduro, whom it blames for a deep recession and hyperinflation that have caused food shortages across Venezuela.
Cuba in drive to attract foreign investment: FT reports, negotiations on some projects are underway as country endures economic crisis.
Iran: Trump plans to announce his intentions on the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday at 2:00 pm ET.
Italy in a mess: Bloomberg reports, Italy is heading for fresh elections. The anti-establishment group Five Star yesterday abandoned efforts to form a government and demanded a new ballot in July. That call was backed by the anti-immigrant League.
Germany’s Mittelstand gets to grips with digital challenge: FT reports, disruptive technologies trigger strategic rethink in companies at core of economy.
Daily Mail: Boris goes to war with May over her 'crazy' Brexit trade plan
Taiwan opposition ditches pro-China overtures ahead of poll:FT reports, Kuomintang reverts to moderate approach to draw support from voters wary of Beijing.
China president’s top economic adviser to visit Washington: WSJ reports, Xi Jinping plans to dispatch his top economic aide next week to Washington to continue discussions over the ongoing trade dispute with the White House. Vice Premier Liu He’s visit is slated to come after a team of U.S. trade officials traveled to China last week at the direction of Trump. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Mr. Liu’s visit on Monday. The U.S. team returned without a significant breakthrough in the standoff over tariffs. Trump received a briefing Monday morning on those talks and remains optimistic that a deal can be reached, Ms. Sanders said.
FT - Editorial: Donald Trump’s irrational trade demands on China: If one sat down and made a determined effort, it would be hard to come up with a more economically wrong-headed, diplomatically toxic and legally destructive negotiating position than that presented to China last week by a visiting US trade delegation. Mr Trump needs to be careful. China has already shown itself adept at targeted retaliation to hurt the US, stopping purchases of sorghum from politically sensitive agricultural states. With a wide range of tools at its disposal, Beijing can hit Mr Trump where it hurts, in his political heartland.
US-China tech wars threaten global sector disruption: FT reports, banned component sales. A blocked $142bn chip takeover. Fresh concessions demanded on a second chip deal. If this is just the warm-up, analysts say the US-China tech wars look likely to severely disrupt the global tech sector on both sides of the Pacific.
Hillary Clinton says China's foreign power grab 'a new global battle': Guardian reports, China’s attempt to gain political power and influence in foreign countries is “a new global battle”, Hillary Clinton has warned. “In Australia and here in New Zealand experts are sounding the alarm about Chinese efforts to gain political power and influence policy decisions,” Clinton said.
WSJ - Niall Ferguson and Xiang Xu: Trump and the ‘Chimerica’ crisis: The countries’ divergence began in 2015, as Beijing took defensive steps against financial risk. https://on.wsj.com/2wpsmxa
AMERICAN POLITICS
NY AG: Eric Schneiderman resigned after The New Yorker reported that four women had accused him of physically assaulting them.
The finance sector spent $719 million on politics in 2017.
Oliver North is poised to become the National Rifle Assn.’s nextpresident.
NYT: Oil prices hit $70 a barrel for first time since 2014
Election 2018: Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia are holding primary elections today to nominate candidates for November.
NYT: Meet the pro-trade, pro-immigration economist running for Congress. As a Republican. in Ohio. https://nyti.ms/2IloAtl
"Tim Kane, 50, has a résumé that sounds as if he answered a casting call for a Republican congressional candidate: An Ohio native, he served in the Air Force, then earned a Ph.D. in economics and worked at conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution. Along the way, he helped start two companies, wrote four books and became a familiar commentator on economic issues in newspapers and on television."
California now has the world’s fifth largest economy.
ENTERPRISE
Ticketmaster plans to use face-recognition tech to check people into events.
Dimon lays out 100-year China vision with trade spat on horizon: Bloomberg reports, Jamie Dimon laid out his long-term vision for JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s expansion in China, while expressing hopes that mounting trade tensions won’t derail the plans. “We’re building here for a hundred years,” Dimon, chief executive officer of the largest U.S. bank, said Tuesday in a Bloomberg Television interview in Beijing. “One day you’ll probably have a tower here that looks like the tower we have in New York.”
Xiaomi is targeting a valuation of between $70 -$80 billion.
Snap is hiring Amazon veteran Tim Stone as its new chief financial officer.
Nestle is paying Starbucks $7.15 billion for the rights to sell its products around the world.
Mondelez bought the crispy cookie wizards at Tate's Bake Shop for $500 million.
Facebook is testing whether there is a market for an ad-free subscription service for its platform.
TRENDS
“Bots won’t be better at being human, just as humans aren’t “better at” being chimpanzees.” -- Damien Patrick Williams, PhD researcher at Virginia Tech, on how robots will experience the world in a way completely different from humans.
CULTURE
The Cannes Film Festival opens tonight.
One goal of Amazon’s HQ2: Learn the lessons of Seattle. Amazon has surprised officials in cities vying for the company’s new headquarters by asking how to avoid soaring housing costs and paralyzing traffic. https://nyti.ms/2HXTZTe
SPORT
LAT: After U.S. team misses qualifying for World Cup, ex-coach Bruce Arena writes about state of U.S. soccer https://lat.ms/2I1klDO
"U.S. Soccer and MLS, run by people Arena says have limited technical knowledge of the sport."
NASCAR for sale? The France family - which has been the majority owner of the group since its founding in 1948 - reportedly shopping the company. NASCAR is privately held and therefore does not disclose earnings, but a sale could likely fall between $3 - $5 billion.
LAT: California's hottest surf spot is a Kelly Slater-designed artificial wave pool 100 miles inland https://lat.ms/2JZWvVN