How More Than a Billion People Got Access to Financial Services in Less Than a Decade

Date: 20-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Corner shops, tailors, pharmacies, and even doctors‘ offices are adding simple financial services.

About 1.2 billion adults gained access to financial services between 2011 and last year, the World Bank said Thursday, as the internet and mobile phones increasingly connected far-flung communities to the global financial grid.

The share of the adult population with an account at a bank or mobile money provider grew to 69% in 2017 from 62% in 2014 and 51% in 2011, according to the Global Findex, a database produced by the World Bank.

Global policy makers consider “financial inclusion” to be a potential tool for fighting poverty and inequality by giving people better ways to save, borrow, buy, sell and receive payments. As traceable, digital transactions gradually displace the use of cash, authorities say, the process may also help combat money laundering and other illegal activities.

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Merkel and Macron Begin Sparring on Eurozone Reform

Date: 20-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

French president seeks backing from reluctant German leader for a eurozone revamp with little time to overcome differences before EU summit in June

BERLIN—German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday kick-started what promised to be difficult talk about strengthening the eurozone’s architecture, as Berlin maintained its skepticism over ambitious French proposals to deepen the integration of the currency union’s economies.

Mr. Macron has been seeking support from Ms. Merkel for his campaign to overhaul the eurozone’s institutions, with proposals for common spending and burden-sharing, and was counting on Thursday’s meeting to overcome resistance from the German chancellor.

However, at a joint press conference ahead of the talks, Ms. Merkel remained noncommittal.

EU Plans to Pitch Trade Bargain to Trump

Date: 19-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Deal would feature lower tariffs on U.S. cars, access to government bidding for Europe, and joint action on China

European officials want a permanent exemption from new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The European Union is drawing up a peace offer it hopes will end trade hostilities with the White House and avoid steel and aluminum tariffs being imposed on the bloc in two weeks’ time, according to European officials.

Its centerpiece: A miniature, simplified version of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership—the controversial EU-U.S. trade agreement that was negotiated but never concluded under the Obama administration.

To complete the offer, the EU is considering joining forces with the U.S. in tackling what both see as China’s unfair trade practices, the officials said.

Don’t Rule Out an EU-U.S. Trade War

Date: 19-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Simon Nixon

Europe is demanding the Trump administration permanently exempt it from tariffs. A flashpoint in the dispute comes May 1

The European Union shares U.S concerns about Chinese trade practices but may soon find itself in a trade war of its own with Washington.

So far, the European Union has managed to stay out of the escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Along with other U.S. allies, it negotiated for itself a temporary exemption from the tariffs on imported steel that President Donald Trump announced last month, citing national security concerns. Since then, the U.S. has introduced a further $50 billion of tariffs on an extensive list of Chinese imports in retaliation for what it claims is theft of intellectual property and has threatened a further $100 billion. The EU shares many of the U.S.’s concerns about Chinese trade practices and would like to work with the U.S. to put pressure on China to agree to a reform of global trading rules that would address Chinese overcapacity problems. Yet there is a real risk that the EU and U.S. may soon find themselves embroiled in a trade war of their own.

Amazon Prime Has More Than 100 Million Members

Date: 19-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

CEO Bezos reveals figure for first time in annual letter to shareholders

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—who said Amazon had more than 100 million paid Prime members globally in 2017.

More than 100 million people globally are now paying for Amazon Prime, a sign of how Amazon.com Inc. has used the service to evolve from an online marketplace that struggled with profitability into an e-commerce powerhouse.

Amazon, which has never disclosed the number of Prime members before, revealed the figure Wednesday in Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’s closely followed annual letter to shareholders. The company said in late 2015 that it had “tens of millions” of Prime customers.

Amazon’s story to investors has largely been one of scale. In the company’s view, having a large numbers of customers and clients has allowed it to spread costs broadly and continue investing in technology.

This view is shown in its growing Prime membership, through its massive cloud-server business and how it lets third-party sellers onto its platform to compete against itself for customers. Amazon said Wednesday that a majority of goods shipped world-wide on its platform are now from these sellers.

“This is Bezos saying Prime continues to be a healthy, growing platform,” said Michael Levin, partner and co-founder of investment and market-research group Consumer Intelligence Research Partners LLC. “Bezos is basically saying ‘Here’s our installed base, come and get us.’”

Germany to Push for Exemptions From U.S. Sanctions on Russia

Date: 18-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

German executives say the measures could threaten long-standing joint ventures and cost hundreds of millions

BERLIN—German leaders want the Trump administration to exempt their country’s companies from tough new U.S. sanctions on Russia.

During a visit to Washington this week, Germany’s finance minister will push for special treatment and Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning to raise the issue with President Donald Trump when the two meet later this month, German officials said.

In addition to voicing concerns about the sanctions, meant to punish Moscow for meddling in U.S. elections, Ms. Merkel also intends to warn Mr. Trump about the potential economic fallout from U.S. trade policies, an aide to the chancellor said. “It will not be an easy visit,” the official said.

German industry has been lobbying Ms. Merkel’s government to urge the U.S. to soften its stance or come up with arrangements to ensure German companies, many of which do substantial business in Russia, don’t fall victim to deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow.

U.S.-Russia Tensions Catch Up With Metals Tycoon Oleg Deripaska

Date: 17-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

Proximity to President Vladimir Putin helped billionaire but is now a liability

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Oleg Deripaska and eight of his companies this month, among other Russian targets.

Last fall, Oleg Deripaska ramped up Russia’s presence in Western markets when he pulled off London’s second-biggest corporate listing of the year. Now the metals billionaire is on a U.S. sanctions list and that firm has lost roughly half its value.

The reversal of fortune reflects the arc of the Kremlin’s efforts to build political and financial relations with the West over the past two decades.

Mr. Deripaska’s proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin helped lure Western financiers seeking to invest in Russian commodity riches. He used wealth and influence to build bridges with Western elites, throwing lavish parties at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and rubbing elbows with senior politicians, including Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and George Osborne, then British member of parliament and a future chancellor of the exchequer.

On April 6, Mr. Deripaska’s ties to Mr. Putin became his biggest liability. The Trump administration levied sanctions against him and more than three dozen other Russian officials, tycoons and companies in response to what it calls Russia’s “malign activity,” including meddling in U.S. elections, which Russia denies. Mr. Deripaska said the reasons for blacklisting him are “groundless, ridiculous and absurd.”

Can the EU Break Out of Its Political Limbo?

Date: 16-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal By Simon Nixon

June summit will test leadership’s ability to reduce the risk of another sovereign crisis, and settle its asylum policy

French President Emmanuel Macron has given fresh urgency to the debate over completing the eurozone’s banking union, strengthening its bailout funds and creating a new central fiscal capacity to smooth shocks.

For the last two years, the European Union has been stuck in limbo. During this time, its priority has been simply to survive.

In mid-2016, in the wake of the Brexit referendum, with the migration crisis and eurozone debt crisis still fresh in the memory, and with euroskeptic parties riding high in the polls ahead of looming elections in key member states, it seemed as if it might fall apart.

The fact that it didn’t is partly due to the willingness of mainstream politicians to work together in grand coalitions and minority governments to keep the euroskeptics away from power. It is also partly due to the unexpected strength of the economic recovery and the dramatic fall in the rate of  illegal migration—but also because EU leaders agreed to defer difficult decisions.

Trump, Comey Duel Over Book

Date: 16-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

On Twitter, president writes, ‘I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies.’

President Donald Trump had more to say Sunday about the book penned by James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

WASHINGTON—Friction between President Donald Trump and James Comey resurfaced this weekend after details from the former FBI director’s book reopened the debate over Mr. Comey’s firing.

In an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday night, Mr. Comey said his decision to tell Congress 11 days before the 2016 presidential election that the FBI was again examining Hillary Clinton’s emails was influenced by his belief the Democratic nominee would defeat Mr. Trump.

“I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor,” Mr. Comey told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in the exclusive interview, according to excerpts released by the network.

Mr. Comey, who is promoting the book due in stores Tuesday, also called Mr. Trump “morally unfit” to be president.

“A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person’s not fit to be president of the United States, on moral grounds,” Mr. Comey said, according to a transcript of the entire interview released by ABC.

Mr. Comey’s memoir, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” is critical of Mr. Trump, according to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. He writes that the president is a “deeply flawed person and leader,” compares him to a Mafia boss and characterizes his presidency as a “forest fire.”

In Syria and Beyond, a Dangerous New Era Dawns

Date: 16-04-2018
Source: The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. simultaneously confronts an aggrieved Russia and an aggressive rising power in China, a situation that calls for dexterous diplomacy

At a Wall Street Journal gathering of business leaders in London a few days ago, John Sawers, a career British diplomat and former head of the MI6 intelligence service, delivered a sober warning: For the first time in living memory, there is a realistic prospect of a superpower conflict.

His declaration came as the Western missile strike at Russia’s friends in Syria was imminent. But that confrontation is only a small part of the troubling equation he described.

The U.S., a mature power, simultaneously confronts an aggrieved and newly assertive Russia as well as an aggressive rising power in China. This is the backdrop for not only the standoff in Syria but also rising trade tensions with China.