Yves Bonzon (Julius Baer) | Some investors and market commentators have interpreted the recent and persistent tensions in overnight repo markets in the US as a potential early warning signal of trouble. They draw parallels with the early warnings in credit market in 2007 right before the Great Financial Crisis. The current situation could actually not be more different: same symptoms, but very different cause.
Clinton Fernandes (The Conversation) | Silicon Valley may now be more popularly associated with software companies such as Google and Facebook but it takes its name from the material most used to make semiconductors. Semiconductors – or computer chips – power everything from mobile phones to military systems. The semiconductor industry sits at the centre of the modern world. This point is key to appreciating what’s going on in the US government’s battle with Chinese technology giant Huawei.
Shaun Riordan | We do not usually think of France´s dapper, sophisticated young president, the last hope of European liberal elites, pursuing the same objectives as America´s ageing and overweight bully, the sworn enemy of liberal internationalism. But both Macron and Trump agree on the need to end the conflict in Ukraine and re-integrate Russia into the international community.
Gerardo del Cerro Santamaría (The Conversation) | Megaprojects are reconfigured spaces in which the role of the local, regional, and national elites, as well as the role of national and sometimes transnational capital, is usually prominent. They can include urban regeneration schemes, transport and energy infrastructure, industrial corridors, city clusters, new towns, innovation districts, science and technology parks and sports infrastructure.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has fixed the global growth of solar and wind power and other clean energies at double digits for this year. 200 GW of new clean energy capacity is expected to be installed by the end of 2019. The largest part of the new capacity will come from solar energy with 115 GW, despite a small contraction in the China market.
Peter Isackson (Fair Observer) | With the integrity of a monopoly to ensure, Mark Zuckerberg, the enfant terrible, has taken a major step forward in becoming a Washington insider.
Ana Fuentes | On Sunday, hours before the giant Thomas Cook announced his bankruptcy, several Spanish businessmen in the tourism sector tried to avoid the fall of the British operator with an injection of 107 million. It was not enough. The Spanish employer Exceltur estimates the losses at 200 million euros and thousands of jobs are at risk. Direct competitors such as Tui, shareholder of the Riu Group, AIG and Internet platforms, however, will benefit.
Laurie Wright (The Conversation) | Nearly half of the tasks currently undertaken by humans could already be automated, even at current levels of technology. Within the next decade it is likely large sections of society will be looking for new jobs.
Bankia Estudios | The sharp increase in oil prices produced by the attack on Saudi installations happened as a moment of weakness in the global economy with multiple centres of uncertainty (trade war, Brexit, global industrial recession, among others); however, it would have to be persistent and much more intense to derail global expansion.
Atul Singh via Fair Observer | The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s bold and risky response to internal tensions and external pressure, but it is not backed by an inspiring idea.