Home Blog Page 85199

USA: Trump droht deutschen Autokonzernen mit hohen Strafzöllen

0

NewsHubDer künftige US-Präsident Donald Trump hat in einem Rundumschlag die Flüchtlingspolitik von Angela Merkel, das Verteidigungsbündnis Nato und die deutschen Autokonzerne kritisiert. Autobauer müssten Strafzölle bezahlen, falls sie statt in den USA im benachbarten Mexiko produzieren, sagte Trump in einem gemeinsamen Interview der Zeitungen Bild und Times. Sollten sie Autos in die USA verkaufen wollen, die nicht dort gefertigt worden seien, müssten sie « 35 Prozent Steuern zahlen ». Bislang seien die Deutschen gegenüber den USA sehr unfair. « Ich würde BMW sagen, wenn sie eine Fabrik in Mexiko bauen und Autos in
die USA verkaufen wollen ohne eine 35-Prozent-Steuer, dann können sie
das vergessen », sagte Trump auf die Frage nach Plänen des Münchner
Autobauers BMW, 2019 eine Fabrik in Mexiko zu eröffnen. « Was ich damit
sage, ist, dass sie ihre Fabrik in den USA bauen müssen.  »
Über Merkels Flüchtlingspolitik sagte Trump: « Ich finde, sie hat einen äußerst katastrophalen Fehler gemacht, und zwar all diese Illegalen ins Land zu lassen.  » Von den Folgen dieser Politik der offenen Grenzen habe Deutschland jüngst einen Eindruck bekommen, fügte er mit Blick auf den Weihnachtsmarkt-Anschlag in Berlin vom 19. Dezember hinzu.
Statt Flüchtlinge ins Land zu lassen, hätte sich Deutschland stärker für Sicherheitszonen etwa in Syrien stark machen sollen, sagte Trump. « Die Golfstaaten hätten dafür zahlen sollen, die haben doch schließlich Geld wie kaum ein anderer.  » Trump hatte Merkels Flüchtlingspolitik schon vor Monaten kritisiert. Dennoch habe er stets großen Respekt vor Merkel gehabt, sagte Trump. « Merkel ist mit Abstand einer der wichtigsten Regierungschefs. Ich hatte das Gefühl, sie ist großartig, eine großartige Anführerin.  » Er respektiere und möge Merkel, kenne sie aber nicht.
Die Nato bezeichnete Trump wie bereits im Wahlkampf als obsolet. « Die Nato hat Probleme. Sie ist obsolet, weil sie erstens vor vielen, vielen Jahren entworfen wurde. Zweitens zahlen die Länder nicht, was sie zahlen müssten.  » Das transatlantische Verteidigungsgemeinschaft sei auch deshalb « obsolet, weil sie sich nicht um den Terrorismus gekümmert hat ». Trump beklagte zudem, dass nicht alle Nato-Länder angemessen in ihre Verteidigung investierten. « Wir sollen diese Länder schützen, aber viele dieser Länder zahlen nicht, was sie zahlen müssten », sagte er. « Das ist sehr unfair gegenüber den Vereinigten Staaten.  » Trump fügte hinzu: « Abgesehen davon ist mir die Nato aber sehr wichtig.  » Trump hatte bereits im Wahlkampf mehr finanzielles Engagement der europäischen Nato-Verbündeten gefordert und dabei die Beistandsgarantie bei Angriffen für Länder in Frage gestellt, die nicht genug im Verteidigungsbereich investieren.
Den bevorstehenden EU-Austritt Großbritanniens sieht der künftige US-Präsident positiv. « Der Brexit wird sich letztlich als eine großartige Sache herausstellen », sagte er in dem Zeitungsinterview. « Sehen Sie sich die Europäische Union an, die ist Deutschland. Im Grunde genommen ist die Europäische Union ein Mittel zum Zweck für Deutschland. Deswegen fand ich, dass es so klug von Großbritannien war, auszutreten.  » Er rechne damit, dass weitere EU-Staaten dem Vorbild Großbritanniens folgen werden. « Wenn Sie mich fragen: Es werden weitere Länder austreten », sagte Trump. « Menschen, Länder wollen ihre eigene Identität, Großbritannien wollte seine eigene Identität. Die Leute wollen nicht, dass andere Leute in ihr Land kommen und es zerstören. « 
Für die USA spiele es keine Rolle, ob die EU geschlossen oder zerrissen sei. « Ich habe nie geglaubt, dass das von Bedeutung ist », sagte Trump. « Schauen Sie, zum Teil wurde die Union gegründet, um die Vereinigten Staaten im Handel zu schlagen, nicht wahr? Also ist es mir ziemlich egal, ob sie getrennt und vereint ist, für mich spielt es keine Rolle. « 

Similarity rank: 3.2

© Source: http://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2017-01/trump-droht-deutschen-autokonzernen-mit-hohen-strafzoellen
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Trump: Kritik an Merkel und NATO, Lob für Brexit

0

NewsHubDer künftige US-Präsident Trump hat seine Vorstellungen zur US-Außen- und Wirtschaftspolitik erläutert. In einem Interview mit « Bild » und « Times » nannte er die NATO obsolet, den Brexit lobte er und deutschen Autobauern drohte er Strafzölle an.
In einem Rundumschlag hat der künftige US-Präsident Donald Trump zahlreiche seiner Aussagen zu Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel, zu EU und NATO sowie zu seiner künftigen Wirtschaftspolitik bekräftigt, teils verschärft und wieder relativiert.
Über Merkels Flüchtlingspolitik sagte Trump in dem Interview mit der « Bild »-Zeitung und der britischen « Times »: « Ich finde, sie hat einen äußerst katastrophalen Fehler gemacht, und zwar all diese Illegalen ins Land zu lassen.  » Von den Folgen dieser Politik der offenen Grenzen habe Deutschland jüngst einen Eindruck bekommen, fügte Trump mit Blick auf den Weihnachtsmarkt-Anschlag in Berlin am 19. Dezember hinzu.
Statt Flüchtlinge ins Land zu lassen, hätte sich Deutschland stärker für Sicherheitszonen etwa in Syrien stark machen sollen, sagte Trump. « Die Golfstaaten hätten dafür zahlen sollen, die haben doch schließlich Geld wie kaum ein anderer. « 
Trotzdem lobte er Merkel, vor der er stets großen Respekt gehabt habe. « Merkel ist mit Abstand einer der wichtigsten Regierungschefs. (…) Ich hatte das Gefühl, sie ist großartig, eine großartige Anführerin. « 
Auf die Frage, ob er Merkel oder Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin mehr traue, antwortete Trump: « Wir werden erst einmal beiden vertrauen und sehen, wie lange das anhält.  » Vielleicht halte das Vertrauen ja gar nicht lange.
Mit Blick auf die deutschen Autobauer sagte Trump, diese könnten Fahrzeuge für die USA bauen, « aber sie werden für jedes Auto, das in die USA kommt, 35 Prozent Steuern zahlen ». Er meine damit, « dass sie ihre Fabrik in den USA bauen müssen – es wird für sie viel besser sein und für unsere Bemühungen.  » Trump hatte zuletzt auch dem japanischen Autobauer Toyota und dem US-Konzern General Motors mit hohen Strafzöllen gedroht, sollten sie Autos für den US-Markt in Mexiko bauen.
Den deutschen Autobauern warf Trump unfaires Verhalten vor. So stehe in manchen US-Straßen vor jedem Haus ein Mercedes Benz. Das beruhe aber nicht auf Gegenseitigkeit. « Wie viele Chevrolets sehen Sie in Deutschland? Nicht allzu viele, vielleicht gar keine, man sieht dort drüben gar nichts, es ist eine Einbahnstraße.  » Er sei zwar für Freihandel, aber nicht um jeden Preis, « Ich liebe den Freihandel, aber es muss ein kluger Handel sein, damit ich ihn fair nenne. « 
Zur deutschen Rolle in der EU sagt Trump: « Im Grunde genommen ist die Europäische Union ein Mittel zum Zweck für Deutschland.  » Deshalb sei es auch klug von Großbritannien, aus der EU auszutreten. « Der Brexit wird sich letztlich als eine großartige Sache herausstellen. « 
Er rechne damit, dass weitere Länder diesen Schritt gehen werden. « Menschen, Länder wollen ihre eigene Identität. (…) Die Leute wollen nicht, dass andere Leute in ihr Land kommen und es zerstören. « 
Für die USA werde es aus seiner Sicht keine große Rolle spielen, ob die EU geschlossen oder zerrissen sei. Zum Teil sei die Union gegründet worden, um die USA im Handel zu schlagen. « Also ist es mir ziemlich egal, ob sie getrennt oder vereint ist, für mich spielt es keine Rolle. « 
Der Republikaner kündigte eine Verschärfung der Grenzkontrollen bei US-Einreisen an, die auch EU-Bürger treffen könnten. « Es wird extreme Sicherheitsüberprüfungen geben, es wird nicht so sein wie jetzt.  » Ob dies auch auf Einreisende aus EU-Staaten Auswirkungen haben werde, werde man sehen. Er werde es « nicht so machen wie Deutschland ». « Wir wollen nicht, dass Leute aus Syrien zu uns kommen, von denen wir nicht wissen, wer sie sind. Es gibt keine Möglichkeit für uns, diese Leute zu überprüfen. « 
Die Nato sieht der künftige US-Präsident als überaltetes Modell an. Die Nato sei obsolet, weil sie vor vielen, vielen Jahren entworfen worden sei. Auch habe sich die NATO nicht um den Terrorismus gekümmert.
Trump wiederholte seinen Vorwurf, nicht alle Länder würden angemessen in ihre Verteidigung investieren. « Wir sollen diese Länder schützen, aber viele dieser Länder zahlen nicht, was sie zahlen müssten. Das ist sehr unfair gegenüber den Vereinigten Staaten. Abgesehen davon ist mir die NATO aber sehr wichtig. « 
Zu den westlichen Sanktionen gegen Russland erklärte Trump, Russland leide darunter im Moment schwer. « Aber ich glaube, da könnte manches gehen, von dem viele Leute profitieren würden.  » Er wolle angesichts der Sanktionen der EU « mal sehen, ob wir ein paar gute Deals mit Russland machen können ». Dies betreffe unter anderem eine mögliche Reduzierung des Atomwaffen-Arsenals. Trump hatte bereits vor einigen Tagen gesagt, er erwäge, die Sanktionen gegen Russland mittelfristig zu beenden.
Allerdings übte Trump Kritik an der russischen Syrien-Politik: « Das ist eine sehr üble Sache.  » Die Kämpfe um die syrische Stadt Aleppo seien « scheußlich » gewesen. « Wenn man sieht, wie sie alte Frauen erschießen, die Stadt verlassen. Sie können nicht einmal da lang gehen und werden erschossen. Es wirkt fast so, als würden sie zum Spaß erschießen – ach, das ist schrecklich, das ist eine schreckliche Lage. Aleppo ist in einer so furchtbaren humanitären Lage. « 
Trump sieht aber auch Fehler Obamas: « Wir hatten die Chance, etwas zu tun, als wir diese rote Linie zogen, die aber nicht galt – nichts ist geschehen. Das war die einzige Gelegenheit, und jetzt ist es irgendwie… sehr spät. Es ist zu spät, jetzt ist alles vorbei. « 
Seine Angewohnheit, selbst Twitter-Nachrichten zu versenden, will Trump nicht aufgeben: « Ich dachte, ich würde es zurückschrauben, aber die Presse berichtet so unehrlich über mich – so unehrlich – dass ich mich über Twitter äußere. Und es sind nicht 140 Zeichen, es sind jetzt 140, 280 – ich kann bing, bing machen und mache einfach weiter, und sie veröffentlichen es, sobald ich es twittere. « 
Insgesamt rechnet Trump mit einer deutlichen Veränderung seines Lebensstils: « Das ist eine sehr, sehr große Veränderung. Ich führte ein sehr angenehmes Leben, Sie wissen schon, erfolgreich und gut. « 
Der Dienstsitz als Präsident sei dagegen etwas völlig anderes: « Wenn du der Präsident bist, bist du im Weißen Haus, das ein ganz besonderer Ort ist. Du bist da für begrenzte Zeit, wer will es schon verlassen?  » Wer im Weißen Haus sei, wolle nicht Urlaub machen. Es gebe « viel Arbeit zu erledigen ». « Ich werde nicht oft weggehen. Ich werde im Weißen Haus sein und arbeiten, meine Aufgabe erfüllen. « 

Similarity rank: 4.2

© Source: http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/trump-713.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Hong Kong tycoon Li to buy Australian energy firm Duet

0

NewsHubA group led by Hong Kong billionaire tycoon Li Ka-shing’s infrastructure business said Monday it is buying Australian energy company Duet in a multibillion dollar deal.
Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. and Li’s property and power utility companies are proposing to buy Duet Group for 3 Australian dollars a share, in an acquisition worth AU$7.4 billion ($5.5 billion). Duet
The investment still needs approval from Australian regulators and Duet shareholders, who will also get a special dividend of 3 Australian cents, according to a separate news release from Duet. That makes the terms of the deal slightly more attractive than the initial offer announced in December. Duet said its board is recommending shareholders give their approval.
The deal signifies Li’s undiminished interest in Australian investments even after being dealt a setback last year when the government blocked a $10 billion joint offer with Chinese state-owned State Grid for a Sydney electric grid lease. That deal was rejected on national security grounds.
The Cheung Kong consortium said in a statement that the acquisition « is consistent with its strategies of investing in energy infrastructure opportunities around the world and embracing new growth opportunities through diversification.  »
Duet operates gas and energy networks in Melbourne, a 1,600-kilometer (994-mile) gas pipeline in Western Australia and generates power from landfills in the U. S. and Europe.
Cheung Kong Infrastructure already owns significant energy businesses in Australia, as well as utilities in Britain and New Zealand and parking lots in Canada.

Similarity rank: 1.1
Sentiment rank: 3.2

© Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/world/article126774534.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Tibet activists arrested in Switzerland protest during Xi visit

0

NewsHubSwiss police have arrested 32 pro-Tibet activists who were protesting against a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The group, made up of Tibetans and Swiss nationals, were detained on Sunday for flouting restrictions set up by police in the capital, Bern.
One man was also prevented from setting himself on fire, said police.
Mr Xi is in Switzerland for a state visit ahead of the World Economic Forum which begins in Davos on Tuesday, a first for a Chinese president.
Sunday’s protest had taken place in Bern’s centre and was scheduled by police to end at noon, before Mr Xi’s visit.
City authorities said the demonstration mostly proceeded peacefully but a number of participants had continued to protest past the deadline, refused identity checks, and caused other disruptions.
Police spokesman Christoph Gnaegi told the Associated Press that those arrested were later released.
Doctors had taken care of the man who had tried to set himself on fire.
The demonstration attracted between 700 and 800 protesters, organisers said.
China’s policies in Tibet have frequently prompted overseas protests by Tibetans calling for freedom from China and acceptance of their spiritual leader-in-exile the Dalai Lama.
In 1999, a similar pro-Tibet protest took place during a visit by China’s then-president Jiang Zemin, who was said to be angered when demonstrators threw eggs at the Chinese delegation.

Similarity rank: 5.2
Sentiment rank: -4.7

© Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38633256
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

China Box Office: ‘Passengers’ Deposes ‘Rogue One’ After One Week

0

NewsHubAs funções primordiais de Pombagira são as de ajudar os seus em todos
e cada um dos casos de paixão, porém também é usada a sua força para desmanchar feitiços,
para implorar proteção e sanar várias doenças. http://text. Usg.edu:8080/tt/www.templodequimbanda.com.br%2Fportal-das-almas%2F

Similarity rank: 0
Sentiment rank: -1.8

© Source: http://variety.com/2017/film/asia/china-box-office-passengers-deposes-rogue-one-after-one-week-1201960932/
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Level 3 Inaugura Scrubbing Center de DDoS de Ásia-Pacífico em Hong Kong, Tokyo e Singapura

0

NewsHub13:00 ET
Preview: Level 3 Inaugura Scrubbing Center de DDoS de Asia Pacífico en Hong Kong, Tokio y Singapur
Jan 12, 2017, 08:00 ET
Preview: National LGBT Bar Association Honors Level 3 Senior Corporate Counsel Jason Prussman

Similarity rank: 0.1
Sentiment rank: 0

© Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/level-3-inaugura-scrubbing-center-de-ddos–de-asia-pacifico-em-hong-kong-tokyo-e-singapura-300388263.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Will Trump’s assault on Chinese currency trigger a full-blown trade war?

0

NewsHubFor two decades, China has been one of the countries on a U. S. watch list aimed at identifying trading partners that manipulate their currencies in order to keep their exports cheap.
Complaints that Beijing kept the yuan exchange rate artificially low escalated as China’s bilateral trade surplus soared, with regular threats to label it a currency manipulator.
Washington has not taken that drastic step since the early 1990s, but U. S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to do so, shrugging off the prospect of exacerbated tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Trump is not the first American politician to vow to play hardball with China during an election campaign. In 1992, Ross Perot accused president George H. W. Bush of shipping jobs to China. Before the 2000 election, Bush’s son, George W. , vowed to treat China as an economic competitor.
Four years later, John Kerry accused president George W. Bush of being « asleep at the wheel » for failing to address China’s currency manipulation. During a 2008 Democratic Party primary debate, Barack Obama vowed to « take [China] to the mat on [currency manipulation] ».
But President Obama’s administration refrained from labeling China a currency manipulator. During a 2012 presidential election debate with Obama, Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney made the boldest campaign promise on the issue, vowing to label China a currency manipulator on « day one » in office.
So when Trump vowed on the campaign trail to attack China’s currency policy and slap a 45 per cent tariff on imports from China, on the other side of the Pacific the Chinese leadership, think-tanks and state media took it as just more angry rhetoric. They thought Trump, like his predecessors, would embrace engagement.
But a succession of red flags since Trump’s election victory in November have caught them off guard. It was only recently that China, in the middle of intense horse trading ahead of the Communist Party’s national congress this autumn, began to prepare for economic ties with the U. S. entering uncharted waters.
« China will not undertake radical reforms in foreign exchange rate polices, if that’s what the U. S. would press for, » said Sun Lijian, an economist at Fudan University in Shanghai. « The accusation from the U. S. has never disturbed China’s own pace of currency reform, and it would remain so this time.  »
China was first listed as a currency manipulator by the George H. W. Bush administration in May 1992. The U. S. Treasury Department report attributed the inclusion to « the size and growth of China’s external payments surpluses » resulting from « pervasive administrative controls » maintained by Beijing, « including a highly regulated system of foreign exchange allocation and direct controls on imports.
China’s trade surplus with the U. S. had jumped 22 per cent a year earlier, to US$12.7 billion, as Chinese-made footwear, furniture and toys began to make inroads into the American market. That made it the source of America’s second-largest bilateral deficit, trailing only Japan.
China had a dual exchange rate system at the time, with an administrated rate applied to trade transactions under the state plan and a second rate determined in foreign exchange adjustment centers. There was also a sizable black market.
In early 1992, Beijing announced a renewed commitment to broad economic reform. A year later it devalued the yuan by 5 percent and its surplus with the U. S. widened by US$4.5 billion. In 1994, China unified its dual exchange rates and devalued the yuan by 33 percent from 5.8 per U. S. dollar to 8.7.
The U. S. welcomed the rate unification, but continued to label China a currency manipulator in a July 1994 report due to « China’s continued reliance on foreign exchange restrictions that could limit imports ».
The U. S. joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at the start of the next year and since then has sought to solve trade disputes via WTO mechanisms and has never labelled any country a currency manipulator.
Washington’s generally mild stance – negotiating currency issues through the WTO and through regular, high-level Sino-U. S. talks since 2006 – helped Beijing escape the sharp, one-off currency appreciation experienced by Japan and South Korea and allowed Beijing leeway in carrying out exchange rate reform.
In 2005, China announced a « managed floating » rate system, under which the yuan was allowed to float against a basket of currencies within a narrow daily range, and revalued the yuan, setting it 2.1 percent higher against the U. S. dollar. But reform has been a stop-start affair and Beijing again pegged the yuan to the U. S. dollar from mid 2008 to April 2010.
After allowing the yuan to appreciate by nearly 30 percent against the greenback since 2010, Beijing introduced a new method to determine the daily reference rate in August last year to better reflect market supply and demand. As a result of the adjustment, to prepare for the yuan’s inclusion in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights, China slashed the yuan’s fixing by a record 1.9 percent, sparking the biggest sell-off since 1994.
A People’s Bank of China official, speaking on condition on anonymity, said China did not meet at least one of the three criteria upon which the US decides whether a country is a currency manipulator, because its current account surplus was less than 3 percent of its gross domestic product. The other two criteria are a trade surplus of more than $20 billion and strong intervention in the foreign exchange market.
« China’s current account surplus is estimated to be 2.5 percent of GDP this year and even lower next year, » the central bank official said. « For market intervention, China has been a net buyer of the yuan to prevent sharp depreciation recently. Maybe Trump should reconsider what he’s after and the consequences to the U. S. economy if China held back from such intervention.  »
The yuan has weakened by about 10 percent against the U. S. dollar in the past 17 months as investors lost confidence due to a prolonged economic slowdown and delays in implementing market reforms. Beijing has been trying to keep the yuan high, imposing administrative curbs to check capital outflows and depleting its huge foreign reserves.
Renmin University finance professor Zhao Xijun said China would follow the path it had designed to currency regime reform and « definitely say no » to being designated a manipulator.
« Related departments are gearing up for possible bilateral communications, negotiations and investigations which are expected to accompany the accusation if it would happen, » he said. « Also, they are prepared for a trade war if that’s inevitable.  »
Scott Kennedy, director of the project on Chinese business and political economy at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said: « At this stage, the purpose of all the bluster and talk is trying to avoid a trade war, to show the U. S. means what it says and the threat is genuine. However, it depends on how China will respond.
« If China were not to address its foreign exchange rate, distortion of its domestic economy or liberalise the economy to embrace further investment, then I think the probability of penalties of one sort or another is highly likely.
« It looks like a trade war in inevitable. But it’s extremely dangerous on both sides, particularly on the China side, if a trade war does break out.  »
That was because China’s economy was « far more dependent » on the bilateral relationship than the other way around, he said, and China’s economy was « much more fragile » than the U. S. economy.
Ricard Torne, senior economist at FocusEconomics in Barcelona, said labeling China a currency manipulator would add downward pressure on the yuan, mainly via two different channels.
« Any severe trade disruption would prompt the Chinese authorities to boost their pro-growth policies, which would certainly include a weaker renminbi (yuan), » he said. « Political and economic uncertainties will likely encourage further capital outflows, hurting the value of the Chinese currency.  »
Against that backdrop, FocusEconomics expects the yuan to trade at 7.12 yuanper U. S. dollar by the end of this year and to depreciate further to 7.30 yuan next year.
On Tuesday, the first trading day of 2017, the People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan midpoint at 6.9498 per U. S. dollar. It was the first fixing since a change to the composition of the currency basket used to determine the yuan’s value which reduced the U. S. dollar’s weighting from 26.4 percent to 22.4 percent.
The Chinese leadership’s emphasis on structural reforms and boosting domestic demand at last month’s central economic work conference, an annual even that sets economic priorities for the following year, underscored the realization that the road ahead could be rocky if U. S. ties soured, economists said.
At the conference, the top leadership set « progress amid stability » as the guiding principle for economic work this year. The emphasis shifted to « stability is the main theme » last year, after a flirtation with « development is the No 1 task » in 2015.
This month’s presidential transition in the U. S. and the shake-up in the upper echelon of the Communist Party expected at its national congress later in the year increased the likelihood of an « economically damaging geopolitical misstep », ING’s chief Asia economist, Tim Condon, wrote in a research note.
Trump’s nomination of several hawkish officials for his White House, who shared his view that China had stolen jobs from the U. S., made the threat of a trade war more real, economists said. Among them is Peter Navarro, a strident critic of Beijing, who Trump named as director of a newly created National Trade Council.
Trump appears bound to pursue a more aggressive trade policy with China and the recent rediscovery of 87-year-old legislation still in the statute books could give him the tool to do so. It had been thought that U. S. law only empowered the president to unilaterally impose tariffs of up to 15 per cent for as long as 150 days, but writing on the Law360 legal news website last month, former deputy US trade representative John Veroneau and a colleague at the Washington-based law firm Covington & Burling said they had discovered that Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 allowed presidents to impose tariffs of up to 50 per cent and subsequently even block imports from a particular country completely.
Ironically, the last time a US administration seems to have considered using it was against the People’s Republic of China on the eve of its founding in 1949.
« While we believe that pragmatism between the two global superpowers will prevail, as a full-blown trade war would wreck the economies of both countries, Trump’s administration will increase some tariffs on Chinese goods in order to seek concessions from China, » Torne said.
With China likely to opt for retaliation rather than make concessions, Beijing could cancel aeroplane orders, block U. S. farm product imports and put pressure on U. S. multinationals in China, Chinese trade experts said.
If an all-out trade war followed, higher trade barriers for Chinese goods could lead to higher input costs and higher inflation rates in the U. S., which would prompt the Federal Reserve to accelerate its tightening cycle. Despite hopes for Trump’s stimulus plan, higher inflation and interest rates would drag on growth, Torne said.
« Europeans would benefit from cheaper products from China due to Chinese authorities’ efforts to diversify their sales away from the U. S., » he said. « However the trade balance between the European Union and China would deteriorate and, if sustained, this could impact the European manufacturing base… which, in a context of rising nationalism and Euroskepticism, could further endanger globalization. « 

Similarity rank: 0
Sentiment rank: -4.6

© Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/15/will-trumps-assault-on-chinese-currency-trigger-a-full-blown-trade-war.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

For these Trump voters, no amount of change is too much

0

NewsHubIt’s literally impossible for Donald Trump to shake things up too much in Washington, in the eyes of those who backed him for president.
That’s my big takeaway from a post-election focus group of a dozen Trump backers convened in Cleveland by longtime Democratic pollster Peter Hart.
In a memo documenting the results of the gathering — a quadrennial exercise that Hart has done for each of the past several presidential elections — the pollster writes: “Trump’s voters are not about to let him forget these promises, and they fully expect the untraditional outsider to shake up a storm in Washington and make real, tangible improvements in the economy and in their day-to-day lives.”
Let’s take the first part of that sentence, um, first. It’s saying that Trump’s voters believe that Washington and the politicians who inhabit it are fundamentally corrupt and deaf to their concerns. They badly want “tangible” signs of change, the sort that official Washington not only rolls its eyes at but also gasps in horror at.
What that means is that many of the moves Trump has made or signaled during the transition — picking someone like Rex Tillerson to be his secretary of state, recalling all foreign ambassadors on the day of the inauguration, contemplating shifting the White House press corps out of the White House — are just the sorts of things that Trump supporters believe they voted for and will applaud.
And what it means going forward is that there’s virtually nothing, as it relates to shaking up Washington, that will alarm people such as the 12 that Hart gathered in Cleveland last month. Trump’s brashness and embrace of radical change — many of his backers don’t view it as “radical” — is at the center of his appeal.
“I think that he has the business mentality that he can make the change that needs to happen, and I don’t think he is afraid to do so,” one Trump voter told Hart.
(Nota bene: While all 12 of the people Hart interviewed voted for Trump, not all were longtime Republicans. Seven voted for either Barack Obama or Bill Clinton at least once; three had voted for Obama in 2012.)
The second part of that desire for change, however, is more problematic for Trump. Voters expect him to change things — and fast. That includes making the economy more vibrant, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and other things that are far more difficult to achieve, particularly in the near term.
“After a long campaign of hard-charging rhetoric and ambitious promises, Trump voters have sky-high expectations for his presidency” particularly on the economy, Hart wrote. “If Trump can manage to turn these promises into positive accomplishments, he will remain in these voters’ good graces; if not, the stakes to deliver on other issues will grow steeper.”
Working for Trump is his masterful sense of public relations. As has been demonstrated repeatedly during the presidential transition, Trump claims credit for any job announcements — with varying levels of accuracy — that have happened since Nov. 8. The questions are a) how much of Trump’s boasting is borne out in reality? (and how much do his supporters care?) and b) whether Trump’s promises to bring back thousands of jobs can actually be achieved in an increasingly globalized world in which any one president or any administration’s policies can have only so much effect.
“It’s definitely time for a change. . [If] he doesn’t make certain changes, you’re going to have a lot of upset people, or he’s not going to, you know, live up to his word,” said one Cleveland focus-group participant.
The reason Trump will be inaugurated president later this week is very simple: He was change while Hillary Clinton was more of the same.
But, change, like hope, means very different things to different people. Trump was able to promise broad-scale change during the campaign because he wasn’t actually the president. Delivering on that change once he is in the White House — and ensuring it is enough change — is far more difficult. What’s clear from this Cleveland focus group: The more Washington swoons at the changes Trump proposes, the stronger ground he will be on among those who elected him.

Similarity rank: 1.1
Sentiment rank: -2.9

© Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-these-trump-voters-no-amount-of-change-is-too-much/2017/01/15/55292564-db39-11e6-b2cf-b67fe3285cbc_story.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Kevin Starr on history: 'You don't make up your world. You find it.'

0

NewsHubThe agricultural development of the Imperial Valley should be dry as dust, but in Kevin Starr’s hands, it was a riveting tale of politics and personalities, environment and ambition and commerce, echoing so many themes of California as a whole. I remember exactly where I was when I read it: in my yard in Echo Park, sitting on the damp green grass.
That’s what the best writing does: It reaches out to freeze you, the place and the ideas in a moment in time. That Starr did this with histories, of all things, was nothing short of remarkable. He chronicled California’s past from its early days and the ugly colonial period up through the mid-20th century in a series of massive books that were transformative.
Starr, who died Saturday at age 76, was a public intellectual in a class of his own. He had been an avuncular, high-profile California state librarian. When you met him in person, it was as if the entire state library had come to life. A side benefit of any encounter with him was walking away with a new list of books to read. In conversation, he made electrifying connections that were possible only with decades of study and a brilliant mind.
This, of course, is exactly what he did in his books: make unexpected connections across a scope of centuries. As erudite as he was – he had a PhD from Harvard – he avoided the frippery of insecure intellectuals and instead wrote with great clarity. This, too, is remarkable.
Here are the titles of his main nonfiction series, which can be read in any order: “Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915,” “Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era,” “Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s,” “Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California,” “The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s,” “Embattled Dreams: California in War and Peace, 1940-1950,” “Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge,” “Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963.”
Former California State Librarian Kevin Starr, who produced rich social, cultural and political histories that chronicled the origins and rapid transformation of the Golden State, has died. He was 76.
Starr, a professor at USC , died of a heart attack Saturday at a hospital in San Francisco, according…
Former California State Librarian Kevin Starr, who produced rich social, cultural and political histories that chronicled the origins and rapid transformation of the Golden State, has died. He was 76.
Starr, a professor at USC , died of a heart attack Saturday at a hospital in San Francisco, according…
He also wrote for newspapers and magazines. When I interviewed him in 2013, the year he received the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, he estimated that he had 1.5-million words in print in journalism alone.
“I write all the time; it’s my way of thinking,” he told me.
That dynamic mind drew together threads of the politics, industry, agriculture, religion, entertainment, fringe movements, power brokers and artists that brought California into being. In so doing, Starr redefined how we think about our history as Californians. We were not just a Gold Rush, earthquakes and a star-making machine. We were visionaries and scoundrels, ambitious and lost, successful and not, circling back to try again — a whole great mess of us making the state of California.
Starr’s secret project in telling the story of California in all its complexity was to tell the story of America. It’s here, his books tell us, that America comes into its full being. Forget the 13 colonies: The nation becomes itself in California. The California dream is the American dream.
Many of the people Starr wrote about in his California histories had come from somewhere else – for some it was the ultimate destination, for others, the end of the line. Starr himself was from here: a fourth-generation Californian, born and raised in San Francisco.
His circumstances were difficult: His father went blind, his mother had a nervous breakdown, and as a boy he went to live at a Catholic home. When his mother partially recovered, they lived in public housing. Starr was unhappy, effectively emancipating himself at age 12 or 13 with the help of his grandmother. He delivered newspapers, worked and saved.
He went to the then-Jesuit University of San Francisco, spent two years in the Army, and headed to the Ivy League. By that time, he had a deeply rooted perspective that California mattered (not a common notion in New England in 1965).
“I was trained at Harvard, my PhD was not in history but it was in American literature, American studies, American culture. So I sort of tend to see myself as a nonfiction writer who writes, among other things, about history,” Starr told me in 2013. “The imagination coalesces, sees patterns, coalesces narrative, looks for representative action, and is present, but you don’t make up your world. You find it.”
And now our world has lost Starr. At least we have his books.
Children’s author Jon Klassen talks about the creative process when it comes to words and pictures for kids at his studio in downtown L. A.
Carrie Brownstein talks with Times writer Lorraine Ali about what draws her to artists at the Festival of Books at USC.
In what was considered a « radical » choice, Bob Dylan was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature on Oct. 13.
Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez reads an excerpt of his poem « A Love Poem to Los Angeles » on the Patt Morrison Asks podcast.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen breaks down how to move past cultural appropriation into four parts.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen breaks down how to move past cultural appropriation into four parts.

Similarity rank: 2.2
Sentiment rank: 0

© Source: http://www.latimes.com/la-et-jc-kevin-starr-20170115-story.html
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

What Mexico wants to talk about with Trump

0

NewsHubJanuary 15, 2017
— A version of this post ran on the AS/COA site. The views expressed are the author’s own.
From a US presidential candidate’s controversial visit to Mexico City in August 2016 to the Central Bank’s attempts to stop the free fall of the peso, Mexico has been trying to figure out how to prepare itself for a Trump presidency. In fact, it’s been a veritable round of “he said/he said,” as Donald Trump repeatedly insists that Mexico will pay for a border wall and President Enrique Peña Nieto repeatedly insists that it won’t.
The same thing happened again on Jan. 11, during Mr. Trump’s first – and possibly his only – press conference as US president-elect, when he said, “Mexico in some form, and there are many different forms, will reimburse us… for the cost of the wall.”
In remarks a few hours later, Mr. Peña Nieto said that Mexico will not do so , nor will it “accept anything that goes against our dignity as a country.” He went on to outline specific areas that he said would be a part of future negotiations with a Trump administration: arms trafficking, immigration, border infrastructure investment, remittances, and trade.
These are the areas covered in Peña Nieto’s speech, as well as the issues underlying each one.
Lax gun-control laws in the US Southwest lead to a relentless flow of illicit weapons into Mexico, fueling the country’s violent drug war. From 2009 to 2014, Mexico traced more than 73,500 illegal firearms – about 70 percent of those seized – back to the United States, per a 2016 US Government Accountability Office report. Given Mexico’s more restrictive gun laws , Mexican officials have repeatedly called on Washington to help stop gun trafficking, and the government of former Mexican President Felipe Calderón went so far as to place a billboard made of crushed guns near the border proclaiming, “No more weapons.”
The 2004 expiration of the US assault weapons ban is of particular concern for Mexico; nearly one in five weapons seized at Mexican crime scenes is an assault weapon smuggled from the United States, according to a 2016 letter from US Congressman Eliot L. Engel [D] of New York.
Trump made undocumented immigration and promises of mass deportations a central campaign point. However, Peña Nieto noted that his country faces the burden of being a crossing point for migrants from around the world trying to make it to the United States, citing as an example the presence of some 4,500 Haitian refugees currently in Mexico. Additionally, in the first seven months of 2016 alone, nearly 8,000 Africans and Asians presented themselves to Mexican immigration authorities – a rate nearly four times the figure for all of 2014.
In recent years, Mexico has also played a direct role , with US backing, to stem the flow of Central Americans fleeing violence in their own countries and heading to the United States. Mexico deported roughly 150,000 migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in 2015, which marks a 44 percent increase over the prior year, according to Pew Research.
Modernizing the US-Mexico border has been a top priority of the bilateral High Level Economic Dialogue. While discussion of a border wall has much to do with security, billions of dollars worth of goods and millions of people cross the US-Mexican border each year, despite often having to suffer through long wait times.
There’s plenty of speculation about how Trump could make good on his promise to make Mexico pay – or reimburse US taxpayers – for a wall, one concern being whether he would seize or tax the money Mexican immigrants send home. While there are questions about how this could legally take place, it’s no idle threat given that Mexicans sent $25 billion home in 2015 and that remittances exceed the value of the country’s oil exports. In November, when Trump won the US election, remittance rates to Mexico saw their biggest spike in over a decade, hitting nearly $2.4 billion – up almost a quarter compared with a year earlier.
Since the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), bilateral US-Mexico trade has more than quintupled. While Trump has threatened to pull the United States out of NAFTA, Mexican officials have said they would be open to modernizing, but not renegotiating, aspects of it. In Wednesday’s speech, Peña Nieto not only called for securing investment and trade with Canada and the United States, but also alluded to Trump’s Twitter threats of automakers with US investments, saying , “We reject any intent to influence investment decisions through fear or threats.”
The president also suggested that Mexico, which sends roughly 80 percent of its exports to the United States, would look to deepen trade relations with other countries, including Latin American economies such as Argentina and Brazil, by forging ties with Asia via the G20 and the Pacific Alliance, and by prioritizing a trade deal with the European Union.
Carin Zissis is editor-in-chief of AS/COA Online, the website of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas.

Similarity rank: 3.2
Sentiment rank: 0

© Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2017/0115/What-Mexico-wants-to-talk-about-with-Trump
All rights are reserved and belongs to a source media.

Timeline words data