CHINA - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to include the Chinese currency in the special drawing rights (SDR) basket, endorsing the yuan as a global reserve currency alongside the dollar and euro.
USA - The US economy will be in full-blown boom by the end of the year and risks overheating unless the Federal Reserve lifts interest rates soon, a veteran Fed rate-setter has warned. “Zero interest rates are no longer appropriate for the US economy. If we don’t start normalizing monetary policy we’ll be badly behind the curve two years from now,” said James Bullard, the head of the St Louis Fed.
USA - The fracking boom has been cash-flow negative for oil and gas drillers from the very beginning. The steep decline rates of fracked wells force producers to drill more wells just to keep production and revenues flat, even at high oil prices. They fund this drilling with debt. To show revenue growth, drillers have to get on an ever faster-moving treadmill of more production and more debt. To support that growing debt, they have to produce more and take on even more debt. They can never get off that treadmill. And their suppliers are on the treadmill with them.
UK - A solar eclipse, a super moon, the FTSE 100 breaching 7,000 and the US Federal Reserve speaking in tongues - truly some kind of financial apocalypse must be nigh. Well, maybe. We are certainly living in strange times. An unprecedented monetary experiment is coming to a staggered end and no one knows the potential repercussions - a plague of frogs cannot be entirely ruled out.
EUROPE - Eurozone says it is "legally impossible" to return €1.2 billion in rescue funds to cash-strapped Athens. The Greek government will not receive €1.2 billion (£883 million) in European rescue funds after officials ruled the Leftist government had no legal claims on the cash. Athens requested a return of the funds it said were erroneously handed to creditors from Greece's own bank recapitalisation fund, the Hellenic Financial Stability Facility (HFSF).
GREECE - It's possible that the troubled country will leave the eurozone, according to the billionaire investor. The investment veteran George Soros has said that Greece’s attempts to escape its financial woes are now a “lose-lose game”, and has estimated the chances of the country leaving the eurozone at about even.
UK - Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, will announce plans to bolster the Falkland Islands garrison amid fears of a renewed threat from Argentina. The south American nation is feared to be increasing military expenditure. Senior ministers in the country have also made a series of increasingly aggressive statements about the islands in recent years.
FALKLAND ISLANDS - Extra Chinook helicopters and new missile system to be sent to be deployed, as Russia likens Islands to Crimea. Britain will send two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters and new surface-to-air missile system to the Falkland Islands, amid fears Russia could be arming the Argentine government. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said the Islands will be ready to repel “any potential threat” following reports that the Kremlin is preparing to lease 12 Su-24 long range bombers to Buenos Aires in exchange for beef and wheat.
RUSSIA - The Russian proposal would allow Britons to travel overland from Britain to the United States. Plans for an ambitious 12,400-mile superhighway linking the Atlantic and the Pacific are reportedly being considered by Russian authorities. The Trans-Eurasian Belt Development would see the construction of a vast motorway across Russia. It would connect with existing networks in Europe, making road trips to eastern Russia a far easier proposition. While roads do currently run across most of Russia, the quality tends to deteriorate the further you travel from Moscow.
USA - With 1.4 billion users, the social media site has become a vital source of traffic for publishers looking to reach an increasingly fragmented audience glued to smartphones. In recent months, Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go to an external site.
UK - Instead of making an open declaration, the BBC’s successful lobbying for this money had to be prised out of it using a Freedom of Information (FoI) request lodged for The Spectator, proving that there was never any danger of the state broadcaster’s bosses volunteering it willingly.
USA - Instead of congratulating the Israeli people for being one of the few countries in the Middle East to hold real free and democratic elections, Obama has decided to inflict collective punishment not on Netanyahu, but on all Israelis, even its Muslim and Christian citizens, for having an election that came out not the way he wanted it to.
MIDDLE EAST - Many Arabs and Muslims are rubbing their hands in joy as they watch US President Barack Obama declare war on Israel after the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party in last week's general election. They do not see the rising tensions between Obama and Netanyahu as the result of a personal dispute between two leaders.
USA - The US has accused Israel of spying on international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme and using the intelligence gathered to persuade Congress to undermine the talks, according to a report on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal cited senior administration officials as saying the Israeli espionage operation began soon after the US opened up a secret channel of communications with Tehran in 2012, aimed at resolving the decade-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
USA - White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough made it clear Monday that the crisis in US-Israeli relations over the issue of a Palestinian state has not dissipated, despite efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to clarify remarks he made late in the election campaign that no such state would be established on his watch.