The countries and companies behind Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet have agreed to spend 53.7 million euros ($60.2 million) to study the long-term evolution of the advanced fighter jet and its engine, they said on Wednesday. The study contracts will span 19 months for the aircraft, and nine months for the engine, identifying potential technology enhancements for the jet's mission systems, engine, human machine interface and electronic warfare equipment. The work is aimed at keeping the Eurofighter Typhoon fleet operationally effective for combat for decades to come, even as Europe begins work on two rival next-generation aircraft that are slated to enter service in 2040, officials said.

The countries and companies behind Europe's Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet have agreed to spend 53.7 million euros ($60.2 million) to study the long-term evolution of the advanced fighter jet and its engine, they said on Wednesday. The study contracts will span 19 months for the aircraft, and nine months for the engine, identifying potential technology enhancements for the jet's mission systems, engine, human machine interface and electronic warfare equipment. The work is aimed at keeping the Eurofighter Typhoon fleet operationally effective for combat for decades to come, even as Europe begins work on two rival next-generation aircraft that are slated to enter service in 2040, officials said.

(Bloomberg) -- After being hit by the trade war and U.S. sanctions on Iran, some Chinese buyers of liquefied petroleum gas from the Persian Gulf nation are finding it’s too tough a habit to kick.China sourced around a fifth of its LPG -- used as cooking fuel, in cigarette lighters and to make plastic -- from the U.S before Beijing slapped a 25% tariff on the gas last August as the trade tussle heated up. Buyers then turned to Iran, which accounted for around a third of imports in April, before President Donald Trump blocked all energy exports from the country in May.But some Chinese customers are still buying from Iran, according to Kpler SAS. Based on ship-tracking data, the Paris-based data intelligence firm estimates that at least five supertankers loaded Iranian LPG in May and June that was destined for China. That would equate to around $100 million of the gas, according to Bloomberg calculations.“They’ve started using a variety of techniques to hide their activity,” Ilya Niklyaev, an LPG analyst at Kpler, said in an interview. “Like switching off transponders as well as intentionally signaling wrong destinations and indicating loading ports in Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the U.A.E.”The predicament of the Chinese buyers underscores how the White House’s aggressive trade and foreign policy is disrupting global commodity flows. To avoid running afoul of the U.S. sanctions, LPG importers in Asia’s largest economy would have to turn to more expensive supplies from elsewhere in the Middle East or Africa.Going DarkTankers carrying Iranian oil and gas are notorious for masking their journeys by turning off satellite locator beacons, a technique known as going dark, and transferring fuel between ships to hide the origin of the cargo.LPG tanker Sea Dolphin sailed into the Persian Gulf between Iran and Qatar with empty tanks on May 17, and then turned off its beacon, Kpler said in a June 6 note. It turned the locator back on May 26, indicating its tanks were now full, and headed toward the Maldives, where it again went dark.Another ship, the Pacific Yantai, loaded its tanks near where the Sea Dolphin had stopped, and then set sail toward China, according to Kpler. Bloomberg ship-tracking data confirms the movements of the two vessels and show the Pacific Yantai appearing to drop off a partial cargo at Ningbo on June 14.The Sea Dolphin is owned by Kunlun Trading Co., data compiled by Bloomberg show. Staff who answered the phone at its Hong Kong office said they weren’t authorized to speak to the media and there was no spokesperson. There was no response to emails sent to Kunlun’s investor relations department.Pacific Yantai is owned by China’s Pacific Gas, Bloomberg-compiled data show. The ship was on a long-term charter, said a staff member at the company’s Shanghai office who asked not to be identified as the person is not authorized to speak to media. The person wouldn’t name the company that chartered the vessel. Nobody answered emails sent to generic addresses for information and investor relations at Pacific Gas.Oil ImportsChinese refiners may also be circumventing American sanctions to import Iranian oil, with FGE saying in a note last week that it expects some degree of non-compliance. China probably isn’t complying with U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Friday, adding that he didn’t have any hard evidence to show this. Beijing will likely become compliant as it wants a good trade deal with Washington, he said. LPG is an important export for Iran. Some 83% of the country’s 507,000 barrels a day of petroleum product shipments in 2017 were LPG and fuel oil, according to Energy Information Administration data. That compared with 2.5 million barrels a day of crude and condensate exports.China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month pledged to support Tehran’s efforts to safeguard its interests. The country’s Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs didn’t respond to faxed requests for comment.China took 346,000 tons, or 80%, of Iran’s LPG exports in May, Kpler estimated. If the cargoes loaded before the end of the U.S. waivers on May 2 they may not have been in contravention of the sanctions. Iran is likely to export a total of 400,000-500,000 tons in June with at least eight supertankers set to load the fuel in coming weeks, Kpler said in the note. Three supertankers have loaded LPG from Iran in June, of which at least one is headed for China, it said.Kpler and Chinese customs figures show similar overall LPG import data for the past year. But while the Kpler numbers show a sizable portion coming from Iran, the Chinese data has no cargoes from the Persian Gulf nation since mid-2017.Iranian LPG supplies have been among the cheapest in the world as customers from Japan to South Korea turned away from doing business with the country following the U.S. sanctions. China could turn to other suppliers, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but it would be more expensive.After rising 21% this year through late April, the benchmark east Asian price for propane, a type of LPG, has since fallen 24%, according to data from PVM Oil Associates. The contract fell 1% to $405.91 a ton on Wednesday.“While the LPG market isn’t expected to be nearly as tight in the second half of 2019, China will still have to lean heavily on LPG supplies from Iran, as well as from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Angola to fill the gap left behind by the U.S,” said Han Wee Ong, a Singapore-based senior consultant at FGE.(Adds more comments from U.S. deputy energy secretary in 11th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Sarah Chen and Aibing Guo.To contact the reporters on this story: Saket Sundria in Singapore at ssundria@bloomberg.net;Dan Murtaugh in Singapore at dmurtaugh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Serene Cheong at scheong20@bloomberg.net, Andrew Janes, Ben SharplesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- After being hit by the trade war and U.S. sanctions on Iran, some Chinese buyers of liquefied petroleum gas from the Persian Gulf nation are finding it’s too tough a habit to kick.China sourced around a fifth of its LPG -- used as cooking fuel, in cigarette lighters and to make plastic -- from the U.S before Beijing slapped a 25% tariff on the gas last August as the trade tussle heated up. Buyers then turned to Iran, which accounted for around a third of imports in April, before President Donald Trump blocked all energy exports from the country in May.But some Chinese customers are still buying from Iran, according to Kpler SAS. Based on ship-tracking data, the Paris-based data intelligence firm estimates that at least five supertankers loaded Iranian LPG in May and June that was destined for China. That would equate to around $100 million of the gas, according to Bloomberg calculations.“They’ve started using a variety of techniques to hide their activity,” Ilya Niklyaev, an LPG analyst at Kpler, said in an interview. “Like switching off transponders as well as intentionally signaling wrong destinations and indicating loading ports in Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the U.A.E.”The predicament of the Chinese buyers underscores how the White House’s aggressive trade and foreign policy is disrupting global commodity flows. To avoid running afoul of the U.S. sanctions, LPG importers in Asia’s largest economy would have to turn to more expensive supplies from elsewhere in the Middle East or Africa.Going DarkTankers carrying Iranian oil and gas are notorious for masking their journeys by turning off satellite locator beacons, a technique known as going dark, and transferring fuel between ships to hide the origin of the cargo.LPG tanker Sea Dolphin sailed into the Persian Gulf between Iran and Qatar with empty tanks on May 17, and then turned off its beacon, Kpler said in a June 6 note. It turned the locator back on May 26, indicating its tanks were now full, and headed toward the Maldives, where it again went dark.Another ship, the Pacific Yantai, loaded its tanks near where the Sea Dolphin had stopped, and then set sail toward China, according to Kpler. Bloomberg ship-tracking data confirms the movements of the two vessels and show the Pacific Yantai appearing to drop off a partial cargo at Ningbo on June 14.The Sea Dolphin is owned by Kunlun Trading Co., data compiled by Bloomberg show. Staff who answered the phone at its Hong Kong office said they weren’t authorized to speak to the media and there was no spokesperson. There was no response to emails sent to Kunlun’s investor relations department.Pacific Yantai is owned by China’s Pacific Gas, Bloomberg-compiled data show. The ship was on a long-term charter, said a staff member at the company’s Shanghai office who asked not to be identified as the person is not authorized to speak to media. The person wouldn’t name the company that chartered the vessel. Nobody answered emails sent to generic addresses for information and investor relations at Pacific Gas.Oil ImportsChinese refiners may also be circumventing American sanctions to import Iranian oil, with FGE saying in a note last week that it expects some degree of non-compliance. China probably isn’t complying with U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude, U.S. Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Friday, adding that he didn’t have any hard evidence to show this. Beijing will likely become compliant as it wants a good trade deal with Washington, he said. LPG is an important export for Iran. Some 83% of the country’s 507,000 barrels a day of petroleum product shipments in 2017 were LPG and fuel oil, according to Energy Information Administration data. That compared with 2.5 million barrels a day of crude and condensate exports.China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month pledged to support Tehran’s efforts to safeguard its interests. The country’s Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs didn’t respond to faxed requests for comment.China took 346,000 tons, or 80%, of Iran’s LPG exports in May, Kpler estimated. If the cargoes loaded before the end of the U.S. waivers on May 2 they may not have been in contravention of the sanctions. Iran is likely to export a total of 400,000-500,000 tons in June with at least eight supertankers set to load the fuel in coming weeks, Kpler said in the note. Three supertankers have loaded LPG from Iran in June, of which at least one is headed for China, it said.Kpler and Chinese customs figures show similar overall LPG import data for the past year. But while the Kpler numbers show a sizable portion coming from Iran, the Chinese data has no cargoes from the Persian Gulf nation since mid-2017.Iranian LPG supplies have been among the cheapest in the world as customers from Japan to South Korea turned away from doing business with the country following the U.S. sanctions. China could turn to other suppliers, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but it would be more expensive.After rising 21% this year through late April, the benchmark east Asian price for propane, a type of LPG, has since fallen 24%, according to data from PVM Oil Associates. The contract fell 1% to $405.91 a ton on Wednesday.“While the LPG market isn’t expected to be nearly as tight in the second half of 2019, China will still have to lean heavily on LPG supplies from Iran, as well as from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Angola to fill the gap left behind by the U.S,” said Han Wee Ong, a Singapore-based senior consultant at FGE.(Adds more comments from U.S. deputy energy secretary in 11th paragraph.)\--With assistance from Sarah Chen and Aibing Guo.To contact the reporters on this story: Saket Sundria in Singapore at ssundria@bloomberg.net;Dan Murtaugh in Singapore at dmurtaugh@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Serene Cheong at scheong20@bloomberg.net, Andrew Janes, Ben SharplesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), which is in the electronic business, and is based in United States, received a lot of...

Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ:PLXS), which is in the electronic business, and is based in United States, received a lot of...

Obama's Clean Power Plan had aimed to slash power plant carbon emissions by more than a third from 2005 levels by 2030, which would have forced utilities to drop coal in favor of cleaner fuels like natural gas. The regulation was never enacted because of lawsuits by Republican states. President Donald Trump vowed early in his presidency to kill the Clean Power Plan as part of his administration's attempt to revive the ailing coal industry.

Obama's Clean Power Plan had aimed to slash power plant carbon emissions by more than a third from 2005 levels by 2030, which would have forced utilities to drop coal in favor of cleaner fuels like natural gas. The regulation was never enacted because of lawsuits by Republican states. President Donald Trump vowed early in his presidency to kill the Clean Power Plan as part of his administration's attempt to revive the ailing coal industry.

Marijuana may not have investors seeing much green through 2020.

Marijuana may not have investors seeing much green through 2020.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.'s (NYSE:JW.A) announced its latest earnings update in June 2019, which suggested that the...

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.'s (NYSE:JW.A) announced its latest earnings update in June 2019, which suggested that the...

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. equity futures adopted a holding pattern on Wednesday while European stocks and Treasuries slipped as investors prepare for the latest Federal Reserve meeting to conclude, with anticipation growing that policy makers will signal a readiness to lower rates.Contracts for the three main U.S. gauges traded little changed while declines in real estate shares helped drag the Stoxx Europe 600 slightly lower. Shares rose in Asia following the rally on Wall Street a day earlier, which was boosted when President Donald Trump tweeted he will sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit next week. Hong Kong’s shares led the region, advancing 2.6%. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose toward 2.09%, while that of Japan’s benchmark hit a three-year low. The pound gained for a second day.As many of the world’s biggest central banks signal a shift to easier policy, traders are weighing that against trade war fears and signs of cooling global growth. Trump said Tuesday that he had a “very good” phone conversation with Xi. The two leaders will hold an “extended meeting” at the G-20 summit on June 28-29 in Osaka and “our respective teams will begin talks prior to our meeting,” Trump said on Twitter.“At this stage, we are not getting as optimistic as maybe the stock market is about the headlines overnight,” Laura Fitzsimmons, executive director for rates and FX sales at JPMorgan Chase & Co., told Bloomberg TV in Sydney about the developments on trade. “Stock markets can run for a little bit longer but as we get closer to the event itself the risk of disappointment will again appear.”Elsewhere, West Texas crude stabilized after OPEC and its allies agreed to hold the next meeting to discuss oil-output cuts on July 1-2, resolving a monthlong dispute that highlighted divisions within the group. The Turkish lira fell on a report the Trump administration is weighing new sanctions on the country over its purchases of the Russian S-400 missile-defense system.Here are some key events coming up:The Fed, Bank of Japan and Bank of England all set monetary policy, along with central banks in Norway, Brazil, Taiwan and Indonesia.The Fed’s two-day meeting ends Wednesday with a decision and press conference. Officials are expected to debate a rate cut to shelter the U.S. economy, in part, from the fallout caused by escalating trade disputes.Final May CPI data for Britain are due on Wednesday.U.K. retail sales are set for release on Thursday.These are the main moves in markets:StocksThe Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.1% as of 6:29 a.m. New York time.Futures on the S&P 500 Index climbed less than 0.05%.France’s CAC 40 Index increased less than 0.05%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged 2.6% on the biggest jump in more than seven months.The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 1.4%, the highest in six weeks on the largest rise in more than a week.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased less than 0.05%.The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.2576.The euro gained 0.1%.The Turkish lira sank 0.7%.The Russian ruble increased less than 0.05% to 63.99 per dollar, reaching the strongest in eight weeks on its fifth consecutive advance.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 2.09%.Britain’s 10-year yield climbed four basis points to 0.845%.Japan’s 10-year yield decreased one basis point to -0.137%.Spain’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to 0.412%.CommoditiesGold declined 0.3% to $1,342.72 an ounce, the largest drop in more than a week.West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.1%.Iron ore gained 1.9% to $108.77 per metric ton.\--With assistance from Juliette Saly and Adam Haigh.To contact the reporter on this story: Todd White in Madrid at twhite2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. equity futures adopted a holding pattern on Wednesday while European stocks and Treasuries slipped as investors prepare for the latest Federal Reserve meeting to conclude, with anticipation growing that policy makers will signal a readiness to lower rates.Contracts for the three main U.S. gauges traded little changed while declines in real estate shares helped drag the Stoxx Europe 600 slightly lower. Shares rose in Asia following the rally on Wall Street a day earlier, which was boosted when President Donald Trump tweeted he will sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit next week. Hong Kong’s shares led the region, advancing 2.6%. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose toward 2.09%, while that of Japan’s benchmark hit a three-year low. The pound gained for a second day.As many of the world’s biggest central banks signal a shift to easier policy, traders are weighing that against trade war fears and signs of cooling global growth. Trump said Tuesday that he had a “very good” phone conversation with Xi. The two leaders will hold an “extended meeting” at the G-20 summit on June 28-29 in Osaka and “our respective teams will begin talks prior to our meeting,” Trump said on Twitter.“At this stage, we are not getting as optimistic as maybe the stock market is about the headlines overnight,” Laura Fitzsimmons, executive director for rates and FX sales at JPMorgan Chase & Co., told Bloomberg TV in Sydney about the developments on trade. “Stock markets can run for a little bit longer but as we get closer to the event itself the risk of disappointment will again appear.”Elsewhere, West Texas crude stabilized after OPEC and its allies agreed to hold the next meeting to discuss oil-output cuts on July 1-2, resolving a monthlong dispute that highlighted divisions within the group. The Turkish lira fell on a report the Trump administration is weighing new sanctions on the country over its purchases of the Russian S-400 missile-defense system.Here are some key events coming up:The Fed, Bank of Japan and Bank of England all set monetary policy, along with central banks in Norway, Brazil, Taiwan and Indonesia.The Fed’s two-day meeting ends Wednesday with a decision and press conference. Officials are expected to debate a rate cut to shelter the U.S. economy, in part, from the fallout caused by escalating trade disputes.Final May CPI data for Britain are due on Wednesday.U.K. retail sales are set for release on Thursday.These are the main moves in markets:StocksThe Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.1% as of 6:29 a.m. New York time.Futures on the S&P 500 Index climbed less than 0.05%.France’s CAC 40 Index increased less than 0.05%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged 2.6% on the biggest jump in more than seven months.The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 1.4%, the highest in six weeks on the largest rise in more than a week.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index decreased less than 0.05%.The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.2576.The euro gained 0.1%.The Turkish lira sank 0.7%.The Russian ruble increased less than 0.05% to 63.99 per dollar, reaching the strongest in eight weeks on its fifth consecutive advance.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 2.09%.Britain’s 10-year yield climbed four basis points to 0.845%.Japan’s 10-year yield decreased one basis point to -0.137%.Spain’s 10-year yield increased two basis points to 0.412%.CommoditiesGold declined 0.3% to $1,342.72 an ounce, the largest drop in more than a week.West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.1%.Iron ore gained 1.9% to $108.77 per metric ton.\--With assistance from Juliette Saly and Adam Haigh.To contact the reporter on this story: Todd White in Madrid at twhite2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Samuel Potter at spotter33@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

The Libyan Iron and Steel Company (Lisco), one of North Africa's biggest steelmakers, plans to launch a tender next month worth $1 billion to build two new plants and also aims to increase production this year, its chairman said. Mohamed al-Faqih also told Reuters Lisco had started exporting products to a new market, Algeria, in a rare sign of non-oil activity in the OPEC oil producer. The steelmaker has been hit by power cuts, shortages and the reluctance of European firms to engage with the country amid chaos since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The Libyan Iron and Steel Company (Lisco), one of North Africa's biggest steelmakers, plans to launch a tender next month worth $1 billion to build two new plants and also aims to increase production this year, its chairman said. Mohamed al-Faqih also told Reuters Lisco had started exporting products to a new market, Algeria, in a rare sign of non-oil activity in the OPEC oil producer. The steelmaker has been hit by power cuts, shortages and the reluctance of European firms to engage with the country amid chaos since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

TL;DR: The elegant Nespresso Citiz coffee machine is on sale for under £79.99 on Amazon, saving you £70 on list price.* * *The coffee machine market is pretty crowded, with a lot of devices to consider. Some of these come under £100, and others can cost thousands. Naturally, if you are spending a large sum of money, you need to carefully weigh up your options.As with most devices, it comes down to performance, design, and, of course, cost. If you can tick off two of these elements, the third is probably going to let you down. If a coffee machine has great performance and looks beautiful, chances are it will be pricey. Likewise, if a device is cheap and works well, it will probably look horrible. You get the idea. Read more...More about Coffee Machine, Nespresso, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Solo, and Shopping Uk

TL;DR: The elegant Nespresso Citiz coffee machine is on sale for under £79.99 on Amazon, saving you £70 on list price.* * *The coffee machine market is pretty crowded, with a lot of devices to consider. Some of these come under £100, and others can cost thousands. Naturally, if you are spending a large sum of money, you need to carefully weigh up your options.As with most devices, it comes down to performance, design, and, of course, cost. If you can tick off two of these elements, the third is probably going to let you down. If a coffee machine has great performance and looks beautiful, chances are it will be pricey. Likewise, if a device is cheap and works well, it will probably look horrible. You get the idea. Read more...More about Coffee Machine, Nespresso, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Solo, and Shopping Uk

When it comes to combating climate change, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is currently the fashionable solution of the liberal Left. Since its botched rollout in February, anyone with common sense has conceded that the plan’s utopian promises of guaranteed jobs, government-funded health care, and an expanded social safety net give it little chance of producing real legislation. American taxpayers should be relieved; the conservative think tank American Action Forum estimates that it would cost as much as $93 trillion, or roughly 450 percent of the United States’ current GDP, to implement.Such is the unimaginative and irresponsible approach to public policy that has become a mainstay of modern Democratic politics: Any problem, no matter how complex, can be solved if we throw enough money at it.Fortunately, Republicans in Congress have finally woken up to the problems of climate change and are proposing their own solutions. Senator John Cornyn has announced that he’s working to draft bills that would promote research on clean-energy technologies. Likewise, Senator Lamar Alexander has outlined a “New Manhattan Project” to develop cleaner energy through nuclear power, cheaper solar technology, electric vehicles, better batteries, and carbon capture. These are exciting developments for environmentally conscious conservatives, who have long advocated for the GOP to awaken to the dangers of climate change.Additional Republican proposals are in the works, and unlike their spendthrift counterparts on the liberal Left, they take the more responsible and realistic approach of harnessing the power of free markets to influence behavior. Conservatives’ faith in free markets rests on the belief that millions of individuals acting in their own economic self-interest are more efficient (and powerful) at allocating resources to accomplish an objective than bureaucrats in government. And the most targeted and effective free-market policy to incentivize reduced carbon emissions, the primary cause of climate change, is a carbon tax.A carbon tax would drive investment in new technologies and spur innovation both by providing a financial incentive to reduce emissions and by giving markets a steady price signal. A set price per ton for carbon emissions — along with gradual, scheduled increases in the tax rate over time — would establish the market certainty needed to influence long-term decision-making. Investors and businesses could more reliably forecast the payback period and return on investment for clean technologies, projects, and processes. Companies that save on carbon taxes through innovation would soon be able to undercut more carbon-intensive competitors on cost. An intense race to reduce emissions would sweep every corner of the U.S. economy.Carbon taxes also hold the most promise for fostering global cooperation on the issue. If the U.S. simply invests in clean-energy technology to reduce or eliminate reliance on fossil fuels, two things will happen: We will emit less carbon, and the rest of the world will emit more. If we stopped buying fossil fuels, the price of those fuels would fall. China, India, and other developing countries would exploit this cheap-energy bonanza, offsetting our emissions reductions. This “leakage problem” has proven one of the greatest obstacles to forging global climate cooperation.A properly crafted carbon tax would mitigate leakage through “border adjustments” in the form of import tariffs. Carbon-based import tariffs are an essential component of any carbon-tax plan for two reasons. First, tariffs ensure that a carbon tax would not unfairly penalize domestic U.S. industries. Second, the tariffs would be designed to exempt countries with a similar domestic carbon-tax regime. Foreign governments, eager to keep their exports competitive and not minding the extra tax revenue, would be incentivized to enact their own carbon taxes. If America led, the world would follow.Despite the compelling case for a carbon tax, most Republicans still balk at the idea. How could a tax, of all things, promote innovation? But the simple truth is taxes do foster innovation: They encourage tax dodging. The more taxes get enacted, the more intricate and creative the schemes to dodge them become — and the simplest way to dodge a carbon tax is to emit less carbon. In this manner, a carbon tax would spark an explosion of emissions-reducing R&D throughout all sectors and industries.The fight against climate change is a marathon, not a sprint. The policies we craft today must fuel innovation and research for many decades to come. Public investment in clean-energy and carbon-capture technologies is laudable, but it’s not enough on its own to reduce global emissions, because of the “leakage” problem. Carbon taxes have, to be sure, been met with intense political resistance in many places where they’ve been proposed, including the U.S. But they are the most pragmatic solution and — importantly for conservatives — could be designed to be revenue-neutral and thus not result in an expansion of government. If Republicans hope to craft meaningful climate legislation in everyone’s long-term interests, a carbon tax is a necessary first step.

When it comes to combating climate change, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is currently the fashionable solution of the liberal Left. Since its botched rollout in February, anyone with common sense has conceded that the plan’s utopian promises of guaranteed jobs, government-funded health care, and an expanded social safety net give it little chance of producing real legislation. American taxpayers should be relieved; the conservative think tank American Action Forum estimates that it would cost as much as $93 trillion, or roughly 450 percent of the United States’ current GDP, to implement.Such is the unimaginative and irresponsible approach to public policy that has become a mainstay of modern Democratic politics: Any problem, no matter how complex, can be solved if we throw enough money at it.Fortunately, Republicans in Congress have finally woken up to the problems of climate change and are proposing their own solutions. Senator John Cornyn has announced that he’s working to draft bills that would promote research on clean-energy technologies. Likewise, Senator Lamar Alexander has outlined a “New Manhattan Project” to develop cleaner energy through nuclear power, cheaper solar technology, electric vehicles, better batteries, and carbon capture. These are exciting developments for environmentally conscious conservatives, who have long advocated for the GOP to awaken to the dangers of climate change.Additional Republican proposals are in the works, and unlike their spendthrift counterparts on the liberal Left, they take the more responsible and realistic approach of harnessing the power of free markets to influence behavior. Conservatives’ faith in free markets rests on the belief that millions of individuals acting in their own economic self-interest are more efficient (and powerful) at allocating resources to accomplish an objective than bureaucrats in government. And the most targeted and effective free-market policy to incentivize reduced carbon emissions, the primary cause of climate change, is a carbon tax.A carbon tax would drive investment in new technologies and spur innovation both by providing a financial incentive to reduce emissions and by giving markets a steady price signal. A set price per ton for carbon emissions — along with gradual, scheduled increases in the tax rate over time — would establish the market certainty needed to influence long-term decision-making. Investors and businesses could more reliably forecast the payback period and return on investment for clean technologies, projects, and processes. Companies that save on carbon taxes through innovation would soon be able to undercut more carbon-intensive competitors on cost. An intense race to reduce emissions would sweep every corner of the U.S. economy.Carbon taxes also hold the most promise for fostering global cooperation on the issue. If the U.S. simply invests in clean-energy technology to reduce or eliminate reliance on fossil fuels, two things will happen: We will emit less carbon, and the rest of the world will emit more. If we stopped buying fossil fuels, the price of those fuels would fall. China, India, and other developing countries would exploit this cheap-energy bonanza, offsetting our emissions reductions. This “leakage problem” has proven one of the greatest obstacles to forging global climate cooperation.A properly crafted carbon tax would mitigate leakage through “border adjustments” in the form of import tariffs. Carbon-based import tariffs are an essential component of any carbon-tax plan for two reasons. First, tariffs ensure that a carbon tax would not unfairly penalize domestic U.S. industries. Second, the tariffs would be designed to exempt countries with a similar domestic carbon-tax regime. Foreign governments, eager to keep their exports competitive and not minding the extra tax revenue, would be incentivized to enact their own carbon taxes. If America led, the world would follow.Despite the compelling case for a carbon tax, most Republicans still balk at the idea. How could a tax, of all things, promote innovation? But the simple truth is taxes do foster innovation: They encourage tax dodging. The more taxes get enacted, the more intricate and creative the schemes to dodge them become — and the simplest way to dodge a carbon tax is to emit less carbon. In this manner, a carbon tax would spark an explosion of emissions-reducing R&D throughout all sectors and industries.The fight against climate change is a marathon, not a sprint. The policies we craft today must fuel innovation and research for many decades to come. Public investment in clean-energy and carbon-capture technologies is laudable, but it’s not enough on its own to reduce global emissions, because of the “leakage” problem. Carbon taxes have, to be sure, been met with intense political resistance in many places where they’ve been proposed, including the U.S. But they are the most pragmatic solution and — importantly for conservatives — could be designed to be revenue-neutral and thus not result in an expansion of government. If Republicans hope to craft meaningful climate legislation in everyone’s long-term interests, a carbon tax is a necessary first step.

Last week, Oregon’s Democratic governor, Kate Brown, committed her state to an interstate compact designed to ensure that the national popular vote determines presidential elections. By signing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), Brown is aligning herself squarely with fellow Democrats who believe that a plurality of voters nationwide should elect the president.Their efforts, while long predating President Trump’s election, gained new urgency in its wake. The Electoral College, many Democrats claimed, subverted the will of the electorate in 2016. After all, 3.5 million more votes were cast for Hillary Clinton than for Trump, yet she was forced to retire to Chappaqua while he moved into the White House.Trump’s victory, and George W. Bush’s similar triumph over Al Gore in 2000, provide ample pretext for Democrats to redouble their efforts on behalf of the NPVIC. But if they are to have any success, they will have to win over conservatives wary of eliminating the Electoral College, either out of political self-interest or principle. Proponents of the NPVIC believe they are uniquely well-suited to meet this challenge because unlike, say, the constitutional amendment proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, it preserves the College."This is the constitutionally conservative way to ensure that every voter in every state is politically relevant in every presidential election while preserving the Electoral College," the movement’s largest benefactor, John Koza, said in a statement earlier this month after the Oregon House signed on to the NPVIC. The compact is designed to go into effect once states representing more than 270 electoral votes have signed on, and things are moving quickly: Oregon is the third state to join this year, bringing the total committed number of electoral votes to 196.While the NPVIC’s advocates will certainly tailor their message to conservatives when the need arises, the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections (IRPE), the movement’s nonprofit educational arm, stresses in all of its communications that the issue is non-partisan; it’s about fairness, they claim.“We don’t get too bogged down on partisan frames at the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections. Those winds have changed three times in the last decade,” IRPE chairman Patrick Rosensteil tells National Review. "Instead, we focus on educating interested parties on the shortcomings of the current system and the merits of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and/or other potential reforms.”His argument is straightforward: Voters in Iowa, regardless of political affiliation, should not have more political power than their counterparts in New York or California. While they may agree in principle, self-interested Republicans’ usual response is fear that under the NPVIC, mostly Democratic voters in metropolitan areas will replace battleground-state voters as the most politically influential group in presidential elections. Presidential campaigns will inevitably restrict their appeals, and appearances, to highly populous regions, and this will pervert public policy in much the same way that sops to Iowans, such as ethanol subsidies, currently do.Not so, claim the compact’s proponents, who predict that when every vote counts in every election, presidential candidates will campaign everywhere that voters live. While it is impossible to say with any certainty whether this claim would be born out if the compact were passed, the obvious objection is that of limited resources. At present, presidential campaigns have the ability to traverse battleground states because there are, more or less, only twelve such states. Will they spend precious time and resources traveling to North Dakota to appeal to its roughly 700,000 residents when they could flatter more than 2 million potential voters by spending the afternoon in Brooklyn instead?Advocates of the Compact argue that, since only roughly 15 percent of Americans live in the 50 largest cities, candidates will travel to wherever the other 82 percent live. But the vast majority of that 82 percent live in the suburbs of those major cities and, as a result, can be reached through advertising in the same major media markets as city residents. In 2018, 46 million Americans lived in rural counties while 147 million lived in suburbs or small metros — and that number is only going to continue increasing in the coming years, according to the Pew Research Center.Asked about the claim that the national popular vote would lead to a geographically diverse campaign strategy, Republican strategist Luke Thompson suggests that campaigns would concentrate on the suburbs of major cities, where the most persuadable voters reside. “In a national popular vote, you'll make an effort to mobilize your base voters EVERYWHERE, true. But you're still going to concentrate your campaign firepower — television spending and candidate appearances — where the most persuadable voters are,” Thompson says. “That means . . . concentrating on the largest clusters of high- and mid-propensity persuadable voters. Where are those voters? The suburbs of major American cities — New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago. . . .”While the precise consequences of the NPVIC’s implementation remain unknowable, its proponents must deal with the perception problem created by its main funding sources as they try to recruit more state legislatures to the cause. The movement is primarily funded by two wealthy donors: Koza, a former Democratic state legislator who serves as the group’s chairman and continues to donate each year; and Tom Golisano, a pro-life political independent who made a one-time $10 million donation. While the effort primarily relies on a group of wealthy individuals unknown to the public, its institutional donor base comprises only liberal groups, according to an investigation by The Daily Signal and the Capital Research Center.In addition to the perception that its donors are exclusively liberal, the movement now has to contend with the fact that, among prominent national political figures, only Democrats are calling for a national popular vote. In addressing this concern, supporters of the compact will inevitably return to the fact that the Electoral College would still exist under the compact, whose member states can abandon it anytime they see fit. (This is, of course, another potential vulnerability: Capricious state legislatures may leave the compact after watching their state’s electors bring the opposing party to power one too many times.) Saul Anuzis, spokesman for the IRPE, sees this as a strength. Unlike a constitutional amendment, the compact can be dissolved if it has, in Anuzis’s words, “unintended consequences.”But that, of course, is not an argument for joining the NPVIC; it’s just an argument against dissolving the Electoral College entirely.

Last week, Oregon’s Democratic governor, Kate Brown, committed her state to an interstate compact designed to ensure that the national popular vote determines presidential elections. By signing the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC), Brown is aligning herself squarely with fellow Democrats who believe that a plurality of voters nationwide should elect the president.Their efforts, while long predating President Trump’s election, gained new urgency in its wake. The Electoral College, many Democrats claimed, subverted the will of the electorate in 2016. After all, 3.5 million more votes were cast for Hillary Clinton than for Trump, yet she was forced to retire to Chappaqua while he moved into the White House.Trump’s victory, and George W. Bush’s similar triumph over Al Gore in 2000, provide ample pretext for Democrats to redouble their efforts on behalf of the NPVIC. But if they are to have any success, they will have to win over conservatives wary of eliminating the Electoral College, either out of political self-interest or principle. Proponents of the NPVIC believe they are uniquely well-suited to meet this challenge because unlike, say, the constitutional amendment proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, it preserves the College."This is the constitutionally conservative way to ensure that every voter in every state is politically relevant in every presidential election while preserving the Electoral College," the movement’s largest benefactor, John Koza, said in a statement earlier this month after the Oregon House signed on to the NPVIC. The compact is designed to go into effect once states representing more than 270 electoral votes have signed on, and things are moving quickly: Oregon is the third state to join this year, bringing the total committed number of electoral votes to 196.While the NPVIC’s advocates will certainly tailor their message to conservatives when the need arises, the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections (IRPE), the movement’s nonprofit educational arm, stresses in all of its communications that the issue is non-partisan; it’s about fairness, they claim.“We don’t get too bogged down on partisan frames at the Institute for Research on Presidential Elections. Those winds have changed three times in the last decade,” IRPE chairman Patrick Rosensteil tells National Review. "Instead, we focus on educating interested parties on the shortcomings of the current system and the merits of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and/or other potential reforms.”His argument is straightforward: Voters in Iowa, regardless of political affiliation, should not have more political power than their counterparts in New York or California. While they may agree in principle, self-interested Republicans’ usual response is fear that under the NPVIC, mostly Democratic voters in metropolitan areas will replace battleground-state voters as the most politically influential group in presidential elections. Presidential campaigns will inevitably restrict their appeals, and appearances, to highly populous regions, and this will pervert public policy in much the same way that sops to Iowans, such as ethanol subsidies, currently do.Not so, claim the compact’s proponents, who predict that when every vote counts in every election, presidential candidates will campaign everywhere that voters live. While it is impossible to say with any certainty whether this claim would be born out if the compact were passed, the obvious objection is that of limited resources. At present, presidential campaigns have the ability to traverse battleground states because there are, more or less, only twelve such states. Will they spend precious time and resources traveling to North Dakota to appeal to its roughly 700,000 residents when they could flatter more than 2 million potential voters by spending the afternoon in Brooklyn instead?Advocates of the Compact argue that, since only roughly 15 percent of Americans live in the 50 largest cities, candidates will travel to wherever the other 82 percent live. But the vast majority of that 82 percent live in the suburbs of those major cities and, as a result, can be reached through advertising in the same major media markets as city residents. In 2018, 46 million Americans lived in rural counties while 147 million lived in suburbs or small metros — and that number is only going to continue increasing in the coming years, according to the Pew Research Center.Asked about the claim that the national popular vote would lead to a geographically diverse campaign strategy, Republican strategist Luke Thompson suggests that campaigns would concentrate on the suburbs of major cities, where the most persuadable voters reside. “In a national popular vote, you'll make an effort to mobilize your base voters EVERYWHERE, true. But you're still going to concentrate your campaign firepower — television spending and candidate appearances — where the most persuadable voters are,” Thompson says. “That means . . . concentrating on the largest clusters of high- and mid-propensity persuadable voters. Where are those voters? The suburbs of major American cities — New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago. . . .”While the precise consequences of the NPVIC’s implementation remain unknowable, its proponents must deal with the perception problem created by its main funding sources as they try to recruit more state legislatures to the cause. The movement is primarily funded by two wealthy donors: Koza, a former Democratic state legislator who serves as the group’s chairman and continues to donate each year; and Tom Golisano, a pro-life political independent who made a one-time $10 million donation. While the effort primarily relies on a group of wealthy individuals unknown to the public, its institutional donor base comprises only liberal groups, according to an investigation by The Daily Signal and the Capital Research Center.In addition to the perception that its donors are exclusively liberal, the movement now has to contend with the fact that, among prominent national political figures, only Democrats are calling for a national popular vote. In addressing this concern, supporters of the compact will inevitably return to the fact that the Electoral College would still exist under the compact, whose member states can abandon it anytime they see fit. (This is, of course, another potential vulnerability: Capricious state legislatures may leave the compact after watching their state’s electors bring the opposing party to power one too many times.) Saul Anuzis, spokesman for the IRPE, sees this as a strength. Unlike a constitutional amendment, the compact can be dissolved if it has, in Anuzis’s words, “unintended consequences.”But that, of course, is not an argument for joining the NPVIC; it’s just an argument against dissolving the Electoral College entirely.

Conservatives have long been advocates of local control over policy. They often use the word “subsidiarity,” a concept with origins in Catholic social thought and a simple premise: that problems are best solved by those closest to them.In the United States, this principle is often folded into our tradition of federalism. We conceive of government as acting on three levels: federal, state, and local (cities and towns, mostly). And we consider the smallest of these three tiers to be the best actor when grappling with a specific problem. But what about when problems don’t fit into that neat framework?California is facing just that challenge. Its major cities are caught in an affordability crisis; San Diego, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are all in the top ten nationally for highest median rents. The city that Nancy Pelosi likes to call “the City of Saint Francis” takes the top spot: The average two-bedroom apartment costs $3,930 a month. One likes to think that St. Francis would be less than pleased.In some ways this is the various cities’ own faults. California cities generally have some of the most restrictive zoning laws and labyrinthine permitting processes in the nation. Additionally, anti-gentrification activists rival college protesters in their use of unhinged rhetoric: Representative Scott Weiner’s bill to “upzone” areas near transit hubs for greater development was called “a 21st century Trail of Tears” by one such group.But a large source of the affordability crisis actually lies outside the purview of the city governments. Cities, after all, are not the only places where people live. California cities, especially in the north, exist within a complex ecosystem of smaller cities, suburbs, and towns. San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, for example, all lie within the nine counties of the Bay Area. Los Angeles makes up the heart of the sprawling Southland, bounded by Ventura County, Orange County, and the Inland Empire.These suburbs, from the tract-home vastness of Orange County to the idyllic small towns of Marin, are leaving cities to shoulder the housing crunch alone. While the state sets regional housing targets on eight-year cycles, enforcement is incredibly weak, and many municipalities fall far short of reaching their goals.On top of all of this, suburban communities, having lower density to begin with, resist building housing the most. The somewhat impenetrable process by which regions assign housing targets to municipalities tends to leave larger cities holding the rope; small, wealthy suburban communities often have laughably low targets. Beverly Hills, for example, has to add only three units during the current cycle.For all the press that urban NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) voters get, the suburbs are where NIMBYs have really conquered all before them. Towns with high rates of home ownership have seen meteoric rises in home prices since 2008, and homeowners enthusiastically organize to protect their investments. Small-town politicians live in fear of backlash from angry residents who oppose almost all new housing.The situation is not good: Around halfway through the current cycle, the state is only a quarter of the way toward reaching its targets, many of which were set during the recession and fail to take into account the state’s recent boom. According to a report by Beacon Economics, an independent research group, “certain jurisdictions in California will not meet their low-income housing production targets for more than 1,000 years” at the current rate of development.Which is why the governor, Gavin Newsom, is pushing for drastic steps. For several months, he has been floating the idea of withholding gas-tax funds from cities that do not reach their housing targets. “If you’re not hitting your goals, I don’t know why you get the money,” he said.The backlash immediately erupted. Small-city mayors and representatives criticized the governor for heavy-handedness and for imposing a one-size-fits-all policy on the state. Newsom has partially backed down, pushing his proposal to a 2023 date.These are arguments that conservatives traditionally sympathize with. Local control, an aversion to top-down governance, and clearly delineated areas of authority are important goods. And using the gas tax as a cudgel on a seemingly unrelated issue should rightly raise concerns.But local-control advocates ignore a dimension of government that does not fit neatly into standard American thinking: the regional. When smaller cities in regions such as the Bay Area and the Southland do not build, larger cities are left to pick up the slack.Oakland, for example, is actually on track to meet its 2023 housing targets. But farther north in the Bay, wealthy Marin County has permitted only 442 of the 2,298 homes it’s required to build. One city falling short puts pressure on others, and not only in the form of real-estate prices.This is where the gas tax comes in. One of the most pernicious effects of low-density suburbs lying near cities is the massive increase in traffic congestion. Middle- and lower-income workers who have jobs in the cities are forced to take longer commutes, as buying or renting in closer and more affluent commuter towns is impossible. Bay Area and Los Angeles commuters lose 61 hours a year waiting in traffic, time away from their families and their work.So a coherent rationale for using the gas tax as the proverbial stick does exist. And the state is more than willing to approve a carrot: This year’s budget includes $250 million to help localities plan for housing goals, $500 million for infrastructure that supports low-income housing, and $1 billion of tax credits and loans for affordable and mixed-income housing.The frameworks currently in place do allow for regional variation. After all, targets are set by expected population growth and job-creation numbers, and regional groups decide how to assign housing within themselves. But regional associations are voluntary and comparatively weak; they do not effectively balance between city hall and the statehouse. Oakland and San Jose do not have many levers to pull when Marin sets itself against new development.This is likely to persist. In the long term, regional governance structures would be a welcome development for the state, but their near-term prospects are slim. Pro-housing advocates should take the situation as it is and work with what Newsom is offering, which attempts to thread a needle between empowering local governments and bending to the needs of the entire state.Subsidiarity should be honored by conservatives, but not when it results in a few wealthy towns passing off the housing crisis to poorer ones.

Conservatives have long been advocates of local control over policy. They often use the word “subsidiarity,” a concept with origins in Catholic social thought and a simple premise: that problems are best solved by those closest to them.In the United States, this principle is often folded into our tradition of federalism. We conceive of government as acting on three levels: federal, state, and local (cities and towns, mostly). And we consider the smallest of these three tiers to be the best actor when grappling with a specific problem. But what about when problems don’t fit into that neat framework?California is facing just that challenge. Its major cities are caught in an affordability crisis; San Diego, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are all in the top ten nationally for highest median rents. The city that Nancy Pelosi likes to call “the City of Saint Francis” takes the top spot: The average two-bedroom apartment costs $3,930 a month. One likes to think that St. Francis would be less than pleased.In some ways this is the various cities’ own faults. California cities generally have some of the most restrictive zoning laws and labyrinthine permitting processes in the nation. Additionally, anti-gentrification activists rival college protesters in their use of unhinged rhetoric: Representative Scott Weiner’s bill to “upzone” areas near transit hubs for greater development was called “a 21st century Trail of Tears” by one such group.But a large source of the affordability crisis actually lies outside the purview of the city governments. Cities, after all, are not the only places where people live. California cities, especially in the north, exist within a complex ecosystem of smaller cities, suburbs, and towns. San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, for example, all lie within the nine counties of the Bay Area. Los Angeles makes up the heart of the sprawling Southland, bounded by Ventura County, Orange County, and the Inland Empire.These suburbs, from the tract-home vastness of Orange County to the idyllic small towns of Marin, are leaving cities to shoulder the housing crunch alone. While the state sets regional housing targets on eight-year cycles, enforcement is incredibly weak, and many municipalities fall far short of reaching their goals.On top of all of this, suburban communities, having lower density to begin with, resist building housing the most. The somewhat impenetrable process by which regions assign housing targets to municipalities tends to leave larger cities holding the rope; small, wealthy suburban communities often have laughably low targets. Beverly Hills, for example, has to add only three units during the current cycle.For all the press that urban NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) voters get, the suburbs are where NIMBYs have really conquered all before them. Towns with high rates of home ownership have seen meteoric rises in home prices since 2008, and homeowners enthusiastically organize to protect their investments. Small-town politicians live in fear of backlash from angry residents who oppose almost all new housing.The situation is not good: Around halfway through the current cycle, the state is only a quarter of the way toward reaching its targets, many of which were set during the recession and fail to take into account the state’s recent boom. According to a report by Beacon Economics, an independent research group, “certain jurisdictions in California will not meet their low-income housing production targets for more than 1,000 years” at the current rate of development.Which is why the governor, Gavin Newsom, is pushing for drastic steps. For several months, he has been floating the idea of withholding gas-tax funds from cities that do not reach their housing targets. “If you’re not hitting your goals, I don’t know why you get the money,” he said.The backlash immediately erupted. Small-city mayors and representatives criticized the governor for heavy-handedness and for imposing a one-size-fits-all policy on the state. Newsom has partially backed down, pushing his proposal to a 2023 date.These are arguments that conservatives traditionally sympathize with. Local control, an aversion to top-down governance, and clearly delineated areas of authority are important goods. And using the gas tax as a cudgel on a seemingly unrelated issue should rightly raise concerns.But local-control advocates ignore a dimension of government that does not fit neatly into standard American thinking: the regional. When smaller cities in regions such as the Bay Area and the Southland do not build, larger cities are left to pick up the slack.Oakland, for example, is actually on track to meet its 2023 housing targets. But farther north in the Bay, wealthy Marin County has permitted only 442 of the 2,298 homes it’s required to build. One city falling short puts pressure on others, and not only in the form of real-estate prices.This is where the gas tax comes in. One of the most pernicious effects of low-density suburbs lying near cities is the massive increase in traffic congestion. Middle- and lower-income workers who have jobs in the cities are forced to take longer commutes, as buying or renting in closer and more affluent commuter towns is impossible. Bay Area and Los Angeles commuters lose 61 hours a year waiting in traffic, time away from their families and their work.So a coherent rationale for using the gas tax as the proverbial stick does exist. And the state is more than willing to approve a carrot: This year’s budget includes $250 million to help localities plan for housing goals, $500 million for infrastructure that supports low-income housing, and $1 billion of tax credits and loans for affordable and mixed-income housing.The frameworks currently in place do allow for regional variation. After all, targets are set by expected population growth and job-creation numbers, and regional groups decide how to assign housing within themselves. But regional associations are voluntary and comparatively weak; they do not effectively balance between city hall and the statehouse. Oakland and San Jose do not have many levers to pull when Marin sets itself against new development.This is likely to persist. In the long term, regional governance structures would be a welcome development for the state, but their near-term prospects are slim. Pro-housing advocates should take the situation as it is and work with what Newsom is offering, which attempts to thread a needle between empowering local governments and bending to the needs of the entire state.Subsidiarity should be honored by conservatives, but not when it results in a few wealthy towns passing off the housing crisis to poorer ones.

‘What’s your pitch to the swing voter on the fence?” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked President Trump in an interview that aired Sunday.Questions of this sort are gifts to politicians, but interviewers ask them for a couple of reasons. One, they’re civic-minded. Politicians deserve the opportunity to make their cases straightforwardly — and voters deserve to hear them. Second, they save time. If you give your subject a free shot to get the talking points out of the way, you can move on to the more interesting stuff.Trump’s initial answer started off following the standard script. He got four words off that must have had his political advisers cheering: “Safety, security, great economy.”Ideally, this is where Trump should have stopped talking.But the president kept going, boasting that he won 52 percent of the women’s vote in 2016. He didn’t. That was the white women’s vote; he got 41 percent of women overall, according to exit polls. Then, Trump talked about how the economy would help him with minorities.“So,” Stephanopoulos asked, “that’s the pitch?”Trump briefly got back on message. “No, I have no pitch,” he said. “You know what I have? The economy is phenomenal. We’ve rebuilt our military. We’re taking care of our vets. We’re doing the best job that anybody’s done probably as a first-term president.”This was another good place to stop. But he was only getting warmed up: “I have a phony witch hunt, which is just a phony pile of stuff. Mueller comes out. There’s no collusion. And essentially a ruling that no obstruction.”And then Trump was off to the races, fighting with Stephanopoulos about what the Mueller report did or didn’t say. The facts weren’t on Trump’s side, as virtually every news outlet was eager to trumpet.But politically, that’s not the important part. Impeachment is catnip to the mainstream media and Democrats. Whether Trump was “set up” by the deep state and their “dirty” dossier is catnip to Republicans and right-wing media. But it seems a fair bet that the swing voters Stephanopoulos asked about aren’t intoxicated by either topic.And that’s the problem for Trump. When you talk to people who think Trump will be re-elected, they point to conventional rules about how a good economy makes voters want to stay the course. That’s superficially plausible, but it leaves out the single most important fact of the political landscape: Trump’s personality.A good economy doesn’t necessarily speak for itself. Normal presidents stay on message to deny the press the ability to talk about more interesting stuff. The only talking point Trump can be counted on to stick to is himself. Hence, his claim to Stephanopoulos that no one has been treated worse than him.Trump doesn’t want the election to be about the economy, he wants it — and everything else — to be about him. His exchange with Stephanopoulos was an analogue of every Trump rally. He runs through the talking points about the economy or conservative judges as quickly as possible so he can get to the really important topic: Donald Trump.The problem for Trump is that if the central question of the election is him, he will lose because he is not popular.The Trump campaign’s internal polling, which was leaked last week, showed him trailing Joe Biden in several must-win states by wide margins. Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said the polls were irrelevant because it was “ancient” data from last March, taken before he was “exonerated” by the Mueller report. But Trump’s post–Mueller-report approval ratings haven’t improved. Trump’s sub–50 percent approval rating has had the least variation of any president since World War II. Most people have made up their minds about him, and most of them don’t like him.The campaign responded by saying it had fresh data showing solid support from “informed voters.” Parscale told ABC News that since March, “We have seen huge swings in the president’s favor across the 17 states we have polled, based on the policies now espoused by the Democrats.”The key words there are “informed voters.” According to the New York Times, the polls Parscale described were “informed ballot” polls that described Democrats in negative ways before asking about support for Trump.The common wisdom among pollsters is that if you’re citing informed-ballot polls, you’re losing. But even taken at face value, the meaning of these polls is that some voters could be persuaded to vote for Trump if they could be convinced they were voting on issues rather than Trump. For that to work, Trump would have to stop acting like Trump and make the message about something other than him. That’s a tall order.© 2019 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY LLC

‘What’s your pitch to the swing voter on the fence?” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked President Trump in an interview that aired Sunday.Questions of this sort are gifts to politicians, but interviewers ask them for a couple of reasons. One, they’re civic-minded. Politicians deserve the opportunity to make their cases straightforwardly — and voters deserve to hear them. Second, they save time. If you give your subject a free shot to get the talking points out of the way, you can move on to the more interesting stuff.Trump’s initial answer started off following the standard script. He got four words off that must have had his political advisers cheering: “Safety, security, great economy.”Ideally, this is where Trump should have stopped talking.But the president kept going, boasting that he won 52 percent of the women’s vote in 2016. He didn’t. That was the white women’s vote; he got 41 percent of women overall, according to exit polls. Then, Trump talked about how the economy would help him with minorities.“So,” Stephanopoulos asked, “that’s the pitch?”Trump briefly got back on message. “No, I have no pitch,” he said. “You know what I have? The economy is phenomenal. We’ve rebuilt our military. We’re taking care of our vets. We’re doing the best job that anybody’s done probably as a first-term president.”This was another good place to stop. But he was only getting warmed up: “I have a phony witch hunt, which is just a phony pile of stuff. Mueller comes out. There’s no collusion. And essentially a ruling that no obstruction.”And then Trump was off to the races, fighting with Stephanopoulos about what the Mueller report did or didn’t say. The facts weren’t on Trump’s side, as virtually every news outlet was eager to trumpet.But politically, that’s not the important part. Impeachment is catnip to the mainstream media and Democrats. Whether Trump was “set up” by the deep state and their “dirty” dossier is catnip to Republicans and right-wing media. But it seems a fair bet that the swing voters Stephanopoulos asked about aren’t intoxicated by either topic.And that’s the problem for Trump. When you talk to people who think Trump will be re-elected, they point to conventional rules about how a good economy makes voters want to stay the course. That’s superficially plausible, but it leaves out the single most important fact of the political landscape: Trump’s personality.A good economy doesn’t necessarily speak for itself. Normal presidents stay on message to deny the press the ability to talk about more interesting stuff. The only talking point Trump can be counted on to stick to is himself. Hence, his claim to Stephanopoulos that no one has been treated worse than him.Trump doesn’t want the election to be about the economy, he wants it — and everything else — to be about him. His exchange with Stephanopoulos was an analogue of every Trump rally. He runs through the talking points about the economy or conservative judges as quickly as possible so he can get to the really important topic: Donald Trump.The problem for Trump is that if the central question of the election is him, he will lose because he is not popular.The Trump campaign’s internal polling, which was leaked last week, showed him trailing Joe Biden in several must-win states by wide margins. Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, said the polls were irrelevant because it was “ancient” data from last March, taken before he was “exonerated” by the Mueller report. But Trump’s post–Mueller-report approval ratings haven’t improved. Trump’s sub–50 percent approval rating has had the least variation of any president since World War II. Most people have made up their minds about him, and most of them don’t like him.The campaign responded by saying it had fresh data showing solid support from “informed voters.” Parscale told ABC News that since March, “We have seen huge swings in the president’s favor across the 17 states we have polled, based on the policies now espoused by the Democrats.”The key words there are “informed voters.” According to the New York Times, the polls Parscale described were “informed ballot” polls that described Democrats in negative ways before asking about support for Trump.The common wisdom among pollsters is that if you’re citing informed-ballot polls, you’re losing. But even taken at face value, the meaning of these polls is that some voters could be persuaded to vote for Trump if they could be convinced they were voting on issues rather than Trump. For that to work, Trump would have to stop acting like Trump and make the message about something other than him. That’s a tall order.© 2019 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY LLC

Poll: Democratic voters are eager to hear from candidates on issues from health care to education. They don't want to spend debate time on Trump.

Poll: Democratic voters are eager to hear from candidates on issues from health care to education. They don't want to spend debate time on Trump.

Picking the right stocks to help fund college tuition can be challenging, but these three intriguing stocks might be the way to go.

Picking the right stocks to help fund college tuition can be challenging, but these three intriguing stocks might be the way to go.

The top performers have at least a 99% approval rate.

The top performers have at least a 99% approval rate.

While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like...

While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like...

(Bloomberg) -- A rocket attack near an Exxon Mobil Corp. workers’ camp in southern Iraq had no effect on oil fields or exports, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.It wasn’t immediately clear whether Exxon’s operations were the target, the person said, asking not to be identified for lack of authority to speak with news media. The incident in Basra province injured three workers at an Iraqi drilling company, according to a government security bureau. Exxon evacuated 20 foreign employees, Sky News Arabia reported earlier, citing unidentified local officials.Attacks on energy facilities, including a Saudi Arabian pipeline and several oil tankers, as well as a U.S. military buildup are stoking fears that the Middle East may be heading toward another conflict. The U.S. ordered its non-emergency government staff to leave Iraq last month amid increasing regional tensions that American officials blame on Iran.While oil prices spiked immediately after the June 13 attacks on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, crude is down over the past month on concerns over waning demand. Brent crude in London pared losses earlier in the day before dipping 0.4% lower to $61.88 a barrel as of 2:25 p.m. Dubai time. “A quite considerable ratcheting of tensions will be required to drive prices higher,” according to BloombergNEF.Iraq’s Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al-Nima said the rocket wounded Iraqi workers and targeted a local company, not a foreign one. The government still hasn’t determined who is responsible for the attack. “God willing these events won’t be repeated,” Al-Nima told reporters in Baghdad.U.S. WarningThe U.S. sent a warning to Iran through Swiss and Iraqi intermediaries against engaging American forces, General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday in Washington. “We’ve used them all to say ‘hands-off, don’t come after our forces,’” Selva said.Exxon pulled about 80 people from Iraq last month, raising the ire of Iraq’s oil minister who said the decision was “unacceptable and unwarranted” because it had nothing to do with the security situation in the south of the country. The company returned some of its workers on May 31 after boosting security at the site.An Exxon spokesman in Singapore wasn’t immediately able to comment. Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Co. didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.Iraq, which has enjoyed relative calm after the Islamic State insurgency receded there in 2017, has suffered a spate of low-level attacks in recent weeks. A shell exploded near the U.S. embassy in May. Rockets on Tuesday hit an official compound in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and the Taji Military camp near Baghdad, both of which house American military advisers, according to local press reports.Exxon operates the West Qurna-1 oil field in Basra, which pumps between 450,000 and 480,000 barrels a day. The region is responsible for the bulk of Iraq’s crude output.Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which has operations near Exxon, said in a statement that it wasn’t “subject to the attack” and its output hasn’t been interrupted.(Updates with Iraq’s deputy oil minister’s comments in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh and Abbas Al Lawati.To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.net;Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdad at kajrash@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, ;Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Mohammed Aly Sergie, Bruce StanleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- A rocket attack near an Exxon Mobil Corp. workers’ camp in southern Iraq had no effect on oil fields or exports, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.It wasn’t immediately clear whether Exxon’s operations were the target, the person said, asking not to be identified for lack of authority to speak with news media. The incident in Basra province injured three workers at an Iraqi drilling company, according to a government security bureau. Exxon evacuated 20 foreign employees, Sky News Arabia reported earlier, citing unidentified local officials.Attacks on energy facilities, including a Saudi Arabian pipeline and several oil tankers, as well as a U.S. military buildup are stoking fears that the Middle East may be heading toward another conflict. The U.S. ordered its non-emergency government staff to leave Iraq last month amid increasing regional tensions that American officials blame on Iran.While oil prices spiked immediately after the June 13 attacks on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, crude is down over the past month on concerns over waning demand. Brent crude in London pared losses earlier in the day before dipping 0.4% lower to $61.88 a barrel as of 2:25 p.m. Dubai time. “A quite considerable ratcheting of tensions will be required to drive prices higher,” according to BloombergNEF.Iraq’s Deputy Oil Minister Fayyad Al-Nima said the rocket wounded Iraqi workers and targeted a local company, not a foreign one. The government still hasn’t determined who is responsible for the attack. “God willing these events won’t be repeated,” Al-Nima told reporters in Baghdad.U.S. WarningThe U.S. sent a warning to Iran through Swiss and Iraqi intermediaries against engaging American forces, General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday in Washington. “We’ve used them all to say ‘hands-off, don’t come after our forces,’” Selva said.Exxon pulled about 80 people from Iraq last month, raising the ire of Iraq’s oil minister who said the decision was “unacceptable and unwarranted” because it had nothing to do with the security situation in the south of the country. The company returned some of its workers on May 31 after boosting security at the site.An Exxon spokesman in Singapore wasn’t immediately able to comment. Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Co. didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.Iraq, which has enjoyed relative calm after the Islamic State insurgency receded there in 2017, has suffered a spate of low-level attacks in recent weeks. A shell exploded near the U.S. embassy in May. Rockets on Tuesday hit an official compound in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and the Taji Military camp near Baghdad, both of which house American military advisers, according to local press reports.Exxon operates the West Qurna-1 oil field in Basra, which pumps between 450,000 and 480,000 barrels a day. The region is responsible for the bulk of Iraq’s crude output.Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which has operations near Exxon, said in a statement that it wasn’t “subject to the attack” and its output hasn’t been interrupted.(Updates with Iraq’s deputy oil minister’s comments in fifth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Dan Murtaugh and Abbas Al Lawati.To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.net;Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdad at kajrash@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, ;Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Mohammed Aly Sergie, Bruce StanleyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

The big shareholder groups in Novelion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:NVLN) have power over the company. Generally...

The big shareholder groups in Novelion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:NVLN) have power over the company. Generally...

Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. Active...

Passive investing in an index fund is a good way to ensure your own returns roughly match the overall market. Active...

In 2002 Peter Wrighton-Smith was appointed CEO of Oxford Immunotec Global PLC (NASDAQ:OXFD). This report will, first...

In 2002 Peter Wrighton-Smith was appointed CEO of Oxford Immunotec Global PLC (NASDAQ:OXFD). This report will, first...

Every investor in Macarthur Minerals Limited (CVE:MMS) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups...

Every investor in Macarthur Minerals Limited (CVE:MMS) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups...

South Korea said on Wednesday it had proposed a joint fund with Japan to compensate South Koreans forced to work by Japanese companies during World War Two, but Japan rejected the idea out of hand. South Korea and Japan share a bitter history that includes the 1910-45 Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula, the forced mobilization of labor at Japanese companies and the use of comfort women, Japan's euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.

South Korea said on Wednesday it had proposed a joint fund with Japan to compensate South Koreans forced to work by Japanese companies during World War Two, but Japan rejected the idea out of hand. South Korea and Japan share a bitter history that includes the 1910-45 Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula, the forced mobilization of labor at Japanese companies and the use of comfort women, Japan's euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.

China's Geely has picked Zenuity, a joint venture between its Volvo car marque and Swedish technology group Veoneer, as its preferred supplier for assisted and self driving software. Regulatory and technological challenges as well as soaring development costs mean carmakers have delayed forecasts for the mass adoption of self-driving cars and the Geely deal is a welcome boost for Zenuity. It said on Wednesday that the deal would encompass Geely's range of car brands, which include Geely Auto, performance brand Polestar, subscription-based electric carmaker Lynk & Co and British sports car maker Lotus.

China's Geely has picked Zenuity, a joint venture between its Volvo car marque and Swedish technology group Veoneer, as its preferred supplier for assisted and self driving software. Regulatory and technological challenges as well as soaring development costs mean carmakers have delayed forecasts for the mass adoption of self-driving cars and the Geely deal is a welcome boost for Zenuity. It said on Wednesday that the deal would encompass Geely's range of car brands, which include Geely Auto, performance brand Polestar, subscription-based electric carmaker Lynk & Co and British sports car maker Lotus.

China's Geely has picked Zenuity, a joint venture between its Volvo car marque and Swedish technology group Veoneer, as its preferred supplier for assisted and self driving software. Regulatory and technological challenges as well as soaring development costs mean carmakers have delayed forecasts for the mass adoption of self-driving cars and the Geely deal is a welcome boost for Zenuity. It said on Wednesday that the deal would encompass Geely's range of car brands, which include Geely Auto, performance brand Polestar, subscription-based electric carmaker Lynk & Co and British sports car maker Lotus.

China's Geely has picked Zenuity, a joint venture between its Volvo car marque and Swedish technology group Veoneer, as its preferred supplier for assisted and self driving software. Regulatory and technological challenges as well as soaring development costs mean carmakers have delayed forecasts for the mass adoption of self-driving cars and the Geely deal is a welcome boost for Zenuity. It said on Wednesday that the deal would encompass Geely's range of car brands, which include Geely Auto, performance brand Polestar, subscription-based electric carmaker Lynk & Co and British sports car maker Lotus.

Genie Energy Ltd. (NYSE:GNE), which is in the electric utilities business, and is based in United States, received a...

Genie Energy Ltd. (NYSE:GNE), which is in the electric utilities business, and is based in United States, received a...

Trump and most of his fellow Republicans dismiss the Democrats' inquiries as grandstanding or political harassment. The Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, say the investigations are needed to hold to account a president who scorns respect for the law and governing norms. In most of the disputes, Trump and his advisers run the legal risk of contempt of Congress citations and court enforcement actions that could result in fines.

Trump and most of his fellow Republicans dismiss the Democrats' inquiries as grandstanding or political harassment. The Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, say the investigations are needed to hold to account a president who scorns respect for the law and governing norms. In most of the disputes, Trump and his advisers run the legal risk of contempt of Congress citations and court enforcement actions that could result in fines.

The simplest way to benefit from a rising market is to buy an index fund. Active investors aim to buy stocks that...

The simplest way to benefit from a rising market is to buy an index fund. Active investors aim to buy stocks that...

Apple Is Reportedly Asking Suppliers to Shift at Least 15% of Output from China

Apple Is Reportedly Asking Suppliers to Shift at Least 15% of Output from China

It's not a great situation -- but it's at least somewhat fixable.

It's not a great situation -- but it's at least somewhat fixable.

Hope Hicks, President Donald Trump's former spokeswoman, to be first former administration official in Robert Mueller's report to testify at Congress

Hope Hicks, President Donald Trump's former spokeswoman, to be first former administration official in Robert Mueller's report to testify at Congress

How far off is Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOXA) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll...

How far off is Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOXA) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll...

Hope Hicks, once a close aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, is due to face questions in Congress on Wednesday on six instances in which Democrats believe Trump may have broken the law during the 2016 election campaign and while in the White House. The White House has asserted immunity over any testimony by Hicks involving her 14 months at the White House, according to a knowledgeable source.

Hope Hicks, once a close aide to U.S. President Donald Trump, is due to face questions in Congress on Wednesday on six instances in which Democrats believe Trump may have broken the law during the 2016 election campaign and while in the White House. The White House has asserted immunity over any testimony by Hicks involving her 14 months at the White House, according to a knowledgeable source.

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Telaria, Inc...

Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Telaria, Inc...

Inflation in Britain dipped in May as transport costs returned to normal following an Easter-related boost, official figures showed Wednesday, likely easing the pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates this summer. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that consumer prices were up 2% in the year to May, compared with 2.1% the previous month. It highlighted a sharp decline in transport-related inflation.

Inflation in Britain dipped in May as transport costs returned to normal following an Easter-related boost, official figures showed Wednesday, likely easing the pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates this summer. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that consumer prices were up 2% in the year to May, compared with 2.1% the previous month. It highlighted a sharp decline in transport-related inflation.

Did your favorite make the cut?

Did your favorite make the cut?

Krispy Kreme has announced a new Original Filled doughnut and a way to try it for free Saturday as part of its National Donut Day challenge.

Krispy Kreme has announced a new Original Filled doughnut and a way to try it for free Saturday as part of its National Donut Day challenge.

Slack IPO: The Stock Market Is Rolling Out Its Welcome Mat Over Recent, Successful Tech Listings

Slack IPO: The Stock Market Is Rolling Out Its Welcome Mat Over Recent, Successful Tech Listings

You might think the answer is obvious, but it's more complicated than it seems.

You might think the answer is obvious, but it's more complicated than it seems.

Facebookshi Nakatomo I am suffering from Facebook Fatigue Syndrome, as, I assume, are you. But I am also conscious that Mark Zuckerburg, an avid reader of this column I hear, would be disappointed if I did not take the opportunity to share a few opinions on the Libra launch, and I really do not wish […]The post Money 2.0 Stuff: $LIT appeared first on The Block.

Facebookshi Nakatomo I am suffering from Facebook Fatigue Syndrome, as, I assume, are you. But I am also conscious that Mark Zuckerburg, an avid reader of this column I hear, would be disappointed if I did not take the opportunity to share a few opinions on the Libra launch, and I really do not wish […]The post Money 2.0 Stuff: $LIT appeared first on The Block.

Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story...

Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story...

We're definitely into long term investing, but some companies are simply bad investments over any time frame. We...

We're definitely into long term investing, but some companies are simply bad investments over any time frame. We...

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. has asked its largest suppliers to consider the costs of shifting 15% to 30% of its output from China to Southeast Asia in a dramatic shake-up of its production chain, the Nikkei reported.The U.S. tech giant asked “major suppliers” to evaluate the feasibility of such a migration, the newspaper cited multiple sources as saying. Those included iPhone assemblers Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp. and Wistron Corp., MacBook maker Quanta Computer Inc., iPad maker Compal Electronics Inc. and AirPod makers Inventec Corp., Luxshare-ICT and GoerTek Inc., Nikkei cited them as saying.China is a crucial cog in Apple’s business, the origin of most of its iPhones and iPads as well as its largest international market. But President Donald Trump has threatened Beijing with new tariffs on about $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, an act that would escalate tensions while levying a punitive tax on Apple’s most profitable product. Company spokeswoman Wei Gu didn’t respond to a request for comment.Two major Apple suppliers pushed back against the Nikkei report. The U.S. company has not asked for cost estimates for shifting production out of the world’s No. 2 economy, although suppliers are running the numbers on their own given the trade dispute, said one person familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. Another supplier said it too had not gotten such a request from Apple and that the Cupertino, California-based company had resisted a proposed production shift to Southeast Asia.Apple does have a backup plan if the U.S.-China trade war gets out of hand: Primary manufacturing partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. has said it has enough capacity to make all U.S.-bound iPhones outside of China if necessary, Bloomberg News reported last week.The Taiwanese contract manufacturer now makes most of the smartphones in the Chinese mainland and is the country’s largest private employer. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn, has said Apple has not given instructions to move production but it is capable of moving lines elsewhere according to customers’ needs.Apple hasn’t set a deadline for the suppliers to finalize their business proposals, but is working together with them to consider alternative locations, the Nikkei said. Any move would be a long-term process, it cited its sources as saying.Beyond Apple’s partners, the army of Taiwanese companies that make most of the world’s electronics are reconsidering a reliance on the world’s second-largest economy as Washington-Beijing tensions simmer and massive tariffs threaten to wipe out their margins. That in turn is threatening a well-oiled, decades-old supply chain.Taiwan’s largest corporations form a crucial link in the global tech industry, assembling devices from sprawling Chinese production bases that the likes of HP Inc. and Dell then slap their labels on. That may start to change if tariffs escalate, an outcome now in the balance as Washington and Beijing spar over a trade deal.Apple is an outsized figure in that negotiation. The high-end iPhone, which accounted for more than 60% of the company’s 2018 revenue, drives millions of jobs across China as well as a plethora of different industries from retail to electronics. The country is also a major consumer market in its own right, yielding nearly 20% of last year’s revenue -- weakness there pushed Apple to cut its sales forecast in January.“Twenty-five percent of our production capacity is outside of China and we can help Apple respond to its needs in the U.S. market,” Hon Hai board nominee and semiconductor division chief Young Liu told an investor briefing in Taipei last week. “We have enough capacity to meet Apple’s demand.”(Updates with a source’s comments from the second parapraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. has asked its largest suppliers to consider the costs of shifting 15% to 30% of its output from China to Southeast Asia in a dramatic shake-up of its production chain, the Nikkei reported.The U.S. tech giant asked “major suppliers” to evaluate the feasibility of such a migration, the newspaper cited multiple sources as saying. Those included iPhone assemblers Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp. and Wistron Corp., MacBook maker Quanta Computer Inc., iPad maker Compal Electronics Inc. and AirPod makers Inventec Corp., Luxshare-ICT and GoerTek Inc., Nikkei cited them as saying.China is a crucial cog in Apple’s business, the origin of most of its iPhones and iPads as well as its largest international market. But President Donald Trump has threatened Beijing with new tariffs on about $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, an act that would escalate tensions while levying a punitive tax on Apple’s most profitable product. Company spokeswoman Wei Gu didn’t respond to a request for comment.Two major Apple suppliers pushed back against the Nikkei report. The U.S. company has not asked for cost estimates for shifting production out of the world’s No. 2 economy, although suppliers are running the numbers on their own given the trade dispute, said one person familiar with the matter, asking not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. Another supplier said it too had not gotten such a request from Apple and that the Cupertino, California-based company had resisted a proposed production shift to Southeast Asia.Apple does have a backup plan if the U.S.-China trade war gets out of hand: Primary manufacturing partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. has said it has enough capacity to make all U.S.-bound iPhones outside of China if necessary, Bloomberg News reported last week.The Taiwanese contract manufacturer now makes most of the smartphones in the Chinese mainland and is the country’s largest private employer. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn, has said Apple has not given instructions to move production but it is capable of moving lines elsewhere according to customers’ needs.Apple hasn’t set a deadline for the suppliers to finalize their business proposals, but is working together with them to consider alternative locations, the Nikkei said. Any move would be a long-term process, it cited its sources as saying.Beyond Apple’s partners, the army of Taiwanese companies that make most of the world’s electronics are reconsidering a reliance on the world’s second-largest economy as Washington-Beijing tensions simmer and massive tariffs threaten to wipe out their margins. That in turn is threatening a well-oiled, decades-old supply chain.Taiwan’s largest corporations form a crucial link in the global tech industry, assembling devices from sprawling Chinese production bases that the likes of HP Inc. and Dell then slap their labels on. That may start to change if tariffs escalate, an outcome now in the balance as Washington and Beijing spar over a trade deal.Apple is an outsized figure in that negotiation. The high-end iPhone, which accounted for more than 60% of the company’s 2018 revenue, drives millions of jobs across China as well as a plethora of different industries from retail to electronics. The country is also a major consumer market in its own right, yielding nearly 20% of last year’s revenue -- weakness there pushed Apple to cut its sales forecast in January.“Twenty-five percent of our production capacity is outside of China and we can help Apple respond to its needs in the U.S. market,” Hon Hai board nominee and semiconductor division chief Young Liu told an investor briefing in Taipei last week. “We have enough capacity to meet Apple’s demand.”(Updates with a source’s comments from the second parapraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin ChanFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Could RATIONAL Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:RAA) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are...

Could RATIONAL Aktiengesellschaft (ETR:RAA) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are...

A look at the shareholders of Inmobiliaria Park Rose Iberoamericana SOCIMI, S.A. (BME:YPARK) can tell us which group...

A look at the shareholders of Inmobiliaria Park Rose Iberoamericana SOCIMI, S.A. (BME:YPARK) can tell us which group...

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s best-performing precious-metals stock is up almost 90% this year, and there are signs the rally could run even further.Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. has outpaced 87 global peers with a market value of at least $1 billion in 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The South African miner has benefited from surging palladium and rhodium prices, along with any weakness in the local currency, which bolsters its income from sales of dollar-based metals.“The rally in palladium has been a big contributor,” coupled with a weaker rand, said Henre Herselman, a derivatives trader at Johannesburg-based Anchor Private Clients. Palladium, up 60% since August, makes a 30% contribution to Impala’s earnings, he said. The rand has dropped 5.4% against the dollar in 12 months.“Impala’s profit margins were very thin compared to those of most other producers, so they were much more sensitive to the recovery in the platinum-group metals basket price,’’ said Izak van Niekerk, a money manager at Mergence Investment Managers in Cape Town. “Due to this sensitivity, the upward move in rhodium and palladium prices has benefited Impala’s share price more than higher-margin producers.”Even after this year’s rally, at least one technical indicator suggests Impala Platinum may have further to climb. The stock’s 50-day moving average is about to break above the 200-day measure, a potentially bullish signal.Valuation measures also show scope for more gains: Impala trades at 8.8 times its estimated 12-month earnings, compared with 11 times for an index of South African platinum producers and more than 10 times for Johannesburg’s mining stocks gauge.Palladium may edge higher too. Morgan Stanley strategists see prices averaging $1,575 an ounce in the second half of 2019, compared with $1,494 an ounce on Wednesday, according to a June 12 note. Morgan Stanley sees rhodium at $3,050, down from $3,390 an ounce.Impala does face headwinds. The biggest union in South Africa’s platinum industry has demanded wage increases of as much as 48% from the company and fellow producers such as Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Sibanye Gold Ltd., which could drive up costs at the mines they operate in the country’s “platinum belt” concentrated around Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg.And there are signs that the gains in the miner known as Implats may be excessive. Its 14-day relative strength index has climbed above 70, a level that suggests to some technical analysts that the rally may be overdone for now. Impala was 1.9% lower at 68.02 rand as of 11:41 a.m. in Johannesburg on Wednesday.Analysts’ projections of where Impala’s shares are heading differ widely, data compiled by Bloomberg show. There are six buys, two holds and two sell recommendations on the world’s second-largest platinum producer, with target prices ranging from as low as 18.50 rand at JPMorgan to 141 rand at Noah Capital Markets Ltd. “Implats has a little further to rally, but most of the running has been done,’’ said Rene Hochreiter, an analyst at Noah Capital, who has a buy recommendation on the stock. “My concern is that costs remain stubbornly high at Impala Rustenburg and any deterioration of the efficiency of that operation will negatively impact the overall Implats performance, as Impala Rustenburg affects Implats’s bottom line the most of all.”(Updates prices throughout.)\--With assistance from Dana El Baltaji and Elena Mazneva.To contact the reporter on this story: Adelaide Changole in Nairobi at achangole2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Blaise Robinson at brobinson58@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen, Paul JarvisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s best-performing precious-metals stock is up almost 90% this year, and there are signs the rally could run even further.Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. has outpaced 87 global peers with a market value of at least $1 billion in 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The South African miner has benefited from surging palladium and rhodium prices, along with any weakness in the local currency, which bolsters its income from sales of dollar-based metals.“The rally in palladium has been a big contributor,” coupled with a weaker rand, said Henre Herselman, a derivatives trader at Johannesburg-based Anchor Private Clients. Palladium, up 60% since August, makes a 30% contribution to Impala’s earnings, he said. The rand has dropped 5.4% against the dollar in 12 months.“Impala’s profit margins were very thin compared to those of most other producers, so they were much more sensitive to the recovery in the platinum-group metals basket price,’’ said Izak van Niekerk, a money manager at Mergence Investment Managers in Cape Town. “Due to this sensitivity, the upward move in rhodium and palladium prices has benefited Impala’s share price more than higher-margin producers.”Even after this year’s rally, at least one technical indicator suggests Impala Platinum may have further to climb. The stock’s 50-day moving average is about to break above the 200-day measure, a potentially bullish signal.Valuation measures also show scope for more gains: Impala trades at 8.8 times its estimated 12-month earnings, compared with 11 times for an index of South African platinum producers and more than 10 times for Johannesburg’s mining stocks gauge.Palladium may edge higher too. Morgan Stanley strategists see prices averaging $1,575 an ounce in the second half of 2019, compared with $1,494 an ounce on Wednesday, according to a June 12 note. Morgan Stanley sees rhodium at $3,050, down from $3,390 an ounce.Impala does face headwinds. The biggest union in South Africa’s platinum industry has demanded wage increases of as much as 48% from the company and fellow producers such as Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Sibanye Gold Ltd., which could drive up costs at the mines they operate in the country’s “platinum belt” concentrated around Rustenburg, northwest of Johannesburg.And there are signs that the gains in the miner known as Implats may be excessive. Its 14-day relative strength index has climbed above 70, a level that suggests to some technical analysts that the rally may be overdone for now. Impala was 1.9% lower at 68.02 rand as of 11:41 a.m. in Johannesburg on Wednesday.Analysts’ projections of where Impala’s shares are heading differ widely, data compiled by Bloomberg show. There are six buys, two holds and two sell recommendations on the world’s second-largest platinum producer, with target prices ranging from as low as 18.50 rand at JPMorgan to 141 rand at Noah Capital Markets Ltd. “Implats has a little further to rally, but most of the running has been done,’’ said Rene Hochreiter, an analyst at Noah Capital, who has a buy recommendation on the stock. “My concern is that costs remain stubbornly high at Impala Rustenburg and any deterioration of the efficiency of that operation will negatively impact the overall Implats performance, as Impala Rustenburg affects Implats’s bottom line the most of all.”(Updates prices throughout.)\--With assistance from Dana El Baltaji and Elena Mazneva.To contact the reporter on this story: Adelaide Changole in Nairobi at achangole2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Blaise Robinson at brobinson58@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen, Paul JarvisFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market...

In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market...

China's global Belt and Road Initiative could boost economies and reduce poverty rates in dozens of developing countries, but risks environmental damage, debt and corruption if improvements aren't made, the World Bank said Wednesday. President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy aims to reinvent the ancient Silk Road to connect Asia to Europe and Africa through massive investments in maritime, road and rail projects -- with hundreds of billions of dollars in financing from Chinese banks. Critics, however, say the six-year-old BRI is a plan to boost Beijing's global influence, riddled with opaque deals favouring Chinese companies, and will saddle nations with debt and environmental damage.

China's global Belt and Road Initiative could boost economies and reduce poverty rates in dozens of developing countries, but risks environmental damage, debt and corruption if improvements aren't made, the World Bank said Wednesday. President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy aims to reinvent the ancient Silk Road to connect Asia to Europe and Africa through massive investments in maritime, road and rail projects -- with hundreds of billions of dollars in financing from Chinese banks. Critics, however, say the six-year-old BRI is a plan to boost Beijing's global influence, riddled with opaque deals favouring Chinese companies, and will saddle nations with debt and environmental damage.

Is cash on borrowed time? The outages at Target stores remind us that nothing beats cash when technology fails.

Is cash on borrowed time? The outages at Target stores remind us that nothing beats cash when technology fails.

(Bloomberg) -- Cheaper air travel and car prices pulled down U.K. inflation to the Bank of England’s target level last month.While the slowdown to 2% from 2.1% partly reflects the unwinding of Easter timing effects, economists see the downward trend continuing. Core inflation also slowed -- to the weakest in more than two years -- and factory output-price growth weakened.The figures come a day before the BOE’s latest policy decision. As many central banks around the world shift into a more dovish mode, U.K. officials have been trying to push in the other direction, repeating a message that interest rates may have to rise more than the market currently anticipates if there’s a smooth Brexit.Investors haven’t taken much heed given the continuing uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the European Union. Certainly in the short term, the latest inflation figures give policy makers breathing space to wait and keep interest rates on hold.The BOE expects inflation to fall back below target this year. In May, it forecast that price growth would average 2.1% this quarter, easing to about 1.6% by late 2019.What Bloomberg’s Economists Say...“Looking beyond today’s release, inflation looks set to stay below the BOE’s 2% target until the end of the year. Domestic cost pressures are building, but are still short of the levels needed to return inflation to target sustainably.”\--Dan HansonClick here to read the REACTOther figures Wednesday showed pipeline pressures remained subdued, with producer input prices rising just 1.3% from a year earlier, the weakest reading in three years. Cheaper oil drove the slowdown. Output prices gained 1.8%, also the least since 2016.In the consumer-prices report, air fares, which surged in an Easter-related boost in April, fell 5.2% in May compared with a 10% increase a year earlier. Vehicle prices declined 0.3%, and there was also downward pressure from the cost of auto fuel, which rose less than it did in 2018.Upward pressures came from rising prices for games, toys, hobbies, furniture and accommodation.Inflation in the services sector, seen as a proxy for domestically generated inflation, slowed to 2.6% in May from 2.9% in April, while goods-price inflation edged up to 1.5%.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) -- Cheaper air travel and car prices pulled down U.K. inflation to the Bank of England’s target level last month.While the slowdown to 2% from 2.1% partly reflects the unwinding of Easter timing effects, economists see the downward trend continuing. Core inflation also slowed -- to the weakest in more than two years -- and factory output-price growth weakened.The figures come a day before the BOE’s latest policy decision. As many central banks around the world shift into a more dovish mode, U.K. officials have been trying to push in the other direction, repeating a message that interest rates may have to rise more than the market currently anticipates if there’s a smooth Brexit.Investors haven’t taken much heed given the continuing uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the European Union. Certainly in the short term, the latest inflation figures give policy makers breathing space to wait and keep interest rates on hold.The BOE expects inflation to fall back below target this year. In May, it forecast that price growth would average 2.1% this quarter, easing to about 1.6% by late 2019.What Bloomberg’s Economists Say...“Looking beyond today’s release, inflation looks set to stay below the BOE’s 2% target until the end of the year. Domestic cost pressures are building, but are still short of the levels needed to return inflation to target sustainably.”\--Dan HansonClick here to read the REACTOther figures Wednesday showed pipeline pressures remained subdued, with producer input prices rising just 1.3% from a year earlier, the weakest reading in three years. Cheaper oil drove the slowdown. Output prices gained 1.8%, also the least since 2016.In the consumer-prices report, air fares, which surged in an Easter-related boost in April, fell 5.2% in May compared with a 10% increase a year earlier. Vehicle prices declined 0.3%, and there was also downward pressure from the cost of auto fuel, which rose less than it did in 2018.Upward pressures came from rising prices for games, toys, hobbies, furniture and accommodation.Inflation in the services sector, seen as a proxy for domestically generated inflation, slowed to 2.6% in May from 2.9% in April, while goods-price inflation edged up to 1.5%.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.