Senate GOP Faces Stimulus Dilemma as Democrats Side With Trump The Senate would likely need unanimous consent to be able to vote on both a defense bill veto override and the $2,000 checks legislation before this session of Congress expires on Sunday. Getting that agreement is unlikely.
(…) A vote against the increased payments would put Senate Republicans at odds with the leader of their party and on record against a politically popular idea, in a week that Republicans are trying to remain unified ahead of Georgia runoffs. (…)
Bearish Dollar Bets Near Decade High as 2020 Draws to an End The gauge of the U.S. currency has fallen over 6% this year.
Global banks generate record $125bn fee haul in 2020 Capital markets businesses boosted by frenzy of share and debt sales during pandemic
Investors Double Down on Stocks, Pushing Margin Debt to Record Some investors, tempted to chase bigger gains, are borrowing against their investment portfolios, pushing margin balances to the first record in more than two years.
How Tariffs Deepened the D.C. Swamp
(…) As Mr. Trump’s tariffs began to bite, Congress sent hundreds of letters to the USTR, supporting specific tariff exclusions. The examples here are taken from about 100 pages of correspondence from 2019, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. (…)
Sen. Lindsey Graham sent many letters. “China’s behavior has unjustifiably burdened and restricted U.S. commerce and I am encouraged by President Trump’s attention to this important issue,” he wrote. Yet tariffs “could put South Carolina companies at a competitive disadvantage.”
On TV, Mr. Graham said things like: “We’ve just got to accept the pain that comes with standing up to China.” In private correspondence, he urged “careful consideration” of exclusions on everything from Electrolux condenser coils to Z-Man fishing tackle.
Other letters illustrate the insanity of letting the feds micromanage trade. (…) “The sweet potato juice concentrate sourced by Campbell is from a raw sweet potato variety whose flesh is yellow or white, but never orange,” he wrote. Suppliers outside China “cannot meet clarity specifications.” (…)
Some of these exclusions were granted, and many weren’t. It’s difficult to know if lobbying by Congress made a difference, since the Trump Administration’s approval process is a black box.
(…) the tariffs aren’t cost-free. One substantial downside is more political interference in the economy. (…)
Meanwhile, as KKR shows:
China Tells Ant Group to Refocus on Its Payments Business Chinese financial regulators moved to rein in Ant Group, the financial-technology giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, telling it to switch its focus back to its mainstay payments business and rectify problems in faster-growing areas.
Chinese financial regulators moved to rein in Ant Group Co., the financial-technology giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, telling it to switch its focus back to its mainstay payments business and rectify problems in faster-growing areas such as personal lending, insurance and wealth management.
China’s central bank on Sunday criticized Ant for its behavior toward competitors and consumers, and what regulators said was problematic corporate governance. It said the company “despised” complying with regulations and engaged in regulatory arbitrage, without providing specifics. (…)
Ant said it appreciated the guidance and would comply with the regulatory requirements. The company said it would develop a timetable and a plan of action. (…)
Chinese authorities have previously reined in other large companies after they expanded aggressively abroad or into businesses that weren’t close to their core activities, and took on what regulators regarded as excessive risk. (…)
Through Alipay, Ant has also originated short-term loans to consumers and small businesses that have been ignored by traditional banks. Its personal-lending business, in particular, has grown rapidly in recent years and become the company’s biggest revenue driver.
Regulators have found this business problematic because most of the loans Ant facilitates are funded by commercial banks—including many small lenders and trust companies—that bear nearly all the risk of borrower defaults. Ant, on the other hand, was collecting fees while assuming little risk. In the first half of this year, Ant’s digital-lending business accounted for 39% of the company’s 72.5 billion yuan, equivalent to $11.1 billion, in revenues, according to its IPO prospectus. (…)
As a company with “significant influence” in these areas, Ant needs to consciously abide by national laws and regulations and integrate its corporate development with national goals, the statement added. (…)
“It looks like the authorities mainly want Ant to dial back its business focus back to payment, and put a check on other financial services like online lending,” Ms. Zhang said. (…)
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Alibaba Shares Tumble After Chinese Regulators Tighten Screws on Ant Alibaba has erased almost all its stock-market gains this year, just days after Chinese regulators signaled a major change in their posture toward the e-commerce behemoth and its finance affiliate, Ant Group.
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A Warning for Other China Tech Giants
(…) Many of the problems highlighted by regulators were well-known. Alibaba’s rivals, for example, have long complained about the company’s practice of forcing merchants to sell exclusively on its platforms, though Beijing hasn’t taken much concrete action to tackle this until now. The government last month issued draft rules against monopolistic practices on digital platforms. (…)
Tighter regulations could be good news if Beijing is going to lay out clear boundaries and rules, helping create a level playing field. But if it means more arbitrary regulatory actions related to political rather than market missteps, that could be a nightmare for Chinese technology giants—and their investors.
China Jails Citizen Journalist for Her Accounts of Covid-19 in Wuhan Zhang Zhan documented how Covid-19 ravaged the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected, in a case that underscores the lengths to which Beijing has defended its official narrative of the pandemic.
Pushback on Xi’s Vision for China Spreads Beyond U.S. Countries that once avoided upsetting Beijing are moving closer to Washington’s harder stance
(…) “What happened during the last year…is a massive disruption or reduction in support in Europe, and elsewhere in the world, about China,” the EU’s ambassador in Beijing, Nicolas Chapuis, said at a Beijing energy forum earlier this month. “And I’m telling that to all my Chinese friends, you need to seriously look at it.”
A Pew Research Center survey in October found distrust in Mr. Xi reaching highs in nearly every country surveyed. (…)
An EU policy paper early last year called China not just a partner and competitor but a “systemic rival.” (…)
The article goes on citing several examples of China bullying countries that critiqued its economic and social behavior meeting increasingly tough reactions across the world.