Good Morning Britain video published May 27, 2019: Nigel Farage interviewed the morning after the Brexit Party stormed ahead in the EU elections, said the Brexit Party will not stop until the UK leaves the European Union, citing the failure to depart on March 30th as the reason many in the UK chose to vote for the party.
UPDATE: Brexit Party & EU Populists Shatter EU Status Quo With Strong Showing In EU Parliamentary Vote--zerohedge.com. See this EU election results graphic. European elections 2019 UK results: Brexit Party wins nine of first 10 regions; Liberal Democrats triumph over Labour Party in London--telegraph.co.uk
Centrist bloc to lose majority in EU vote as Greens and Euroskeptics gain, early results show--cnbc.com. The European parliamentary election is the second-largest democratic exercise in the world, with citizens across 28 nations voting for their new representatives. Over 400 million people are eligible to take part and the vote has major implications for the functioning of the EU and future national politics in each member state. The EU Parliament has a say on policies like agriculture and trade and is made of 751 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament).
European Elections: May 23-26, 2019: The Netherlands and the UK voted first, on Thursday 23 May 2019, but most of the 21 EU member states vote Sunday, May 26, and results cannot be announced before the last polling station closes at 11pm Central European Time (CET) in Italy (Sunday 6pm EDT in the US). Election Results: officials at the European Parliament expect to announce the first projection of results, based on exit polls and counted votes, as soon as 11:15pm CET (6:15pm EDT) on Sunday, May 26, 2019.
UK Voters Prepare to Punish UK Prime Minister in European Elections Over Brexit Delay--Polls show Theresa May’s Conservative Party is being deserted in favor of The Brexit Party--WSJ.com.
UK's Brexit Party maintains big lead in EU election poll--Reuters.com May 18, 2019.
Tech Review (TR 2019-05-25)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1)The Future of Facial Recognition AI Software, 2) How Amazon Is Fighting Rakuten For E-Commerce In Japan,3)Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: Chinarunning out of runway,4)ICYMI Tech News: Twitter, Amazon, Google, IBM, Red Hat, Huawei, Facebook, T-Mobile, Spacelink, and more.
1)The Future of Facial Recognition AI Software
San Francisco is the first American city to ban facial recognition software used by police and other agencies. Bloomberg QuickTake explains why the technology's advance is so alarming to regulators, the public, and even the people developing it. Bloomberg.com video above published May 16, 2019.
2) How Amazon Is Fighting Rakuten For E-Commerce In Japan
Amazon is involved in around half of all e-commerce transactions in the United States, but in Japan it faces competition from Rakuten(rakuten.com). The Japanese e-commerce giant has a loyalty program and a suite of products including its own credit card, online bank and streaming services. In recent years, Amazon’s superior logistics capabilities and focus on price have allowed the company to capture greater market share. This video shows how the two e-commerce giants are borrowing the most successful parts of each other’s models as they look to the future. CNBC.com video above published Apr 30, 2019.
Investor Notes: China running out of runway in U.S. Trade War. China is running out of options to hit back at the United States without hurting its own interests, as Washington intensifies pressure on Beijing to correct trade imbalances in a challenge to China’s state-led economic model. Even Lloyd Blankfein is now a Trade Warrior.
Trade war can seriously derail China economic development, according to Mohamed El-Erian--China could slip into a middle income trap if trade war persists, but by ending the trade war, El-Erian believes China could regain its economic momentum--scmp.com. Why an economic war with the US blows China up--zerohedge.com.
"The US is willing to take a short-term hit in the form of higher consumer prices, and welcome inflation, from Chinese imports until global supply chains re-adjust and new domestic and international lines open, knowing the long-term damage is limited. Meanwhile, the hit to China is long-term and directly on production, thus right across the economy right at the most difficult phase of economic transition. Chinese economists are talking about a 1-2% hit to GDP. I suspect much more plus increased domestic social and political tension. Xi is in more trouble than we think."--Bill Blain
Eurozone banking at risk of dangerous fragmentation, ECB warns. Euro hits 20, but will it make 30?--dw.com. French Incomes Are Below America's Poorest States... And The Protesters in France Know It.
Brexit: Watch the European election results, particularly from the UK, to be released late Sunday May 26. See also: Why Freedom From Brussels' Tyranny Is Worth A Small Loss Of British GDP, and UK Prime Minister Theresa May resigns after having failed to deliver Brexit. Conservative Party successor in place by late July, without need for a general election, is likely to be Boris Johnson who has indicated that leaving the EU without a deal ("no deal Brexit") is a possibility.
Beware M&A:
Occidental's Big Mistake: Overpaying For Resources In An Age Of Energy Abundance--seekingalpha.com.
Bayer's Acquisition Of Monsanto May Have Sown The Seeds Of Bayer's Own Destruction--seekingalpha.com.
4)ICYMI Tech News:
How Twitter Became Ubiquitous in Japan--a look at Twitter in Japan, its second-largest market, raking in $136M in Q1 revenue, where the service has mass appeal and many users have multiple accounts--bloomberg.com.
E-commerce sales in the U.S., over the past five years have doubled. On a seasonally adjusted basis, e-commerce sales in Q1 2019 hit an all-time high of $137.7 billion. "E-commerce sales" include sales by the online operations of brick-and-mortar retailers Walmart, Home Depot, BestBuy, and Macy’s, which operate the fourth through seventh largest e-commerce websites in the U.S., behind Amazon, eBay, and Apple.--wolfstreet.com.
Out of 50 of the largest companies in the U.S., the highest median employee pay in 2018 was at Texas-based oil giants not Silicon Valley tech giants.--bizjournals.com.
Google has had a huge run, and with financial and potential political challenges looming, now looks like a good time to sell $GOOG, $GOOGL--SeekingAlpha.com.
IBM and Red Hat after IBM's acquisition of Red Hat is complete later this year--zdnet.com.
By 2023, Uber Eats may own 25% of the global food delivery industry worth $191B, but both DoorDash and GrubHub make more sales, and DoorDash is growing fastest--fortune.com.
Huawei: Wi-Fi Alliance, semiconductor standards body JEDEC, and SD Association suspend Huawei's membership, which will limit Huawei's future ability to shape these standards. U.S. Tech Companies Begin to Cut Off Huawei. Experts are skeptical of Huawei's claims that it can ensure a steady components supply without U.S. tech, saying Huawei will struggle to replace chips, lasers, other parts. For example, Huawei relies on chip design software from the American global "gold standard" market leaders Cadence Design Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), and Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), used by manufacturers worldwide. Note also: Google reportedly suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware and software products except those covered by open source licenses.
China's tech transfer problem is growing, says EU business group. European firms are reportedly increasingly required to transfer technology in China in order to gain access to the Chinese market.
Facebook has apparently formed a new financial tech firm, Libra Networks LLC, according to a filing on the Geneva Commercial Register.
Google Chrome browser pushes "SameSite" cookie security overhaul--an IETF standard called SameSite (RFC6265bis)--which Google and Mozilla have promoted since 2016 and Google has announced it will start pushing more aggressively in Chrome from version 76 this July--nakedsecurity.sophos.com.
SpaceX launches first satellites for Musk's Starlink internet service (domain: starlink.com). Competitors include Airbus SE-backed OneWeb which launched satellites in February, LeoSat Enterprises (domain: leosat.com), and Canada’s Telesat (domain: telesat.com).
"... we will have eliminated about 7,000 salaried positions or about 10% of our global salaried
workforce. This includes both voluntary and involuntary separations over the past year. Within that
total, and consistent with our goal to reduce bureaucracy, we will have reduced management structure
by close to 20%. This will result in annual savings of about $600 million ..."
Personal tech:
10 best cheap phones: for summer travel, leave your $1,000 iPhone or Galaxy at home. Editor's note: my 'short list'--LG K30 – 16 GB – Unlocked (AT&T/T-Mobile/Verizon) ($139.99) orUnihertz Jelly Pro The Smallest 4G Smartphone in The World, Android 7.0 Nougat Unlocked Smart Phone with 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM ($124.99). Almost everyone could use a second "backup phone" / "emergency phone" / "vacation phone" anyway.
Personal security: hacker steals $1 million using just a phone number--bitcoinist.com.
Tech Review (TR 2019-05-18)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Feature • 1)What the Uber IPO Says About Investors State of Mind, 2)Investing: The Week& Investor Notes: Macroview | EU Elections,3)ICYMI Tech News: Apple & Antitrust, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, China, and more. 1)What the Uber IPO Says About Investors State of Mind
Financial Times (ft.com) U.S. managing editor Peter Spiegel and markets reporter Nicole Bullock discuss why Uber's stock traded below the $45 IPO price at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, May 10, 2019. Video above published May 11, 2019.
Morgan Stanley ClientsSaddled With Massive Losses After Disastrous Uber IPO.
Uber’s Future Looks Troubling: "Uber’s current $70 billion valuation seems difficult to justify. To reach profitability, both Uber and Lyft probably will be forced either to raise prices or to increase the cut they take from their drivers ... its core riding hailing business is faltering. Having faced a number of setbacks, Uber also is lagging in the longer term race to develop autonomous technology ..."
Uber’s "adjusted net revenue has started to decline.This points to a fundamental challenge with Uber’s business model that it has not yet figured out: How to keep prices low enough to attract riders while paying drivers enough to keep them from defecting — and still make a profit. Competition from Lyft, which is willing to suffer similar losses, makes this particularly hard."--cnbc.com.
U.S. stocks bounced back from deep losses Friday but still closed lower as trade-related jittersovershadowedstrong economic data--MarketWatch.com.
U.S. consumer sentimentrose to a 15-year high of 102.4 in May, well above the 97.1 expected by economists polled by MarketWatch.com and April’s reading of 97.2, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index.
The Conference Board’s estimate of leading economic indicators for the U.S. (pdf) rose for the third straight month in April to 112.1, up 0.2% from March. The survey of economic conditions is a collection of forward-looking data that attempts to predict future economic growth.
"We think that China represents 15% of global GDP, yet less than 1% of all cross-border currency settlement is in their currency. It's important for us to realize that the joke is on us--ifthey were to open their capital accountand let Chinese invest abroad--their [China's] currency would depreciate 40% in a day. I think we're making the right moves here in taking a little bit of market pain to maintain our national security in the long run. Just so you can hear from me, I don't have a vested interest in China's currency any more. It's such an important moment in time for US national security that most of my interest has been moving toward the political sphere. If you can get over the fact that there's no rule of law there, and they don't respect human rights ... then maybe you should invest money in China."--Kyle Bass
Shocked Traders Respond To Trade War--"The biggest problem is the huge disconnect with what markets have been hoping for and what is transpiring now. Markets had priced the best-case scenario and odds are shifting towards the worst-case scenario."--zerohedge.com May 13, 2019
Long View
Investor Notes: Macroview | EU Elections (May 23-26): Brexit Party Surges: after parting ways with the increasingly irrelevant UK Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage co-founded the Brexit Party [domain:thebrexitparty.org], which is now polling above the Labour and Conservative parties put together ahead of the European Parliamentary elections May 23rd:
Editor's note: the Brexit Party also has Annunziata Rees-Mogg (twitter: @zatzi). Watch her in this YouTube video. She is the sister of well-known Conservative Party Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg. For the Conservative Party, the problem is Theresa May: "For the Conservatives to go into a General Election without having delivered Brexit and with Theresa May as leader would be electoral suicide."
Apple and tech-industry allies said before the ruling that a decision allowing the lawsuit could lead to expensive antitrust claims against other companies that run online marketplaces, potentially affecting Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc. See also: Apple Releases iOS 12.3 With New TV App and Channels Feature--macrumors.com. Will Amazon Put UPS Out Of Business?--zerohedge.com. See alsoAmazon Butts in on Google-Facebook “Duopoly” in the Huge Business of Internet Advertising. Publishers Hung Out to Dy--wolfstreet.com.
Microsoft or Google?$MSFT"has a bigger share in my portfolio ... because of its dividends, growth in cloud, improving margins, visionary leadership, and the improving FCFs"--seekingalpha.com.
Oracle is shutting down its R&D arm in China, laying off 900+ employees--zdnet.com. Online markets have grown 10X in the last two decades, more $1B-$10B+ software startups will exist, and startups can grow faster than ever--blog.eladgil.com.
Quicktakes:
Italy's watchdog investigates Google for alleged antitrust abuse;
Tech Review (TR 2019-04-13)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Why The Tech Giants Have Many CEOs Running Scared, 2) SpaceX ARABSAT-6A Falcon Heavy Launch and Triple Landing Highlights,3)Investing:The Week & Investor Notes,4)ICYMI Tech News: Amazon, Huawei, Qualcomm, SAP, Grab, Lyft & Uber IPOs, Boeing, Disney.
1)Why The Tech Giants Have Many CEOs Running Scared
Why are chief executive officers so worried about tech giants investing in their sectors? James Fontanella-Khan, the FT’s US corporate finance and deals expert, explains how legacy companies are trying to fight the disruptors and stay relevant by making risky acquisitions. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Apr 5, 2019. Learn more at https://bigdeal.ft.com/.
2) SpaceX ARABSAT-6A Falcon Heavy Launch and Triple Landing Highlights
Highlights from the 11 April 2019 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.
Investor Notes: • Survey: which US sector will outperform for the remainder of the year? "Tech" #1
We have the results of last week's DataTrek Market Outlook Survey! Tech was the #1 choice among respondents when asked "which US sector will outperform the most over the remainder of the year?" Read the rest of the results & our analysis here: https://t.co/CjRYMvEmuE$SPY$XLKpic.twitter.com/YD0VgaaamU
• US: Initial Jobless Claims Plunge To Lowest In 50 Years--zerohedge.com.Inflation?Less than 2%.Fed Funds Rate?Less than 3%. Hedge funds have 'once againmissedmuch of the recent move in stocks'--zerohedge.com.
• EU: IMF sharply downgrades its outlook for euro-area economies--bloomberg.com. SocGen Slashing 1,600 Trading Jobs After 19% Loss--750 jobs in France will go as part of cuts--bloomberg.com. The French bank's share price has declined 40 percent in the last 12 months, compared with a 17 percent drop in the Euro STOXX Banks Index. Europe, The Big Short--seekingalpha.com.
• Brexit: the UK economy has been drifting away from Europe for years: one of five reasons why--"... the EU is stagnating ..."--telegraph.co.uk.Nonetheless, UK's political class apparently can't let go.
• Real Estate? A Simon Property Group Mall Generates Largest Loss Ever for Retail CMBS How the Brick & Mortar Meltdown works for Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities after America’s largest mall landlord defaults on a mortgage and walks away from the mall--wolfstreet.com. See also US housing market deteriorates, shift to a buyer's market accelerates, U.S. markets will have the highest percentage of homes that sell at discount versus the list price in many years----2Q19 National Knock Deals Report. • Asset prices in the modern era: In Barron’s this past weekend, J.P Morgan chief U.S. equity strategist Dubravko Lakos-Bujas:
We are all used to using the word “cycle”; we’re all used to looking at historical charts and graphs and equations and relationships. The reality is that maybe the word “cycle” is no longer even relevant, given that we have so much unconventional central-bank involvement.
Huawei: "How did a private Chinese firm come to dominate the world’s most important emerging technology?--One theme is clear: Throughout its history, Huawei appears to have benefited from state support not available to the company’s Western rivals ... European investigators have found evidence that Huawei may have received a massive $30 billion line of credit from the China Development Bank, among other well-timed financing ..."--foreignpolicy.com. [Editor's note: all Chinese companies are SOEs to one degree or another.] Qualcomm aims to take on Nvidia, Intel with new AI chips.
SAP cloud business head quitsafter 27 years in latest top departures--under a restructuring announced in January about 4400 positions will be eliminated. SAP rival Oracle has also announced some layoffs with some of its top talent going to Google.
Grab (domain: grab.com) seeks another $2 billion funding. The Southeast Asian startup, based in Singapore, is backed by Japan's SoftBank.
Boeing 737Max: another chapter in the book titled Normalization of Deviance? Disney announced Thursday its new family-friendly streaming service will cost $7 monthly or $70 annually. Personal Tech:
Investigation shows how easy and affordable obtaining cellphone customers' real-time location data can be, as T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T peddle it to middlemen.
The Robocall Crisis Will Never Be Totally Fixed--"Always hang up immediately if you answer a call that you don't recognize"--wired.com.
2019 Dec 12 UK General Election Results: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party wins a large majoritywith 365 seats to Labour's 203, SNP 48, LibDem 11, DUP 8, Others 15.
During a General Election, UK voters in each local constituency select one MP (Minister of Parliament) to represent the local constituency in the UK House of Commons. The UK uses a first past the post voting system. This means that the MP that receives the most votes (plurality) will win the constituency's seat in parliament. The overall number of votes a party receives across the country is irrelevant, each MP is elected by local constituency. However, the 'winning party' must gain a majority number of seats in an election or be forced to form a coalition with another party in order to form a government. Although there are a total of 650 seats in the House of Commons, the number of seats a party needs to claim an effective majority in the House of Commons may only be 320 seats.
SavantaComRes survey Nov. 13 and 14: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party 41% (up 1%), Labour 33%, pro-European Union Liberal Democrats 14%, and the Brexit Party 5%.
Nov 5:, 2019: The U.S. has pushed past Germany and France as the most common trading partner for businesses in the UK, and looks set to keep this position after the UK leaves the European Union, according to an annual survey by HSBC.
Thanks goodness for Macron. Finally a bit of leadership on the EU side that recognises the danger of Tusk’s approach, which risks trashing UK EU relationship for years .... https://t.co/9WKEvhVsSD
Oct 23: France to the Rescue? Macron [or someone else] may veto EU extension (Editor's note: that would be in the best interests of the EU, France, and the UK). France does not want the UK blocking its agenda in the European Parliament. France gains seats in the European Parliament if the UK leaves, but Germany does not. For many reasons it makes sense for French President Emmanuel Macron to help Boris Johnson.
"As one Brexiteer explained to me: We joined a simple trade agreement with open borders to the world, but that mission-crept into a closed economy heading towards an unlikely political union bound together in common currency that shackles most countries to perpetual penury, in a system designed and promoted by the French to pursue their 400 year historical goal of European hegemony."--Bill Blain.
PM's spokesman reveals @BorisJohnson rang Angela Merkel today. Call lasted just 10 mins. Re Brexit extension he simply told her "his long held view is we shouldn't delay, we should leave on October 31".
Oct 22: House of Commons defeats "Programme motion" which in effect makes it impossible for Parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords) to pass the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill (pdf) beforeOctober 31, 2019, The "EU Bill" is "in limbo" now, subject to review by a House of Commons committee. Editor's note: it is now clear that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is holding the House of Commons accountable for its 'games' to delay and deny his 'Brexit deal.' See alsoPound, Stocks Slide As Plan For Whirlwind Brexit-Deal Votes Defeated - The final total: 308-322 (Oct 22, 2019).
Exasperating that the @HouseofCommons has rejected the Programme motion for @BorisJohnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill after it passed Second Reading. The sooner this Parliament can be replaced in a General Election, the better.
📺 | @BorisJohnson responds to yet another pathetic delay tactic from this incompetent, rotten Parliament: "I will not negotiate a delay with the EU and neither does the law compel me to do so! Further delay will be bad for this country and bad for democracy!" pic.twitter.com/lk6AhI7VMi
Nearly 300 business leaders write in a letter to The Telegraph “with one simple message for the Prime Minister on Brexit: no more delay” https://t.co/xAQbXgODYW
UPDATE 15 Oct 2019: UK and EU reportedly"closing in" on a 'Brexit deal' as negotiating teams work on legal text. See alsoAn Alternative Perspective on the Enigmatic Brexit Process by Steven Guinness:The Brexit Party "stand to be the main beneficiaries of another Article 50 extension." UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday (Oct 6, 2019) that the UK could do a deal if the EU was willing.“But they should be under no illusions or misapprehensions,” he said, adding, “There will be no more dither or delay, on Oct. 31 we are going to get Brexit done.” Johnson’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, said on Monday (Sep 30, 2019) that Brexit would definitely take place on Oct. 31. When asked how Britain’s EU exit could take place, given that there is a law which orders the prime minister to seek a delay to Brexit if parliament has not approved a deal, Cummings said: “Well, we shall just have to see won’t we.” UK finance ministerSajid Javid has also said the UK will leave the EU on Oct. 31. Also: Brexit Irony: EU Rejects Its Own Proposal (Boris Johnson Proposed a Northern Ireland solution the EU originally proposed); "Get ready for Brexit. The UK will leave the EU on 31 October 2019. Answer a few questions to find out how you or your business should prepare ..."--gov.uk/brexit
Oct 2, 2019: World Trade Organization (WTO) gave the U.S. approval to impose $7.5 billion in tariffs on E.U. goods to compensate for illegal EU subsidies to Airbus. In addition to the 10% tariffs on aircraft, EU goods affected by 25% tariffs whichgo into effect October 18, 2019 (pdf), include cheese and dairy products, French wines, Scotch whisky, Irish whisky, and wool clothing from the UK. "For years, Europe has been providing massive subsidies to Airbus that have seriously injured the U.S. aerospace industry and our workers," said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a statement Wednesday. Editor's note: the tariffs on UK goods, including Scotch whisky, will likely be dropped after the UK leaves the EU on October 31, 2019, when a new trade deal is negotiated between the UK and U.S.
City of London, World Financial Centre: In a brief statement on Tuesday (Oct 8, 2019), the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) acknowledged that Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) had dropped its $40 billion purchase offer (which LSEG had already rejected). In addition, LSEG reaffirmed it “remains committed to and makes good progress” on its proposed acquisition of Refinitiv, expected to be completed next year.
Interest Rate Derivatives Trading Explodes to $6.5 Trillion per day--volume of over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate derivatives traded globally soared by 141% in three years to $6.5 trillion per day in April 2019, according to the Bank for International Settlements’ new Triennial Survey of Global Derivatives Markets. Wheremostof the trading OTC interest rate derivatives takes place?City of London (UK); $3.7 trillion per day or 56% of all global trades were executed at trading desks in the United Kingdom, a 213% increase from the $1.18 trillion of average daily turnover in April 2016. (#2 is the U.S. at $2.35 trillion per day, or 32% of the global turnover, up 9.8% from $1.24 trillion in 2016). Even after three years of regulatory tussles with its biggest trading partner, the EU, the UK has not only maintained its grip on the vast and fast growing OTC derivatives markets, it’s strengthened it, pulling away from New York and leaving Paris in the dust. “London is the capital of capital and this report shows that despite challenging times, the fundamentals of the City remain strong,” said Catherine McGuinness, policy chair at the City of London Corporation, the municipal governing body.
UK trading also dominates in global currency markets. In April 2019, its FX trading desks generated a turnover of $3.58 trillion per day, up from $2.41 trillion per day in 2016, taking its share of total global FX activity from 37% to 43%. By contrast, the US share of trading declined during the same period from 20% to 17%.
Financial analytics firm Mosaic Smart Data has doubled the number of developers and quantitative analysts it employs since 2018 at its London base, where nearly 40 now crunch numbers to help banks trade foreign exchange and bonds. “London is hard to beat ... The depth and diversity of the skill pool here is unrivalled,”said Matthew Hodgson, founder of Mosaic, one of the new fintech companies in the forex industry.
Even Dutch bank INGchose London to centralize its forex trading operations, previously scattered across various cities. ING’s global forex and rates boss Gary Prince said it was more efficient to run everything from ING's London offices.
Meanwhile, M&G Prudential is proceeding with its $1.1 billion ‘Gotham’ Project in London's financial district, consisting of 905,000 square feet (about 84,000 square meters) of office space at 40 Leadenhall Street. AndGoldman Sachs has set up a disaster recovery trading floor in a WeWork (WE) space in central London to allow the bank to continue operating in the event of a major disaster, the Financial Times reports. The space replaces an existing site on Paternoster Square near the London Stock Exchange, and is a "near-site business continuity location," where Goldman's most critical London traders could quickly relocate if an emergency affected itsnew £1.2B European headquarters at nearbyPlumtree Court.
See alsoLondon retains global finance throne amid Brexit chaosandEuro Derivatives Trading: Andrew Bailey, chief executive of Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, has said it's for the EU to act to avoid overlaps in derivatives trading: “Currently all OTC derivatives subject to the EU DTO have their main pool of liquidity on a UK venue ... Without action, EU firms may lose access to UK liquidity pools and liquidity would be fragmented, harming both markets." There are 11 trading platforms in the EU27 that market participants could use, with nearly 40 in the United States endorsed by the EU, along with five in Singapore; and Brexit prompts ESM to switch out of English bond law--Eurozone’s bailout fund to instead use Luxembourg law for its future borrowings starting October.
"Rotterdam’s port business community is busily preparing for Brexit. After all: the best-prepared port will have a preferential position within the European playing field."--Dutch Ports Brexit Handbook (pdf). Brexit impact on the Netherlands: 55% of shortsea traffic and 90% of ro-ro transhipment via Dutch ports concerns trade with the United Kingdom.--https://www.getreadyforbrexit.eu/en/
10 Aug 2019 Update-- No-Deal Brexit October 31, 2019: Still More 'Remainer' Delusions--'Whiners & Remoaners'--Still Confused? Read Eurointelligence.com: "Today we would like to debunk the myththat the UK parliament can stop the no-deal Brexit. Under EU law - the law that matters in this specific discussion - there are only two technical possibilities for the UK parliament to frustrate an October 31st Brexit. The first and the only certain route is a majority in favour of unilateral revocation of Brexit. No such majority exists. This leaves a less certain pathway: to seek a further Art. 50 extension. Since Boris Johnson refuses to do this, it would have to involve a new prime minister before October ... So, before we get to the constitutionally tricky question of what would happen in case Johnson simply refuses to go even if parliament were to huddle around an alternative, we better stop at this point and look at the numbers. They are not there. The numbers for unilateral revocation are not there either. This means that parliament cannot stop a no-deal Brexit on its own." --Or as Dominic Cummings, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's most senior adviser, recently said, "Politiciansdon't get to choose which votes they respect." Therefore, unless the European Union abandons its insistence on the thrice-rejected withdrawal agreement, a no-deal Brexitwill happenOctober 31, 2019.
Original Brexit Date: 29 March 2019, 11:00 P.M. (London), then extended to Friday, 12 April 2019. 10 Apr 2019: EU leaders agreedtoextend UK's exit date to October 31, 2019.
Tweets by StandUp4Brexit Looking back at Theresa May's dysfunctional government: Theresa May's Brexit statement (video) to the House of Commons after emergency EU summit 11 April 2019. Theresa May gave a statement to the House of Commons after being granted another Brexit extension by the European Union until 31 October 2019. See also European Council (Art. 50) Press conference at end of meeting 10 April 2019. Other news sources: DW News Livestream (Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster), and FRANCE 24 Live news from Paris, France, via YouTube.
Special European Council (Art.50), April 10, 2019, 18:00 in Brussels (12 noon EDT). Agenda highlights: EU27 leaders will meet on 10 April 2019 to discuss the latest developments on Brexit. "In view of the rejection of the withdrawal agreement by the House of Commons, I have decided to call a European Council on 10 April," confirmed President Donald Tusk on 29 March, following the vote in the UK House of Commons.
On 5 April Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, sent a letter to Donald Tusk (pdf), President of the European Council, asking for a further extension to the Article 50 period. She proposed the date of 30 June 2019, adding that the UK government would continue to prepare to hold European Parliament elections should the UK still be a member at the time of the elections.
On 21 March EU27 leaders decided to delay the Brexit date until 12 April 2019, should the withdrawal agreement be rejected.
