Baltic Dry Index. 994 -10 Brent Crude 49.73
"We decide on something, leave it lying around, and wait
and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don't
understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no
turning back."
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed
Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance
Ministers. Confessed liar. EC President.
As predicted, Mrs Merkel’s man Macron,
marched to an easy victory in the French Presidential election, pledging to
make France “an equal partner” to Germany in Europe again, and to somehow reform
France. In a sign of the times, President-elect Macron in his victory speech,
immediately promised to visit Berlin, with no mention of Brussels. With the
result widely expected, any relief rally will likely be short and shallow. President
Macron becomes the youngest leader of France since St. Joan of Arc, (or maybe
Napoleon.)
Interest in Europe will now focus on
the result of the coming UK general election on June 8th, and the
French lower house elections on June 11 and 18th. Those lower house
elections will largely determine how easy or otherwise it will be for President
Macron to bring about reform in France. Reform in France is far easier said
than done.
Decisions can only be reached in Europe if
France and Germany agree.
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed
Luxembourg Prime Minister and ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance
Ministers. Confessed liar. EC President.
Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe
Emmanuel Macron was elected French president on Sunday with a
business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen,
a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European
Union.
The centrist's emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of
France’s mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had
feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and
Donald Trump's election as U.S. president.
With virtually all votes counted, Macron had topped 66 percent against
just under 34 percent for Le Pen - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage
points that pre-election surveys had suggested.
Even so, it was a record performance for the National Front, a party
whose anti-immigrant policies once made it a pariah, and underlined the scale
of the divisions that Macron must now try to heal.
After winning the first round two weeks ago, Macron had been accused of
behaving as if he was already president; on Sunday night, with victory finally
sealed, he was much more solemn.
----Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, told Macron: "I am delighted that the ideas you defended of a strong and progressive Europe, which protects all its citizens, will be those that you will carry into your presidency".
Macron spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom he hopes to revitalize the Franco-German axis at the heart of the EU, saying he planned to visit Berlin shortly.
Trump also tweeted his congratulations on Macron's "big win", saying he looked forward to working with him.
The euro currency EUR=EBS, which had been rising for two weeks as the prospect receded that France would elect an anti-EU president, topped $1.10 in early Asian trading for the first time since the U.S. elections.
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Macron to take time reforming economy in divided France
After a decade of slow growth, rising unemployment and dwindling
competitiveness, France elected a president on Sunday who says he has a plan to
pull the country out of its economic malaise.
Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who quit the government of
Francois Hollande twice out of frustration with the slow pace of reforms, is
promising to overhaul the labor market, simplify the tax and pension systems,
while paring back regulations he says hamper innovation.
But as he gets set to enter the Elysee Palace following his defeat of
far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, the 39-year-old former economy minister
faces daunting obstacles.
He will be trying to push through his reform agenda at a time when
France is more divided than ever over how to respond to the disruptive forces
of globalization.
The election campaign showed that nearly half the country would prefer a
dirigiste approach to the economy in which the role of the French state is
expanded rather than shrunk, as Macron proposes.
In order to have a chance to implement his plans he will have to secure
parliamentary backing. That will depend on how his uproven new party, En
Marche! (Onwards!), does in legislative elections next month.
And even if he does get the majority he needs, it is likely that many of
his reforms could take months, or even years, to produce results.
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As
for equal partners with Germany, good luck with that. In the rump-EUSSR after
Brexit, paymaster Germany will be more dominant than ever. Uber alles, and all
that.
Merkel Gains Momentum in German State Vote as Challengers Slump
by Patrick Donahue
8 May 2017, 00:00 GMT+1
Angela Merkel’s party picked up momentum in a German state election,
convincingly defeating the Social Democrats who want to unseat the chancellor
in the national vote in September.
As Merkel’s preferred candidate Emmanuel Macron won France’s
presidential election, her Christian Democratic Union posted an unexpectedly
clear victory in a much smaller contest in Schleswig-Holstein. It’s a
confidence booster for the CDU ahead of elections next Sunday in North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state with 18 million people and the
main bellwether before the federal ballot.
Sunday’s vote offered further evidence of Merkel’s rebound in the polls,
which reverses an SPD surge early this year after the party named former
European Parliament president Martin Schulz to run for chancellor. With polls
in North Rhine-Westphalia showing the CDU and SPD running neck and neck,
pressure on the Social Democrats to avoid another defeat will grow. Merkel
plans to hold a news conference at about 1 p.m. in Berlin on Monday.
“This is a disaster for the SPD,” Carsten Nickel, a Brussels-based
analyst for Teneo Intelligence, said by phone. “The SPD doesn’t know
whether it wants to move toward the center or move its base on the left. Merkel
is doing very well in using this situation to her advantage.”
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Elsewhere, in Asia, is another Trump
U-turn back on the table again?
China April trade surplus with U.S. widens to $21.34 billion: customs data
China's April trade surplus with the United States widened to $21.34
billion compared with a $17.74 billion surplus in March, customs data on Monday
showed.
China's overall surplus rose to $38.05 billion in April as its imports
rose only 11.9 percent, compared to expectations for an 18.0 percent gain.
China April exports rise 8.0 percent, missing forecasts
China's April exports rose 8.0 percent from a year earlier, missing
analysts' expectations, while imports expanded 11.9 percent, official data
showed on Monday.
That left the country with a trade surplus of $38.05 billion for the
month, the General Administration of Customs said.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected April shipments from the world's
largest exporter to have risen 10.4 percent. Exports rose 16.4 percent on-year
in March.
Imports were expected to have climbed 18 percent, after rising 20.3
percent in March.
Analysts were expecting China's trade surplus to have widened to $35.50
billion in April from March's $23.93 billion.
At the Comex silver depositories Friday
final figures were: Registered 33.59 Moz, Eligible 163.48 Moz,
Total 197.07 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
No crooks today, just an early alert on an
impending EUSSR wine tragedy. Knowing
the EUSSR for what it is, a whole lot of Moroccan and Algerian wine will now miraculously
become “Bordeaux”. President Obama blames it on Brexit and Donald Trump, of
course. It’s enough to make a failed Luxembourg politician turn to a double
scotch for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
“When it becomes serious, you have to lie.”
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed former Luxembourg P.M.,
serial liar, president of the European Commission.
French Bordeaux vineyards could lose half of harvest due to frost
Bordeaux vineyards in southwest France could lose about half of their
harvest this year after two nights of frost damaged the crop at the end of
April, a wine industry official said on Saturday.
Wines from the Cognac, Bergerac, and Lot-et-Garonne regions had also
been affected, Bernard Farges, head of the Syndicat des vins Bordeaux et
Bordeaux Supérieur, told Reuters.
"For Bordeaux wines...we estimate that the impact will be a loss of
about 50 percent, depend on how many buds can regrow," he said.
Including lost earnings at wine industry subcontrators, the total damage
is estimated at one to two billion euros ($1.1- $2.2 billion), with wine
production set to fall by about 350 million bottles.
Frost damage varied widely depending on the precise area, with some
owners expected to lose only 15 to 30 percent of their grape harvest, but
others at risk of seeing their entire production wiped out.
Growers have resorted to using candles, heaters and even the
down-draught from helicopters to try to save crops.
France's
total wine output fell 10 percent last year due to adverse weather conditions.
Champagne was the worst hit, with the harvest down more than 20 percent on the
previous year due to spring frosts followed by other problems such as mildew.
“We all
know what to do, but we don’t know how to get re-elected once we have done it.”
Jean-Claude Juncker. Failed Luxembourg Prime Minister and
ex-president of the Euro Group of Finance Ministers. Confessed liar. EC
President.
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? DC? A quantum
computer next?
China increases solar power output by 80% in three months
The power-generation increase comes even as more solar plants stand idle because of congested transmission infrastructureChina electricity output from photovoltaic plants rose 80 per cent in the first quarter after the world’s biggest solar power market increased installed capacity.
Solar power generation rose to 21.4 billion kilowatt-hours in the three months ending 31 March from a year earlier, the National Energy Administration said on Thursday in a statement on its website. China added 7.21 gigawatts of solar power during the period, boosting its total installed capacity to almost 85 gigawatts, the NEA said.
The power-generation increase comes even as more solar plants stand idle because of congested transmission infrastructure. China idled about 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power in the first quarter, up from 1.9 billion kilowatt-hours a year earlier, according to the NEA data.
Central and eastern China accounted for about 89 per cent of new capacity, the NEA said.
Australian push may open more doors for batteries on power grids
Battery makers worldwide are watching to see whether Australia's most
wind power-dependent state can keep the lights on by installing grid-scale
batteries by December, which could help
drive the growth of renewable energy across Australia and Asia.
A decade-long political stalemate in Australia over energy and climate
policy has effectively led to power and gas shortages and soaring energy prices
threatening industry and households.
If batteries help solve Australia's problems by storing surplus
electricity generated by wind and solar power, countries like Indonesia, the
Philippines and Chile, could follow suit.
"I call South Australia the 'perfect storm' opportunity for energy
storage," said Ismario Gonzalez, global sales director for AES Energy
Storage, an arm of U.S. firm AES Corp, which has installed or is working on
battery projects in seven countries, including Australia.
The more dependent the grid is on intermittent sources like wind and
solar, the more flexible the back-up sources need to be. That's the appeal of
battery storage. It can be switched on and off easily, responding faster than a
gas peaking plant.
The state of South Australia, where wind and rooftop solar make up 44
percent of power sources, urgently needs to install big batteries after
suffering blackouts over the past year.
----The
state government plans to spend A$150 million ($115 million) supporting the
installation of 100 megawatt hours of battery capacity this year, which would
be the world's second-largest battery system behind one installed by AES for
California's San Diego Gas & Electric Co [SDGE.UL] in February.
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