Globetrotting NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD FOREIGN POLICY ASTRONOMY On Planet Nine
THE PLANETS FORM an exclusive club. The Greeks were aware of only five such celestial bodies, apart from Earth. It took centuries to add Uranus and Neptune to the group (Pluto is no longer considered a planet). Now, scientists at the California Institute of Technology are on to a true ninth planet, reports SciTechDaily. The scientists have not seen the “new”
object, but have been able to infer its existence through its gravitational effects on objects in the Kuiper Belt. “Planet Nine” would need 10,000 to 20,000 years to make a full orbit around the sun. — YB
China’s new silk road
AFTER HAVING PUT ITS ECONOMIC STAMP ON AFRICA, China now seems determined to achieve even bigger aims in the Middle East, according to
France24.com. Through a series of personal meetings with the heads of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, Chinese president Xi Jinping has been slowly sowing the seeds of a plan that goes far beyond pure economics. The aim is to become an essential player in the energy, trade and geopolitical spheres and to create an economic space that extends to Africa via India and the Middle East. In fact, according to Jean-Joseph Boillot, researcher at the Centre d’Études Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales in Paris, the Middle East “has become as strategic for China as it was for the US in the 1980s.” — Yan Barcelo
EUROZONE BANKS AGE OF OIL Is this the end?
IF THE MOOD PREVAILING at the Gaidar Economic Forum held in Moscow this past January is any indication, Russia’s ruling classes are looking at the end of the world as they know it, reports French daily Le Monde. “Just as the Stone Age
didn’t end because there were no more stones leſt, the Oil Age has had its day,” said German Gref, head of Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank. “We find ourselves on the losing side with countries that didn’t have time to adapt their economies.” Added Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev: “If the price of oil continues to drop … we must prepare for the worst.” Regions are sinking deeper into debt and more people are sinking into poverty.
“The future, unfortunately, came earlier than we expected,” said Gref. “This is always the case. Welcome to the future.” — YB
6 | CPA MAGAZINE | MARCH 2016 Shocking stock drop
THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund says eurozone banks have seen their bad debts double since 2009,
Zonebourse.com. reports. But the problem is particularly acute in Italy, which experienced an 11% increase in 2015 alone.
The precariousness of the situation was brought to light when the European Central Bank asked two Italian banks, Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UniCredit, to fill in a questionnaire relating to their bad debts. This prompted a huge slide in the stocks of the entire Italian banking sector. The day aſter the request was made in early January, Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s stocks dropped by 14%. From December 31, 2015, to January 20, 2016, banks accounted for five of the 10 worst lows on the Milan stock exchange, with drops from 22.3% to 56.4%. — YB
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