#lps g7 ant

[cycoekiller119]

"i feel it,

"they are crawling.

"on my skin, beneath!" 🦴🦴🐜🦴💖

[sprinklebnuy]

Pet Poster WIP💖

[trinketfairy]

Found this strange-looking ant while on my walk! Anyone know what kind it is?

💓With LPS G7#57

[courtneytincher]

Emmanuel Macron's Bittersweet Brexit Victory

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is barreling through Europe’s capitals with nothing concrete to say on Brexit beyond an unappealing offer of “new deal or no deal.” With Angela Merkel offering a response so cryptic that Germany was still explaining it a day later, France’s Emmanuel Macron was on hand to clarify: The European Union’s red lines, including upholding the single market and peace in Ireland, won’t shift.The French president was also sending a more subtle message to his fellow EU leaders: I told you so.It was Macron after all who predicted that the Brits would try to delay and renegotiate Brexit rather than jump over the cliff of a no-deal withdrawal back in March – something that duly happened. It was Macron who then guessed correctly that anything longer than a technical extension to that original March Brexit day would be seen by London as a chance for a do-over of the agreed deal. And it was Macron who angered his fellow member states after rejecting talk of pushing back Brexit until 2020 – a softer position supported by Merkel – in favor of an Oct. 31 deadline.The hard-Brexit antics of Johnson since he took power from Theresa May and Nigel Farage’s Brussels-baiting after his recent success in the European Parliament elections have vindicated Macron’s realism. Merkel’s “good cop” will probably have less sway at the next EU summit.Yet it’s hard to see this confirmation of Macron’s perspicacity as anything other than bittersweet. There was nothing from Johnson that promised viable alternatives to the thorny Irish backstop (the guarantee of no hard border between north and south) that would let him go home with a new deal. Failing some 11th-hour miracle, such as a successful U.K. parliamentary revolt blocking no deal and delivering an impasse-breaking general election or second referendum, Britain is on its way out. That leaves some big questions for Macron, Merkel and the rest of the EU about what they should do next.Most attention is usually given to putting out immediate economic fires. How can Brussels ease the estimated hit of losing up to 1.5% of the EU’s annual output post-Brexit, especially as recession looms on the continent? And how can Macron avoid political blowback if French fishing fleets find themselves barred from British waters and blame the Elysee Palace? The answers might involve some sticking plasters to make sure no-deal contingency plans work, more public spending to support business, and even more European Central Bank stimulus.But Brexit isn’t just about trade and money, it’s about geopolitics too. The U.K. is a nuclear power with a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, and Johnson took care to remind Macron that British helicopters were transporting French troops in Mali. Although Macron has been making enthusiastic noises about multilateral problem-solving ahead of this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz, a U.K. that’s shifting its focus back across the Atlantic toward Washington adds to the long list of reasons for the EU to feel isolated in a hostile world.U.S. President Donald Trump is openly anti-EU. This week he lobbed Twitter bombs at the German economy, Europe’s reliance on the NATO umbrella and ECB policy. The G7 has been disrupted by Trump in the past, and having his pal Johnson there will up the ante. Meanwhile, China is exploiting European divisions to try to deepen its presence in EU member states such as Italy.Ideally the EU would rise to the challenge of what Sciences Po Professor Zaki Laidi calls its “De Gaulle” moment – the realization that it must defend its interests alone. That requires more support for the federalist ambitions sketched out by Macron, especially from Merkel and her successor.There are glimpses of hope. France and Germany are planning to build a fighter plane together, while the continent appears to be taking a common stand against Trump’s trade threat. Christine Lagarde’s imminent coronation at the ECB gives heart to those who believe the euro zone needs to develop a common fiscal policy, rather than always depending on ineffective quantitative easing. The former Polish deputy prime minister Jacek Rostowski thinks Germany’s economic struggles will give Macron the upper hand in trying to pursue deeper ties.Nevertheless, crises have a habit of creating disunity. The combination of Brexit, the recession threat, trade spats and disputes with Italy could easily push things further apart. Macron will be perfectly aware of that.To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is barreling through Europe’s capitals with nothing concrete to say on Brexit beyond an unappealing offer of “new deal or no deal.” With Angela Merkel offering a response so cryptic that Germany was still explaining it a day later, France’s Emmanuel Macron was on hand to clarify: The European Union’s red lines, including upholding the single market and peace in Ireland, won’t shift.The French president was also sending a more subtle message to his fellow EU leaders: I told you so.It was Macron after all who predicted that the Brits would try to delay and renegotiate Brexit rather than jump over the cliff of a no-deal withdrawal back in March – something that duly happened. It was Macron who then guessed correctly that anything longer than a technical extension to that original March Brexit day would be seen by London as a chance for a do-over of the agreed deal. And it was Macron who angered his fellow member states after rejecting talk of pushing back Brexit until 2020 – a softer position supported by Merkel – in favor of an Oct. 31 deadline.The hard-Brexit antics of Johnson since he took power from Theresa May and Nigel Farage’s Brussels-baiting after his recent success in the European Parliament elections have vindicated Macron’s realism. Merkel’s “good cop” will probably have less sway at the next EU summit.Yet it’s hard to see this confirmation of Macron’s perspicacity as anything other than bittersweet. There was nothing from Johnson that promised viable alternatives to the thorny Irish backstop (the guarantee of no hard border between north and south) that would let him go home with a new deal. Failing some 11th-hour miracle, such as a successful U.K. parliamentary revolt blocking no deal and delivering an impasse-breaking general election or second referendum, Britain is on its way out. That leaves some big questions for Macron, Merkel and the rest of the EU about what they should do next.Most attention is usually given to putting out immediate economic fires. How can Brussels ease the estimated hit of losing up to 1.5% of the EU’s annual output post-Brexit, especially as recession looms on the continent? And how can Macron avoid political blowback if French fishing fleets find themselves barred from British waters and blame the Elysee Palace? The answers might involve some sticking plasters to make sure no-deal contingency plans work, more public spending to support business, and even more European Central Bank stimulus.But Brexit isn’t just about trade and money, it’s about geopolitics too. The U.K. is a nuclear power with a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, and Johnson took care to remind Macron that British helicopters were transporting French troops in Mali. Although Macron has been making enthusiastic noises about multilateral problem-solving ahead of this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz, a U.K. that’s shifting its focus back across the Atlantic toward Washington adds to the long list of reasons for the EU to feel isolated in a hostile world.U.S. President Donald Trump is openly anti-EU. This week he lobbed Twitter bombs at the German economy, Europe’s reliance on the NATO umbrella and ECB policy. The G7 has been disrupted by Trump in the past, and having his pal Johnson there will up the ante. Meanwhile, China is exploiting European divisions to try to deepen its presence in EU member states such as Italy.Ideally the EU would rise to the challenge of what Sciences Po Professor Zaki Laidi calls its “De Gaulle” moment – the realization that it must defend its interests alone. That requires more support for the federalist ambitions sketched out by Macron, especially from Merkel and her successor.There are glimpses of hope. France and Germany are planning to build a fighter plane together, while the continent appears to be taking a common stand against Trump’s trade threat. Christine Lagarde’s imminent coronation at the ECB gives heart to those who believe the euro zone needs to develop a common fiscal policy, rather than always depending on ineffective quantitative easing. The former Polish deputy prime minister Jacek Rostowski thinks Germany’s economic struggles will give Macron the upper hand in trying to pursue deeper ties.Nevertheless, crises have a habit of creating disunity. The combination of Brexit, the recession threat, trade spats and disputes with Italy could easily push things further apart. Macron will be perfectly aware of that.To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

August 23, 2019 at 08:00AM via IFTTT

[courtneytincher]

Boris Johnson Is Playing With Fire on the Pound

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Boris Johnson has been the U.K.’s leader for only a week, but he and his “Brexit war cabinet” have achieved one milestone already: The pound has slumped to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar and the euro since 2017.The cause is Britain’s newfound eagerness to up the ante in its negotiations with the European Union, with Johnson refusing to even meet with EU leaders until they scrap the terms of his predecessor Theresa May’s Brexit deal. His “do-or-die” hardball strategy has been gleefully parroted by ministers such as the foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who say leaving without a deal would be an even better way to squeeze a trade deal out of “stubborn” Brussels and prove the naysayers wrong.In more normal times, the sight of a currency selloff greeting a new Conservative government – led by someone who promised to be the “most pro-business prime minister” in history – might lead to a rethink. But we know Johnson doesn’t worry much about big market moves: “The pound goes up, the pound goes down,” he once said.We also know that some Brexiters see weak sterling as a good thing. The former Brexit Secretary David Davis said back in February that forecasts of a 20% currency fall in the event of no deal were something to cheer: “Our goods will become 20% more competitive on the global market.” Robert Halfon, a Conservative member of Parliament, added this week that “hopefully holidaymakers will choose GB as a holiday destination.”There’s a dangerous and deceptive optimism at work here. Beyond the usual dismissal of any criticism of Brexit as “Project Fear,” there’s clearly a belief among some that threatening no deal is kind of a free hit: It can depreciate the pound, boost British exports and heap pressure on Brussels in one swoop. This is playing with fire.While it’s true that the trade-weighted sterling fall of 15% since the referendum means a theoretical knock-on effect on goods export prices, that might matter less than the Brexiters think. Johnson and Raab need to reflect more carefully on the chief reason investors are dumping the pound: The anticipated negative impact of breaking from the EU (something that gets worse the harder the prospective rupture looks). And this impact almost certainly means a less attractive and more costly environment for exporters, whether that’s via new tariffs, regulatory barriers or lower productivity growth.So rather than merely inciting companies to invest more in the U.K. and export to the world, the currency drop also signals the risks of doing so. That’s why U.K. business investment is lagging the G7, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, while data from EY shows more foreign investment projects are being delayed.Instead of dismissing businesses’ fears of a no-deal Brexit as “unbalanced,” Raab should listen to CEOs such as Carlos Tavares of Peugeot SA. In an FT interview, Tavares said he might have to pull production from the carmaker’s Cheshire plant and shift it to the continent if the post-Brexit economics didn’t work. The site exports most of its output to Europe and imports most of its parts; what Tavares wants isn’t a weaker pound but the visibility on customs charges that a no-deal scenario doesn’t give him. Try telling a carmaker it should cheer a depressed sterling when EU car import tariffs are 10% and a single component can cross the English Channel three times.As Tavares can attest, imports are an equally important part of the trade picture. Yet the more Panglossian Brexiters are ignoring the fact that a weakening currency makes them pricier. And this isn’t just about protecting parts-importing manufacturers. Britain sources half of what it eats from abroad, so it’s a little unwise politically to dismiss the threat.The U.K.’s risk of runaway inflation is pretty low right now, judging by Bank of England data and market forecasts, but we’ve seen bouts of consumer price rises since the referendum. The country’s real household disposable income has shrunk an estimated 0.3 percent on average between 2016 and 2019, according to the Resolution Foundation. Brexit is already making the U.K. worse off. The falling pound won’t help.To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Boris Johnson has been the U.K.’s leader for only a week, but he and his “Brexit war cabinet” have achieved one milestone already: The pound has slumped to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar and the euro since 2017.The cause is Britain’s newfound eagerness to up the ante in its negotiations with the European Union, with Johnson refusing to even meet with EU leaders until they scrap the terms of his predecessor Theresa May’s Brexit deal. His “do-or-die” hardball strategy has been gleefully parroted by ministers such as the foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who say leaving without a deal would be an even better way to squeeze a trade deal out of “stubborn” Brussels and prove the naysayers wrong.In more normal times, the sight of a currency selloff greeting a new Conservative government – led by someone who promised to be the “most pro-business prime minister” in history – might lead to a rethink. But we know Johnson doesn’t worry much about big market moves: “The pound goes up, the pound goes down,” he once said.We also know that some Brexiters see weak sterling as a good thing. The former Brexit Secretary David Davis said back in February that forecasts of a 20% currency fall in the event of no deal were something to cheer: “Our goods will become 20% more competitive on the global market.” Robert Halfon, a Conservative member of Parliament, added this week that “hopefully holidaymakers will choose GB as a holiday destination.”There’s a dangerous and deceptive optimism at work here. Beyond the usual dismissal of any criticism of Brexit as “Project Fear,” there’s clearly a belief among some that threatening no deal is kind of a free hit: It can depreciate the pound, boost British exports and heap pressure on Brussels in one swoop. This is playing with fire.While it’s true that the trade-weighted sterling fall of 15% since the referendum means a theoretical knock-on effect on goods export prices, that might matter less than the Brexiters think. Johnson and Raab need to reflect more carefully on the chief reason investors are dumping the pound: The anticipated negative impact of breaking from the EU (something that gets worse the harder the prospective rupture looks). And this impact almost certainly means a less attractive and more costly environment for exporters, whether that’s via new tariffs, regulatory barriers or lower productivity growth.So rather than merely inciting companies to invest more in the U.K. and export to the world, the currency drop also signals the risks of doing so. That’s why U.K. business investment is lagging the G7, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, while data from EY shows more foreign investment projects are being delayed.Instead of dismissing businesses’ fears of a no-deal Brexit as “unbalanced,” Raab should listen to CEOs such as Carlos Tavares of Peugeot SA. In an FT interview, Tavares said he might have to pull production from the carmaker’s Cheshire plant and shift it to the continent if the post-Brexit economics didn’t work. The site exports most of its output to Europe and imports most of its parts; what Tavares wants isn’t a weaker pound but the visibility on customs charges that a no-deal scenario doesn’t give him. Try telling a carmaker it should cheer a depressed sterling when EU car import tariffs are 10% and a single component can cross the English Channel three times.As Tavares can attest, imports are an equally important part of the trade picture. Yet the more Panglossian Brexiters are ignoring the fact that a weakening currency makes them pricier. And this isn’t just about protecting parts-importing manufacturers. Britain sources half of what it eats from abroad, so it’s a little unwise politically to dismiss the threat.The U.K.’s risk of runaway inflation is pretty low right now, judging by Bank of England data and market forecasts, but we’ve seen bouts of consumer price rises since the referendum. The country’s real household disposable income has shrunk an estimated 0.3 percent on average between 2016 and 2019, according to the Resolution Foundation. Brexit is already making the U.K. worse off. The falling pound won’t help.To contact the author of this story: Lionel Laurent at llaurent2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

July 31, 2019 at 09:15AM via IFTTT