From Bloomberg:
Greece's Main Creditors Said to Be Unwilling to Allow Euro Exit
Greece’s major creditors are not ready to let the country drop out of the euro as long as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shows willingness to meet at least some key demands, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Chancellor Angela Merkel will go a long way to prevent a Greek exit from the single currency, though only so far, one of the people said. Every possibility is being considered in Berlin to pull Greece back from the brink and keep it in the 19-nation euro, the person said. (Read more)
Global Temperature Records Just Got Crushed Again
It just keeps getting hotter.
March was the hottest month on record, and the past three months were the warmest start to a year on record, according to new data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It's a continuation of trends that made 2014 the most blistering year for the surface of the planet, in to records going back to 1880. (More)
Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight Tickets May Never Go on Sale to Public
Those who want to buy tickets for next month’s fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao may soon need to confront the possibility that there will be no public sale.
While promoters from both sides have said fewer than 1,000 tickets would be sold to the public for face value, multiple dates have passed and no official announcement has been made. With about two weeks remaining until the May 2 bout, and a secondary market that has been quiet in anticipation of the public sale, it’s possible that resale will be the only option, according to Chris Matcovich, a spokesman for aggregator TiqIQ. (Read here)
Dry Wells Plague California as Drought Has Water Tables Plunging
Near California’s Success Lake, more than 1,000 water wells have failed. Farmers are spending $750,000 to drill 1,800 feet down to keep fields from going fallow. Makeshift showers have sprouted near the church parking lot.
“The conditions are like a third-world country,” said Andrew Lockman, a manager at the Office of Emergency Services in Tulare County, in the heart of the state’s agricultural Central Valley about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. (Continue here)
Teva Is Exploring Mylan Bid to Create Generic-Drug Giant
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is exploring a takeover offer for Mylan NV, people with knowledge of the matter said, in a move that would create a global generic-drug giant.
Teva hasn’t made a formal approach yet, the people said, though Mylan is aware of the Israeli company’s interest. Teva is evaluating the purchase internally and has also approached advisers about the potential bid and financing, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. (More)
Most Americans Think College Is Out of Reach
Most Americans believe people who want to go to college can get in somewhere—they just don’t think they’d be able to afford it, according to a new Gallup-Lumina Foundation poll.
While 61 percent of adults believe education beyond high school is available to anyone who needs it, only 21 percent agree that it’s affordable, according to the poll results, released on Thursday. Some racial groups were much more optimistic than others. Fifty-one percent of Hispanic adults said higher education is still affordable, Gallup found. Just 19 percent of black adults and 17 percent of white adults agreed. (Read more)
Airlines Slash Routes to Moscow in Latest Sign of Russia's Growing Isolation
In 2012, British discount airline EasyJet beat Virgin Atlantic Airways in a fierce competition for the rights to fly from London's Gatwick to Moscow's Domodedovo airport, a route that became available when its former operator was swallowed up in a merger. British aviation regulators gave the nod to EasyJet, which hailed the decision as a milestone in its international development. (Continue reading)
Americans See Green Light for Marijuana Legalization in Bloomberg Politics Poll
America has seen the future, and it is high.
Fifty-eight percent of U.S. adults say recreational marijuana will be legal nationwide in the next 20 years, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll. That includes 13 percent who say it will take 20 years, 26 percent who say it will take 10 years, 17 percent who say it's just five years away, and two percent who say it will happen in the next year. (More)
Should Mutual Funds Be Illegal? (BloombergView)
I wrote yesterday about what I think is a congealing regulatory view that index funds are Good and should be encouraged, and that active management is Bad and should be discouraged, but here is a wonderful mad corrective from Eric Posner and E. Glen Weyl at Slate, calling on Congress to ban index funds. (More)
Bloomberg Politics Poll: Majority of Americans Say Obamacare Should Get Time to Work
It may come as news to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, but a majority of Americans is not, in his words, dreaming of “repealing every word of Obamacare.”
Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults say that while the Affordable Care Act may still require small changes, “we should see how it works,” according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll. Twelve percent said President Barack Obama's signature legislative accomplishment should be left alone, 35 percent said it should be repealed, and two percent said they weren't sure. (Full article)
Risks Ignored in Europe as Bond Buying Distorts Markets
Investors are distinguishing less and less between weaker and stronger companies as unprecedented stimulus warps Europe’s credit markets.
The difference in yield premiums for borrowers rated AA and those rated six levels lower at BBB fell by about a third this year to 61 basis points, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. That’s within two basis points of the smallest gap since January 2008, which was reached last week. (Read here)
Climate Change Blamed as New Flood Plains Plague Mozambique
Over the last seven years the Mozambican village of Guguruni has housed hundreds of people whose homes elsewhere were destroyed by floods. This year it succumbed.
The plight of its inhabitants, who again are seeking a place to settle, underscores the task confronting authorities straining to find dry land for people living in areas hit by seasonal rainfall that the government of the southern African country says is becoming increasingly severe. (Continue reading)
Why Putin's Next War Will Be at Home
Vladimir Putin appeared this week in his annual marathon television broadcast to answer questions posed by viewers from across Russia. Of course, the four-hour show, Direct Line With Vladimir Putin, was carefully choreographed to avoid anything that could embarrass the Russian leader. But that doesn’t mean the broadcast shied away from criticism and thorny issues. Putin used this year's broadcast to deliver a rebuke to his former finance minister, ruminate on the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, and opine on the war in Ukraine. (More here)
