Top Financial Stories 2018

At this time of year I ask myself what were the biggest stories of the past twelve months in business/financial news. 

Here are the twelve stories, by month, that especially caught my attention and that in retrospect I recommend to yours. I'll make no effort to rank their importance against one another, so I will simply order them by month. 

January: Multilateral Trade Agreement. The Trans-Pacific Partnership reconstituted itself despite the US withdrawal, in an agreement announced on the 23d. This is a fine example of a broader and (for the US) an unfortunate trend. The US is locking itself out of free trade areas. To the extent free trade does work to stimulate economic productivity, the US is withdrawing from that.

February: Offshore natural gas. A dispute between Cyprus and Turkey over offshore drilling rights for natural gas nearly became a war as the Turkish navy obstructed a drilling vessel.  This, too, I take as a token of a broader development. The sea floor of the eastern Mediterranean turns out to be sitting on top of a LOT of natural gas. Something of a 'gold rush' is underway among nations with coasts there and among companies with ties to some of all of those nations, one that could further complicate the already tricky politics of the region for years to come. 

March: Self-driving vehicles. A woman in Arizona became the first person ever killed as a consequence of a collision with an autonomous car on a public road. Movement toward autonomous vehicles continues nonetheless. 

April: US China Trade Disputes. President Trump initiated a series of tariff announcements with the People's Republic of China, a "trade war" is on. For the reason noted above, this is a bonehead move on the part of POTUS. 

May: Cryptocurrencies. A court in Moscow decided that cryptocurrencies reserves are property under the law and that accordingly courts in bankruptcy proceedings must have access to a petitioner's bitcoins. This is equivocal news for boosters of the currencies, some of whom like to think of cyberspace as a lawless other realm where they can hide their savings from governments or creditors. On the other hand, their integration into the legal systems as a 'normal' asset is probably a boost for their marketable value and sustainability.  

June: Law regarding the Internet. The end of the "net neutrality" rules in the US. NN was an Obama-era rule that prohibited Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from charging websites or apps from the ability to load ahead of potential competitors. Now, presumably, with the rule repealed they CAN charge but, thus far, few do. Fears of a balkanized internet that would follow from the disappearance of the NN rules have not yet been borne out by the facts. 

July: Antitrust law. The EU fined Google on antitrust grounds (on the 18th), alleging that it was abusing the dominant position of Android software to maintain the dominance of the company's flagship service, its search engine. 

August:  Corporations. Apple becomes the first $1 trillion corporation in the history of the world measured by market cap. It is not a "computer company" any longer -- whatever exactly that means nowadays -- since the invention of the iPhone it has become the world's leading telecom company, and that has been the catalyst for its breaking the trillion dollar barrier. 

September: Securities fraud. Tesla, Musk, and the SEC settled litigation over Musk's tweets claiming a "taking private" deal had been secured, when it had not. This costs Musk the chairmanship, though he remains as CEO. Musk, it must be said, is the sort of figure for whom the phrase "crony capitalist" was invented. He could barely rub two nickels together were there no government subsidies for his various bright ideas. He also seems to be someone whose own company now desperately wants to put him out to pasture. 

October: Onshore natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") for shale gas resumed in the UK, it had been suspended seven years before over fears that fracking causes earthquakes. This, taken together with the offshore development mentioned in the February headinhg above, indicates the degree to which natural gas -- the cleanest of the carbon based fuels -- is the fuel of the near to midterm future. 

November: Auto industry. Japanese authorities arrested Carlos Ghosn,  the chairman of Nissan and Renault, and the central figure in the historic alliance between the two. mixing up the global auto industry picture considerably.  Under Ghosn, the Nissan-Renault alliance had also reached out to Mitsubishi. What will become of the Ghosn empire without Ghosn? [I bet you thought I'd say something about the US midterms for this category? Fooled ya.] 

December: Brexit. Prime Minister May, trying to get her Brexit transition deal through Parliament, ran into a buzzsaw of opposition and had to withdraw it. May then survived an effort to unseat her as head of the Conservative Party, and she has promised to resubmit the deal to Parliament in coming weeks. She hopes she can get some concessions from the leaders on the continent that will sweeten the deal a bit.  

So ... if you slept through the year, did you miss much?