The Greek tour continues; Jordan executes jihadis; hip hop’s entrepreneurial edge
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Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis will meet Mario Draghi today with the hope of persuading him to maintain liquidity in Greece’s banking sector after the country’s EU bailout programme expires at the end of this month. (FT)
The European Central Bank is already resisting Greece’s proposal that Athens raise EUR10bn by issuing short-term Treasury bills as “bridge financing” to tide the country over for the next three months while a new bailout is negotiated. Without this financing, Athens will exit its bailout without access to emergency funding for the first time since the first Greek bailout in May 2010. (FT)
Martin Wolf argues that the Greek government deserves the time to present its ideas and, as the EU is supposed to be a union of democracies and not an empire, the eurozone should negotiate in good faith. At the same time, the Greeks must convince their partners they are serious about reforms. (FT)
In the news
Jordan executes Iraqi militants The country hanged suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and al-Qaeda operative Ziyad Karboli after Isis released a video claiming to show a Jordanian pilot being burnt alive. (Reuters)
S&P $1.4bn penalty Standard & Poor’s settled government accusations that it inflated ratings of mortgage-backed investments, which helped feed a Wall Street frenzy that brought the world economy to its knees. Now that the record settlement has been agreed, US authorities are stepping up their investigation into Moody’s mortgage derivatives ratings. (Bloomberg, FT)
World Bank probe into $1bn China loan The world bank is investigating whether its chief financial officer and other senior officials mishandled a Chinese loan to the bank’s poverty fund. It is examining whether management created a conflict of interest when one of the bank’s units helped China lend cash to another of the bank’s arms. (WSJ$)
Arrest warrant for Argentine president found Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who died mysteriously last month, had drafted a request for the arrest of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner , accusing her of trying to shield Iranian officials from responsibility in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre. The 26-page document was found in the rubbish at his apartment, according to the lead investigator into his death. (NYT$)
Petrobras chief steps down Maria das Gracas Foster will step down to help resolve a corruption scandal at Brazil’s state-owned oil company. Allegations that executives collaborated with politicians, contractors and black-market money dealers to cream billions of dollars off company projects date from before Gracas Foster’s leadership, but the schemes allegedly continued during her tenure. (FT)
It’s a big day for
French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala , who appears in court charged with “apology for terrorism” after comments that suggest he sympathised with Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket. (Independent)
GlaxoSmithKline, which reports fourth-quarter earnings and will be looking to draw a line under its annus horribilis. The drugmaker’s shares have fallen 6 per cent in the past year, reflecting a decline in its respiratory drugs business. (FT)
Food for thought
Harper Lee will publish a second novel in July, 55 years after To Kill a Mockingbird first appeared in print and Milan Kundera will publish his first novel in English for 13 years this summer. (FT, Guardian)
Negotiating with the Chocolate King The FT looks at how Petro Poroshenko managed to bring Vladimir Putin to the bargaining table and how the Minsk deal unravelled. (FT)
The Bloomberg terminal for art In 2014, 76 per cent of art buyers viewed their acquisitions as investments, compared with 53 per cent in 2012, and the art market has boomed as yields on bonds and other assets have sunk. Around this growing market, service companies have sprung up offering storage and algorithm-based trade recommendations for emerging artists. (NYT$)
Hip hop’s entrepreneurial edge Its history of hustling means artists have a facility of commerce, says Dan Charnas. Hip hop may have been telling us where the gold is for about 40 years but it can also teach us about the value of human capital. (FT)
Tech behind bars Cellphones have joined drugs and weapons as the contraband of choice in US prisons but there are strong economic and legal arguments for more technology in prisons. Courts have affirmed inmates’ rights to conduct legal research on their own behalf and studies have shown that prisoners who maintain regular contact with friends and family are less likely to reoffend. (Fusion, via Alexis Madrigal)
China’s gender ratio There are 33m more men than women but it’s not caused by the one-child policy: even when rural families are allowed multiple children, the gender balance is skewed. Economic liberalisation has given people more means to act on their existing biases against girls and the same imbalance is appearing in India. (Bloomberg)
Video of the day
Investing in bitcoin isn’t really investing in bitcoin It is more often investing in the underlying “blockchain” technology, which has the potential to remove third parties such as banks from transactions. Here’s how it works. (FT)
This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.
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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.
Image: A European Union (E.U.) flag flutters in front of the monument of Parthenon on Acropolis hill in Athens. REUTERS/John Kolesidis.
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