World Events Summary: 13th-19th March 2018

Let Trump Be Trump: as the president starts to feel more confident in the role he is remaking his governing team and seeking to push his (not necessarily the Republican) agenda. This has increased speculation that further actions on trade will be forthcoming and that maximum pressure will be applied to get a reworked Iran deal. Republicans lost a House seat where Trump had won by 20%. 

Cambridge Analytica: revelations and speculation center around how data was collected and used. While this has big political implications – emboldening free and repressive governments to try and restrict the operations of big data-heavy technology firms – it also calls into question the business models of some firms. We expect the outcome to be more transparency – for firms and individuals. 

EU and Tech: even before the Cambridge Analytica revelations Europe had prided itself on possessing the best protective legislative framework for data. Those in favour of such restrictions will only be emboldened – likely increasing tensions with the U.S., while the timing is unfortunate as the European Commission is looking to push ahead with its controversial tax on revenue proposal. 

CFIUS and Tech: lobbying by technology groups in the U.S. managed to reduce the scope of new FDI inflow screening processes but these will be tightened at the smaller company end. Xi Jinping and Merkel vowed to use the G20 as a forum to tackle the issues surrounding global steel overcapacity.