NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Even a divided America seems to agree that the federal prohibition of cannabis deserves a rethink. Six in 10 people say the use of marijuana should be legalized, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. On Wednesday, a congressional hearing approached that question only obliquely. But its narrow focus is more likely to lead to action - and deliver what the industry really needs.
TORONTO (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bruce Linton runs the world's biggest cannabis producer, Canopy Growth. He visited Breakingviews to discuss what's coming down the pipe in 2019, why a $100 bln weed company is still some way off, and why he doesn't actually partake - yet.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - America’s cannabis growers will follow an unusual path to propriety. The subversive industry is feared by the establishment, with investors reliant on legal loopholes. Yet these companies are starting out much like China’s tech giants did. In the same fashion, as they create jobs and wealth, appetite for reining them in will wane.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - If 2019 is like 2018, roughly 30,000 Americans will be killed by a bullet. And more big companies and investors will say publicly it’s time to make guns safer. If they say it in the right way, it might even make a difference.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Disappointment is coming for the clients of private equity firms. Companies which use debt and management wiles to take businesses private typically target an annual yield – the so-called internal rate of return – of at least 15 percent. It’s hard to see recent deals matching that. Instead of 15, investors should steel themselves for more like five.
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) - Few people would have disagreed at the beginning of the year that the nine-year-long bull market was reaching its end phase. That didn’t diminish the shock when it actually happened. Here is Breakingviews’ imagined account of how the good times came to an end in 2019.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - David Solomon is like the owner of a Ferrari who hasn’t been given the keys. The new Goldman Sachs boss starts 2019 with one of Wall Street’s most prestigious jobs, and something to prove. This could be the first year in over a decade that the $63 billion bank starts with a smaller market capitalization than its chief rival, Morgan Stanley.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Canada’s biggest economic threat is sitting across the border. Even though the country managed to salvage a trade deal with its southern neighbor and Mexico in 2018, aggressive economic policies have turned the United States into Canada’s own vampire squid. Forecast GDP growth of 2 percent in 2019 is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s to lose.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Big ambitions require investment, but not all infusions of capital are equal. Cronos, the Canadian pot producer, is in early talks with Marlboro maker Altria, Reuters reported on Monday. An association with a huge tobacco company isn’t exactly what this nascent industry needs.
LAS VEGAS (Reuters Breakingviews) - Las Vegas made its reputation on sin. So it might seem fitting that the cannabis industry chose to locate its biggest annual gathering in the city this week. And just as Vegas has used conferences to try to clean up its reputation – it’s now the venue for more than 21,000 confabs a year - the weed business is shifting in that direction, too. The drug remains federally prohibited in the United States, and less than a month has passed since Canada made it legal for adult use. But a veneer of acceptability has started to settle on the sector. It’s as if cannabis is trying on its first suit and tie.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday it was time to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights that Israel seized from Syria in 1967, marking a dramatic shift in U.S. policy and giving a boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the middle of his re-election campaign.