Free Republic

KEY POINTS: * Tesla is facing mounting pressure across Scandinavian countries to sign a collective bargaining agreement with employees in Sweden. * Finnish transport workers’ union AKT on Thursday confirmed that a blockade on Tesla vehicles earmarked for Sweden would also come into force across all Finnish ports from Dec. 20. * One of Denmark’s largest pension funds on Wednesday announced that it would sell its holdings of Tesla stock over the U.S. giant’s refusal to enter into agreements with labor unions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tesla’s troubles with labor unions in Scandinavia deepened as it lost legal action against Sweden’s postal service...

Russia is facing “economic oblivion” in the long term because of international sanctions and the flight of businesses, several economists have said. ... However, many economists see long-lasting costs to the Russian economy from the exit of foreign firms – which will hit production capacity and capital and result in a “brain drain” – along with the loss of its long-term oil and gas markets and diminished access to critical imports of technology and inputs.

“The latest round of U.S. sanctions was a mostly symbolic exercise,” Agathe Demarais, global forecasting director at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC on Friday. “Sanctions on Russian individuals and companies are irrelevant, as these people and firms have no ties to the US and probably no intention to ever use the U.S. dollar or to have bank accounts in the U.S.” Demarais added that the sanctions on sovereign debt are less stringent than the initial market reaction would suggest, since they only target the primary debt market and can therefore “easily be circumvented via the secondary market.”