Predicting the course of technological progress is extremely difficult. Just because worries about human obsolescence ultimately turned out to be misplaced in the Industrial Revolution doesn’t mean that the same happy result must necessarily prevail this time around. So the persistent question about artificial intelligence — or ‘robots’ in common parlance – is whether they will make human workers obsolete. ...

Communication received loud and clear. The Bank of England (BOE) did just enough to keep interest rate expectations alive for a hike in its key interest rate in May to 0.75 percent — and beyond. The switch to a 7-2 vote at March 22 policy decision, with the most voluble hawks Michael Saunders and Ian McCafferty reverting to wanting an ...

I think I understand why Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t publicly responded to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He’s stuck in a catch-22. Any fix for Facebook’s previous big problem — fake news — would make the current big problem with data harvesting worse. As a media company and one of Americans’ top sources of information, Facebook’s de facto ...

Bloomberg Banks that spent years lobbying against billions of dollars of new capital requirements are being rewarded for their efforts. They won concessions from global regulators that may cut the amount of extra capital the industry’s biggest companies will need in 2022, when the new market-risk rules are due to take effect. The proposed revisions will come as a relief ...

Bloomberg For Australian banks the jabs just keep coming — and not always from the most expected sources. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ Bank) is facing a civil suit in Guam over lending standards at its American Samoa offshoot. Two retired US military veterans claim the Melbourne-based bank is liable for “systematic violations of the Truth in ...

Bloomberg Developments in fintech could boost the UK’s sluggish productivity growth and the Bank of England has started a unit to monitor its developments, Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said. “We have set up a new Fintech Hub that will sit at the heart of the bank, to consider both how the bank understands and how it applies fintech, relevant to ...

Bloomberg The Philippine central bank left its benchmark interest rate at a record low as it forecast inflation will remain inside the target band this year and in 2019. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas held the overnight borrowing rate at 3 percent, it said in a statement in Manila, as predicted by 11 of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The rest ...

Bloomberg Two regional Federal Reserve bank presidents said they favour raising interest rates twice more this year following a hike this week, but were open to shifting their views if the outlook warranted a different policy approach. “My forecast had three moves for this year,’’ Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, who votes this year on monetary policy, told reporters after ...

Bloomberg Qantas Airways Ltd. started direct flights between Australia and London this weekend, passing a major milestone by reducing to 17 hours a trip that once took much longer. Flight QF9, which originated in Melbourne, landed at London Heathrow at 5:02 am on Sunday following a 14,498-kilometre trip from Perth, according to the UK airport operator’s website. The route marks ...

Bloomberg Meituan Dianping, the Chinese food reviews and delivery giant backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., has begun discussions on a Hong Kong initial public offering as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is weighing a valuation of at least $60 billion and is considering a listing in China as well if policy conditions ...