Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals will remain in power in Tasmania after claiming victory in state election. “Four years ago you voted for change; today you have voted for no change — to stick with the direction this state is heading and to take our state to the next level,†state Premier Will Hodgman, 48, told supporters, after ...
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Pak ruling party strengthens grip in senate vote
Bloomberg Pakistan’s ruling party became the largest group in the Senate during a closed-door election, strengthening its hand before national polls in July despite legal setbacks and corruption proceedings against its leader Nawaz Sharif. Final results from the Election Commission show candidates affiliated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won 15 seats, taking their total to 33 in the 104-strong Senate, ...
Read More »Xi is president for life: Trump
Bloomberg US President Donald Trump appeared to praise Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping’s efforts to extend his tenure in a speech to donors, according to a recording released by CNN. “Don’t forget China’s great and Xi is a great gentleman. He’s now president for life,†Trump told Republican backers. The crowd erupted in laughter in response to the remarks made at ...
Read More »Coming Trump inflation?
Can we run the economy ‘hot’? To those who think that President Trump’s economic policy is simply an extended programme to make the rich richer, there is another, more subtle possibility. The focus on the rich, while understandable, simplifies and misrepresents Trump’s larger ambition. This is to create an economy that is operating at the outer edges of its productive ...
Read More »Macy’s is not quite dead yet
Macy’s Inc.’s latest earnings report was a message for doubters: Don’t count us out just yet. The department-store giant said comparable sales in the fourth quarter increased 1.3 percent over a year earlier, an upbeat result for a company that hadn’t recorded growth on this measure since the final quarter of 2014. And the retailer suggested it expects to keep ...
Read More »Smartphones’ future is in your driverless car
This week’s annual Mobile World Congress comes at a turning point for the industry: 2017 was the first year in four that mobile phone sales fell. The action on the convention hall floor, combined with some nearly buried findings in one operator’s annual results, may signal the next big thing in mobile growth. The smartphone age is certainly not over, ...
Read More »China stands to benefit from Trump’s steel tariffs
If Donald Trump was aiming at China with his lofty proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, he’s a terrible marksman. Not only will Chinese leaders likely brush off the measures. They have good reason to embrace them. China is unquestionably the big, bad wolf of the global steel industry. With roughly ten times the steelmaking capacity of the US, ...
Read More »Xi Jinping shouldn’t be only one to put off retirement
Xi Jinping can hold off on retirement planning for a few more years, now that China’s Communist Party has announced a proposal to eliminate a 10-year, two-term limit for China’s presidency. That sets up the powerful 64-year-old Xi to remain in office well into his golden years. He shouldn’t be the only one. Set aside for a moment the question ...
Read More »Volatility spike says little about stocks’ outlook
The wild gyrations in capital markets in early February had a profound impact on investor sentiment. The spike in implied volatility, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), roiled long-pacific markets, leading investors to question even now, almost a month later, whether a sustained selloff might be looming. According to signals from the options market, the answer is a ...
Read More »No. Twitter can’t engineer a healthy conversation
Facebook’s self-regulatory contortions in the wake of fake news and trolling scandals have gone on, with little visible effect, for months. Now Twitter founder and Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey has announced his company is going to try a different tack — but Dorsey’s approach is arguably even more far-fetched than his Facebook peer Mark Zuckerberg’s: It’s an attempt to ...
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