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Artificial intelligence ‘needs to be regulated,’ says Google CEO

Bloomberg Alphabet Inc’s chief executive officer urged the US and European Union to coordinate regulatory approaches on artificial intelligence, calling their alignment “critical.” In a rare public speech in Brussels at an event hosted by European economic think tank Bruegel, Sundar Pichai, who is also CEO of Google, said “there is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs ...

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The $150m machine with $200b at stake for China

Huawei Technologies Co. has become very much the US’s whipping boy in the battle to nip China’s technological ascendancy in the bud. President Donald Trump’s administration has slapped sanctions and curbs on the Shenzhen-based company and lobbied allies to do the same. Last month growing resistance against Huawei among lawmakers in Germany’s governing coalition sparked threats of retaliation from the ...

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Airline industry made inequality worse

With power and wealth concentration on the minds of politicians and voters in an election year, one overlooked culprit is the airline industry. Thanks in part to deregulation and consolidation of the industry during the past several decades, airlines have focused their operations in big hub airports and major coastal markets as a way of reducing excess capacity and improving ...

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Sprint’s floundering stock cannot tell a lie

Traders who make a living betting on mergers still won’t touch T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp.’s deal with a 10-foot pole. The wireless carriers may have been able to butter up two federal regulatory authorities by using the wonders of a 5G-powered America to distract from their deal’s likely competitive harm. Even so, merger-arbitrage traders live in a world ...

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Fed debt is nothing to lose sleep over

Policy makers and voters often express concern about the level of the federal deficit, which topped $1 trillion last year, and the national debt, now more than $23 trillion. But, unlike a household that owes money to a bank, the US government has the ability to tax its creditors. This power means that the federal government can afford any level ...

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Private equity’s mountain of dry powder is a danger sign

Investors keep flocking to private equity in Asia even though returns are declining. They should take heed: Payouts are likely to get worse from here, rather than better. The hunt for yield in a low-interest world has spurred institutional investors from China Investment Corp. to Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund to join the rush into the alternative asset class. Private ...

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Monte Paschi offers the ‘comfort blanket’

The troubled Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA took another big step in its long path to redemption last week by selling subordinated debt for the second time in six months. An 8% coupon is expensive for the world’s oldest bank, but it can hardly complain given its years of troubles. Even though the yield is enticing, ...

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Germany’s second economic miracle is ending

The cognoscenti of international economics are once again agape, and not in a flattering way, at the budget surpluses Germany’s government keeps running, when instead it should be stimulating the economy with tax cuts and higher spending. The surplus revealed this week for 2019, at 13.5 billion euros ($15 billion), is the fifth in a row, and the biggest ever. ...

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US equity futures slump amid concern for deadly China virus

Bloomberg US equity futures slipped on Tuesday, pointing to declines after the long weekend as investors grapple with worries about a deadly virus in China that sparked earlier declines across Asia and Europe. Treasuries rose. Contracts for all three of the main gauges were firmly in the red after a miserable session in Asia triggered by the outbreak of the ...

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Hong Kong stocks fall most in months on Moody’s ratings, virus

Bloomberg A deadly virus in China. A rating downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service. Violent clashes over the weekend. Welcome to Hong Kong, where reasons to sell stocks are mounting ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 3.2%, the most since October 2018, while the MSCI Hong Kong Index dropped 2.7%, hitting its 200-day ...

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