Among some intellectuals and environmentalists, it’s an article of faith that economic growth must be brought to a stop. If we fail to act, we’ll use up the planet’s resources and growth will suffer a disastrous collapse. For example, British writer George Monbiot has been advancing this point of view for quite some time. In April, he declared: Perpetual growth ...

UBS Group AG’s assets under management reached a record $2.5 trillion in the third quarter of 2019, buoyed in part by money from rich clients. Unfortunately, the world’s largest wealth manager is finding it harder to squeeze more profit out of this business; its chief executive officer Sergio Ermotti may be running out of ideas. Net profit at the Swiss ...

When political outsider Joko Widodo was first sworn in as Indonesia’s president five years ago, a little company called PT GO-JEK Indonesia was barely known. Their rise together since then has broken a technology barrier that was holding back the world’s fourth-most-populous country and promises the chance for a better future. Jokowi, as he’s known, is starting his second term ...

Bloomberg Google lured billions of consumers to its digital services by offering copious free cloud storage. That’s beginning to change. The Alphabet Inc unit has whittled down some free storage offers in recent months, while prodding more users towards a new paid cloud subscription called Google One. That’s happening as the amount of data people stash online continues to soar. ...

Bloomberg Following fits and starts, Apple Pay has become the top mobile payment method at brick-and-mortar stores in the US, according to research firm EMarketer. Apple Inc’s payment service will have 30.3 million users in the US this year, compared with 25.2 million for the Starbucks payment app, EMarketer estimated. Starbucks Corp had been the leader, with innovative features that ...

Bloomberg Flying taxis, once the purview of science-fiction films such as The Fifth Element, might soon be a staple of urban transport, as better batteries and innovative designs make it cheaper, cleaner, and quieter to travel short distances by air. Citigroup thinks sales of air taxis could reach $5 billion a year by the end of the next decade. Two ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com said it has acquired Health Navigator, a medical technology startup, in an effort to bolster its healthcare offerings for employees. The startup will be wrapped into a clinic for workers that launched last month at the company’s Seattle-based headquarters. Called Amazon Care, the programme offers virtual and in-person consultations, and delivery of prescriptions to employees’ offices and homes. ...

Bloomberg Spirit Airlines Inc agreed to buy 100 Airbus SE A320neo family aircraft, handing the European planemaker a potential order in the $11 billion range during a weak year for sales. The memorandum of understanding would include a mix of all three of Airbus’s workhorse single-aisle models, from the A319neo to the A321neo, Spirit said in a statement. If the ...

Bloomberg It’s not often that an airline decides to design its own airplane. On Sunday, United Airlines Holdings Inc will fly customers on a new regional jet crafted to its exact specifications, an aircraft that comes with 10 first- class seats. By putting premium perches on a small regional jet with a total of only 50 seats, United hopes to ...

Bloomberg Billionaire UK entrepreneur Richard Branson said opponents of Brexit should hold out for a second referendum and not be seduced into backing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s revised deal with the European Union. Concern about avoiding a no-deal split combined with a sense of fatigue surrounding the Brexit debate more than three years after the original vote to quit the ...