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Statistical analysis and Donald Trump don’t mix

The Trump administration has taken on three ambitious statistical projects: tracking down cases of voter registration fraud, identifying racism in college admissions and developing an algorithm for “extreme vetting” of visa applications. These would all be very tricky even for a trained professional. I doubt the president’s people are up to the task. Let’s start with voter fraud. It’s actually ...

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They are growing older without getting richer

Latin America, a region maligned by recent crises that nonetheless boasts a $4.6 trillion economy, needs urgent policy shifts to bring growth rates back to where they were during years of high commodity prices. Time is running out because its demographic advantage — when active workers outnumber retirees — will peak in 2020, according to a report from the Inter-American ...

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Japan buries our most-cherished economic ideas

Japan is the graveyard of economic theories. The country has had ultralow interest rates and run huge government deficits for decades, with no sign of the inflation that many economists assume would be the natural result. Now, after years of trying almost every trick in the book to reflate the economy, the Bank of Japan is finally bowing to the ...

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As robots take the wheel, driving skills hit the skids

Bloomberg If your car can hit the brakes in an emergency and check your blind spots, will that make you a worse driver? Increasingly, automakers are worrying it may. Driver-assist technology that keeps cars in their lanes, maintains a safe distance from other vehicles, warns of unseen traffic and slams the brakes to avoid rear-end crashes are rapidly spreading from ...

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Nintendo’s Chinese rival rethinks games for West

Bloomberg Chances are few outside of China have heard of NetEase Inc., though it makes more money from games than Nintendo Co. Now it wants recognition, but first it’ll have to learn what makes Western gamers tick. The company is on a global hiring campaign and exploring acquisitions or investments in foreign studios, so it can earn 30 percent of ...

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Next generation battery seen powering space projects, cars

Bloomberg Researchers in Japan are closing in on a safer generation of batteries that could weather extreme temperatures in outer space. At least that’s what Hitachi Zosen Corp. is betting on. The Osaka-based company, better known for building plants that convert waste to energy, is developing a new strain of solid-state lithium-ion battery that’s been capturing the attention of industry ...

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Facebook introduces ‘watch’ video product for short series

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. will introduce a new video hub on the world’s largest social network, offering some US users short episodic series from content partners including A&E, Major League Baseball and National Geographic, in a bid to capture more online advertising dollars. The new section, called Watch, is meant to increase the amount of time users spend watching video by ...

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Denmark’s biggest banks face $15 bn Basel capital bill

Bloomberg Denmark’s five biggest banks face as much as $15 billion in new capital requirements under proposed changes to global banking rules, according to an expert panel created by the government. Danske Bank A/S the country’s biggest financial group, and others will together see their capital requirements rise 27-39 percent, equivalent to 64-92 billion kroner ($15 billion), the panel said. ...

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Morgan Stanley makes ‘multi-year call’ for stronger Euro

Bloomberg A pushback against the populist movements that have threatened to destabilise the European Union will help bolster the euro for years, according to Andrew Sheets, chief cross-asset strategist at Morgan Stanley. The US investment bank raised its forecasts for the shared currency on Thursday, projecting it would reach $1.25 early next year, and trade one-for-one against the pound for ...

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US Democrats push probing Deutsche Bank Russia scandal

Bloomberg A handful of Democratic lawmakers have renewed their effort to get a powerful House Republican to investigate Deutsche Bank AG’s loans to President Donald Trump and the bank’s role in helping Russians move billions of dollars from Moscow to the West. In a letter to Jeb Hensarling of Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Representative Maxine Waters ...

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