October, 2017

• 7 October

  Is Australia’s luck running out ?

  

  Australia’s record of 26 years without a recession flatters to deceive. The gaudy numbers mask serious flaws in the country’s economic model. First and most obviously, the Australian economy is still far too dependent on “houses and holes.” During part of the typical business cycle, national income and prosperity are driven by exports of commodities—primarily iron ore, liquefied natural gas …

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• 7 October

  Facebook’s season of atonement is here

  Saturday was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg marked the occasion with a remarkably contrite post to his followers: “For those I hurt this year, I ask forgiveness and I will try to be better. For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I …

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• 7 October

  Senator endorses Intel on Russian meddling

  Leaving aside the bloviating protests of President Donald Trump, there are two ways to understand Russia’s influence campaign against the 2016 election. The first is obvious. The Russians tried to elect Trump. You don’t need access to top-secret US government documents to reach this conclusion. It happened in real time. Russians hacked the emails of leading Democrats and distributed them …

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• 7 October

  In fact, Spain and Iraq are failing their secessionists

  

  The secession of a region without constitutional authority is a big deal, as referendums in Catalonia and Kurdistan have shown in the last week. To get a sense of the possible consequences, think of the US Civil War, which started precisely because Southern states insisted they could secede while Northern states pointed out that such a right was nowhere in …

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• 7 October

  Why Trump’s Puerto Rico bailout was DOA

  

  Puerto Rico’s debt has been a major problem for years. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump supported a solution: We have to look at their whole debt structure…we’re going to have to wipe that out. You can say goodbye to that. I don’t know if it’s Goldman Sachs, but whoever it is, you can wave goodbye to that. It only took …

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• 7 October

  Brazil’s narrative of growing equality is oversold

  

  Not so long ago, Brazil seemed to be near a turning point. Latin America’s largest nation wasn’t just growing and generating jobs; it was finally poised, it seemed, to close one of the world’s most notorious gaps between rich and poor. Out went the old trope of “Belindia”—Brazil as a wealthy Belgium ringed by a vast and desperate India—and in …

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• 7 October

  Google new phones tap software, to chase Apple

  

  Bloomberg Google introduced new versions of its Pixel smartphones that lack key hardware features of the latest devices from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. But the internet giant is trying to make up for that with tighter software and services integration. The upgraded phones were presented at a press conference in San Francisco. The Pixel 2 has a 5-inch …

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• 7 October

  Founder of Apple top chipmaker Chang to hand over reins in June

  

  Bloomberg Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. chairman and founder Morris Chang will retire in June next year, handing the helm of the world’s largest producer of made-to-order microchips to the company’s two co-chief executives. Breaking with tradition, Chang used his retirement announcement to issue a 2017 revenue forecast that surpassed analysts’ estimates. TSMC’s sales growth should be close to 10 percent …

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• 7 October

  Tesla’s model 3 bottlenecks delay ‘semi truck’

  Bloomberg Tesla Inc. pushed back the reveal of its semi truck by three weeks as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk focusses on boosting production of the cheaper sedan that the electric-car maker is counting on to dramatically increase sales. Resources are being diverted to address the bottlenecks holding back the Model 3, Musk said. He’s also delaying the semi unveiling …

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• 7 October

  Facebook ‘embeds’ helped Donald Trump win elections

  

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s platform was a crucial messaging tool for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to the campaign’s digital director—who told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he hand-picked pro-Trump “embeds” from the company to help him use the platform in targeted ways. “Twitter is how [Trump] talked to the people, Facebook was going to be how he won,” Brad Parscale …

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