August, 2017

• 26 August

  Square opens first ‘brick and mortar’ store to lure sellers

  Bloomberg Jack Dorsey’s latest bet is positively old-school. Square Inc., the mobile payments processor run by Dorsey, unveiled its first physical store to offer hands-on support for merchants using its technology and showcase some of their wares. To most passersby, the cozy space looks like any other boutique store in Manhattan’s Nolita neighbourhood, with eclectic merchandise for sale like handmade …

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• 26 August

  Hudson’s Bay shares two-month high, at $9.18

  

  Bloomberg Hudson’s Bay Co., the owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor chains, spiked as much as 14 percent after Reuters reported the company is reviewing its strategic options. The department-store company, which has already hired an investment bank as it responds to pressure from activist shareholder Land & Buildings Investment Management LLC, plans to hire an …

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• 26 August

  German carmakers urged to challenge Musk’s Tesla

  

  Bloomberg German automakers must invest more in electric vehicles and take on Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff said Saturday. Peter Altmaier said he was thoroughly disappointed by German auto executives following the diesel-emissions scandal and that he was also thinking about the future of the 600,000 employees in the industry. “When is our automobile industry, …

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• 26 August

  Amazon.com primes Whole Foods for more visitors

  

  Bloomberg Jeff Bezos is about to one-up your grocery store loyalty program. Today, millions of consumers get lower prices and other perks in exchange for favouring one store chain over another. Starting Monday, Amazon.com Inc. will lavish its most loyal customers with similar benefits and more when they shop at Whole Foods Market Inc., the high-end grocery chain it’s buying …

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• 26 August

  How to beat North Korea at nuclear blackmail

  

  “Strategic patience” is out as the US approach to North Korea, and “strategic accountability” is the new term of art. That’s according to an op-ed article by Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “The object of our peaceful pressure campaign,” they write, “is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” While I heartedly approve of finally …

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• 26 August

  Why bother even expecting Trump to condemn Nazis?

  

  Briefly, before he went wildly off-script at Trump Tower, we lived in a world where the 45th president of the United States had finally managed to condemn Nazis. And let’s ask ourselves: Did that make us feel any better? Did the sight of Donald J. Trump glumly reading off a teleprompter remarks obviously written by someone else convince anyone that …

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• 26 August

  How technology could be getting out of control

  Humanity has a method for trying to prevent new technologies from getting out of hand: explore the possible negative consequences, involving all parties affected, and come to some agreement on ways to mitigate them. New research, though, suggests that the accelerating pace of change could soon render this approach ineffective. People use laws, social norms and international agreements to reap …

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• 26 August

  It’s past time to bury the Confederacy for good

  They may call themselves “white nationalists,” but the adjective nullifies the noun. In Charlottesville, Virginia, few of them hoisted American flags. They marched under banners the United States took up arms to fight. Their stated cause was preserving a statue of a man who committed treason against our country: Robert E. Lee. Confederate flags, statuary and memorials have defenders who …

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• 26 August

  The shouters win town hall battles, lose the war

  

  I spent part of last week following a congressman around the sun-baked precincts of West Texas. I watched Will Hurd meet with constituents, deliver his stump speech, and wax lyrical about the Dairy Queen Blizzard. I listened to voters tell me how much they admired Hurd, a moderate Republican in the only competitive district in Texas. I also watched the …

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• 26 August

  The Dow Jones is useful, if underused, roadmap

  

  President Donald Trump likes to tweet about the performance of stocks this year, most recently noting at the start of the month that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was on the cusp of reaching 22,000 and another record high. The implication is that the gains are a direct result of Trump’s performance and policies. But do US presidents really drive …

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