October, 2019

• 12 October

  Google’s $2.6bn Looker deal gets Justice Department review

  

  Bloomberg US antitrust enforcers have started an in-depth review of Google’s $2.6 billion planned acquisition of a data analytics company, a further sign of greater scrutiny on big technology companies, according to people familiar with the situation. The antitrust division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking more information from Google and Looker Data Sciences Inc related to ...

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• 12 October

  Telegram gets SEC halt on token sales after $1.7 billion ICO

  

  Bloomberg The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained a restraining order to stop the encrypted messaging app Telegram from flooding the US with digital tokens, claiming that its coins are unregistered securities that can’t be sold to American investors. The order halts Telegram from selling digital tokens known as Grams, according to a complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan. ...

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• 12 October

  UAW counters GM contract offer after full day of finger-pointing

  

  Bloomberg The United Auto Workers (UAW) made a counter proposal to General Motors (GM) Co that would end a nearly month-long strike if the automaker agrees, capping a tumultuous day in which the union and company traded barbs and blame. UAW Vice President Terry Dittes offered no specifics on the proposal in a letter sent to members and published on ...

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• 12 October

  UK commits $110m for post-Brexit drug supply

  Bloomberg The UK government signed freight contracts worth as much as 87 million pounds ($110 million) to help ensure supplies of vital medicines amid concerns about post-Brexit disruptions. The contracts will be fulfilled by Brittany Ferries, DFDS A/S, P&O and Stena Line Travel Group AB, and will be provided across 13 routes, according to an emailed statement from the Department ...

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• 12 October

  Volkswagen mulls options for Lamborghini brand in overhaul

  

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is weighing options for its Lamborghini supercar brand, as the German manufacturer moves ahead with an overhaul aimed at more than doubling its market value and getting ahead of an expected industry shakeout, according to people familiar with the matter. The options VW is mulling include a sale or stock listing, said the people, who asked not ...

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• 12 October

  Ignoring arms control is a dangerous mistake

  

  The news that President Trump is considering abandoning the Open Skies Treaty probably brought a yawn from most observers. Arms-control agreements like this seem to many people like yesterday’s problem. But ignoring arms control is a dangerous mistake, especially now. We’re in a moment of strategic instability between the United States and Russia, when the two nations barely talk. At ...

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• 12 October

  Thailand economy is being too good

  

  Thailand really should let its hair down. The currency is strong and the current-account surplus is big versus the neighbourhood, while there’s a lot of scope for fiscal expansion. The Bank of Thailand has been grudging in cutting interest rates, in contrast to the easing party under way not just in Asia but in emerging and developed markets the world ...

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• 12 October

  GE’s latest casualty is pension promises

  General Electric Co. employees are still paying the price for the company’s mistakes. The industrial conglomerate announced that it will freeze US pension benefits for approximately 20,000 salaried employees and supplemental payouts for 700 executives. They’ll get to keep the benefits they’ve already accrued, and a plan to prefund an additional $4 billion to $5 billion of those obligations helps ...

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• 12 October

  Trump, Putin both hate the European cheese

  US President Donald Trump is known to admire his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. That doesn’t mean, however, that he should imitate some of Putin’s least effective policies – such as declaring war on European cheese. In the US, a 25% tariff on cheese imported from the European Union kicks in on October 18. In 2014, Russia banned EU cheese, and ...

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• 12 October

  Central banks can’t create negative rates by themselves

  

  It’s been a decade since the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and yet here we are in a world where the highest government bond yield starts with the number “2.” Among the world’s major developed economies, only the English speaking countries – the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia – still have monetary policy rates above zero. ...

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