October, 2019

• 13 October

  US-China trade war truce is needed for global growth

  

  As the global economy shows signs of stuttering, the race is on to find the right policy response. In Europe, many central bankers are asking politicians in countries such as Germany to unleash a fiscal stimulus to complement their recent monetary push. In the US, President Donald Trump is lambasting the Federal Reserve for failing to cut rates fast enough, ...

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• 13 October

  Facebook can fight lies in political ads

  

  All over the world, truth is in trouble. What are we going to do about that? Unfortunately, Facebook’s new policy on political advertisements is a step in the wrong direction. By exempting “politicians” from its third-party fact-checking program, designed to reduce the spread of lies and falsehoods in ads, the company is essentially throwing up its hands. With some urgency, ...

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• 13 October

  Hong Kong left exposed by HKEX surrender on LSE

  That was quick. Workers in Hong Kong’s finance industry returned to the office after a long weekend of violent protests to find that their stock exchange has decided not to pursue a takeover bid for its London counterpart. The limp end to its month-long courtship has left Charles Li, chief executive officer of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., looking ...

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• 13 October

  The Fed can’t fight this kind of inflation

  The Federal Reserve held a “listening session” in Washington, not for members of Congress but for representatives from the community. It was a worthwhile exercise and is an admirable program, but as it turns out their main concerns are beyond the Fed’s ability to address. Representatives of traditionally price-conscious groups such as retirees and small-business owners reported that they were ...

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• 13 October

  Greta Thunberg going radical won’t help planet

  

  Political leaders around the globe have celebrated the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg – but can they handle her as she and her supporters turn more radical? The protests launched in big cities worldwide by the environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion are a first test. Extinction Rebellion, like Thunberg, wants governments to treat climate change as an emergency and to ...

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• 13 October

  Where HSBC goes, expect rivals to follow

  

  HSBC Holdings Plc’s interim Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn is considering going much further than his former boss in cutting fat at the bank. He may triple job reductions announced just two months ago to as much as 6% of the workforce. Sure enough, Quinn may be trying to impress the board and investors to secure the No. 1 position ...

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• 13 October

  Tinkering with college diversity presents a tangled web

  

  The judge took 130 pages to explain that Harvard’s “holistic review” admissions policies — which include ascribing particular attributes to certain ethnicities, such as Asian Americans, and assessing the value to Harvard of those attributes — are, considering 41 years of Supreme Court precedents, permissibly race-conscious. She said the policies do not discriminate against Asian Americans. However, the suit some ...

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• 13 October

  Sterling investors approach ‘point of maximum danger’ on Brexit

  

  Bloomberg The pound’s rally could have a lot further to run if a Brexit deal is secured — and far to fall if talks fail next week. Traders are the most bullish on record for the UK currency over the next month after the European Union’s chief negotiator recommended that detailed talks can begin in earnest. The currency saw its ...

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• 13 October

  Gulf markets rise as traders await Aramco IPO details

  

  Bloomberg Equity markets in the Middle East advanced, tracking earlier emerging market gains. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark led the way, as traders wait for Saudi Aramco to pull the trigger on its mammoth IPO. Gauges from Riyadh to Dubai rose, with bank stocks contributing the most to the Tadawul All Share Index rally. An index tracking stocks from developing countries climbed ...

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• 13 October

  Trade deal is ‘game changer’ for tech stocks: Wedbush

  Bloomberg The partial US-China trade agreement is a “game changer” for technology stocks, at least according to one analyst. The deal announced by President Trump in the last hour of trading points to “brighter days” in relations between the two countries and makes it unlikely the US will follow through with the more than $160 billion in tariffs slated to ...

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