September, 2019

• 22 September

  Google to invest $3.3bn to grow EU data centres

  

  Bloomberg Google will invest 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) over the next two years to expand its server farms across Europe. The investments take its total spend on European data centers to 15 billion euros since 2007, Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told reporters in Helsinki following a meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne. It’s also investing 1 ...

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• 22 September

  Australia to join US for 2024 moon mission

  Bloomberg Australia will join the US on the mission to return to the lunar surface and then fly to Mars. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced his government will join the Moon-to-Mars project, including the NASA Artemis lunar program. Morrison pledged to more than triple the Australian Space Agency’s budget, according to a statement from NASA during Morrison’s US visit. The ...

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• 22 September

  UN chief sees cities, companies filling US void on climate

  

  Bloomberg The head of the United Nations said he believes the US can still pull its weight on climate change, even though President Donald Trump is skipping a UN climate summit on Monday and has worked to roll back restrictions on everything from vehicle to power plant emissions. Cities and businesses are helping fill part of the void left by ...

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• 22 September

  Ultra-low rates are no panacea for the stocks

  

  September is not even finished and already the S&P 500 Index is up 20% for the year. This is a remarkable achievement, given that earnings growth has stalled and the bond market is pricing in almost a 40% chance of a recession over the next 12 months. That just shows the degree to which lower interest rates have supported stocks. ...

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• 22 September

  Spain and the art of compromise

  

  For those who think that the luckiest country is the one with no government, Spain must be some sort of model. Spaniards will go to the polls on November 10 for the fourth time in four years after the country’s political parties failed to compromise on a workable majority. With Madrid’s star in the ascendancy in the European Union, and ...

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• 22 September

  Deutsche Bank faces yet more awkward questions

  For the umpteenth time, Deutsche Bank AG is ensnared in an alleged regulatory blunder. Except this time, the stakes are greater than its own integrity: Confidence in its regulator, the European Central Bank, is on the line too. The ECB is considering whether to probe Germany’s biggest bank for trading in its riskiest debt without the regulator’s approval, according to ...

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• 22 September

  Britain’s rail debacle is a cautionary tale

  To anyone who has followed the decade-long saga of Britain’s ambitious high-speed-rail project, known as HS2, the recent news that it’s at least five years behind schedule and 20 billion pounds ($25 billion) over budget shouldn’t come as a surprise. It should serve as a cautionary tale for policy makers dreaming of big projects at public expense. Understand at the ...

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• 22 September

  Europeans want the EU to act like a superpower

  

  Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president-elect, has promised to run a “geopolitical Commission” in the next five years. A recent study by the European Council on Foreign Relations, the international think tank, shows that this is what Europeans want, too — but von der Leyen’s vision of the European Union’s global role isn’t necessarily aligned with theirs. Von ...

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• 22 September

  While the Federal Reserve has no ‘guts,’ PBOC is on steroids

  

  It’s debatable whether the Federal Reserve has sense, vision or “guts.” But one thing is certain: The US central bank has become a weakling. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), on the other hand, is loaded with technocrats on steroids. The Fed’s prestige took a hit. Its most powerful regional reserve bank somehow botched a critical market rescue operation – ...

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• 22 September

  Boomers are crushing millennials. Read all about it!

  

  As a case study in the workings of modern democracy, the handling of Social Security by successive presidents and Congress over recent decades is a deeply disturbing exercise. The facts are not in dispute. Congress and the White House have agreed to benefits for retirees and the disabled that are woefully underfunded. Rather than bring the programs into balance — ...

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