October, 2019

• 5 October

  The ideology of climate change denial in the US

  

  More people are coming around to the idea that climate change is really bad news. A recent Washington Post poll found that 38% of Americans now consider climate change a crisis, with another 38% calling it a major problem. And denialism is in retreat — an overwhelming majority, and even 60% of Republicans, admit that the problem is manmade. The ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  China won’t save world economy

  

  US recession indicators are growing stronger and there’s one bigger-than-usual reason why the world should be worried: China isn’t coming to the rescue this time. In the past week alone, a gauge of US manufacturing unexpectedly fell to its weakest reading in a decade and payrolls at private companies grew less than forecast. Economists are starting to wonder whether the ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Metro Bank pays an awful lot just to keep going

  Metro Bank Plc, the upstart UK lender, evidently has little other option than to enter the last-chance saloon. The first company in more than a century to go head-to-head with Britain’s big four banks is struggling to recover from an accounting error (underestimating the risk on some loans) , which led to a sell-off in its shares. Confidence was undermined ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Don’t escalate dispute between Airbus, Boeing

  The world’s longest running and most expensive trade dispute looks set to end in a destructive shootout — that is, if the US and European Union don’t show some sense. On October 2, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) authorised the US to proceed with tariffs on as much as $7.5 billion in European exports, likely including planes, aircraft parts and ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Another RBI rate cut is not going to help India

  

  It’s almost universally expected in India that the central bank’s monetary policy committee will lower interest rates this week. Many expect it to keep cutting until the policy rate hits 5% by the end of the year; it was 6% in June, and the committee cut it by an unexpected 0.35 percentage points in its last meeting to bring it ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Tesco boss is leaving before his sell-by date

  

  In the five years since Tesco Plc was plunged into the biggest crisis in its history, Dave Lewis, its chief executive officer, has executed an (almost) textbook turnaround of Britain’s biggest retailer. He’s now decided that his job is done and he will hand over the reins next year to Ken Murphy of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. “Drastic Dave” — ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Sony’s PlayStation Now needs more than a price cut

  

  Sony Corp. has halved the price of its PlayStation Now subscription games service. Competition from console rival Nintendo Co. as well as new offerings from Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. are the obvious reasons. In addition, though, PlayStation Now failed to live up to its potential. At $19.99 per month, the product was way overpriced. After four years, Sony ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Microsoft is back in the phone game

  

  Bloomberg Now that Microsoft has restored some of its former glory, the company is going for an even more unlikely comeback: rewriting the history of its much-maligned phone business. Three years after retreating from the smartphone business, Microsoft took the wraps off the Surface Duo, a dual-screened handheld computing device coming in time for Christmas 2020. Yes, it makes phone ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  British firm building flying taxis’ hub in Singapore

  

  Bloomberg A British company says it’s building the world’s first “vertiport” for electric aircraft in Singapore, an early step towards a global network for flying taxis. Essex-based Skyports Ltd plans to show off the vertical take-off and landing station at Marina Bay during the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress from October 21-25. Germany’s Volocopter GmbH will bring along its electric ...

  Read More »
• 5 October

  Huawei phones lose bootleg access to Google apps

  

  Bloomberg One of Huawei Technologies Co’s biggest trade war headaches has just gotten worse, as an unofficial workaround to the Trump administration ban on using Google apps and services has been quashed. Security researcher John Wu published an illuminating post that explained how users of Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro were able to manually download and install Google apps, despite a ...

  Read More »