July, 2019

• 31 July

  Hong Kong GDP contracts amid unrest

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong suffered a day of tempestuous weather, grim economic news and signs that the city’s political crisis is deepening. Gross domestic product contracted 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, while growth on a year-ago basis remained at 0.6 percent, according to data. Both results were well below the estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Hong Kong’s trade-dependent economy ...

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• 31 July

  Indian coffee king, VG Siddhartha, found dead

  

  Bloomberg VG Siddhartha, the founder of India’s biggest coffee chain, has been confirmed dead days after he purportedly wrote a letter indicating he was anxious about pressure from banks, investors and the tax authorities. Siddhartha told his driver he was going for a walk, near a bridge close to the southern Indian city of Mangaluru. He was reported missing after ...

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• 31 July

  Johnson’s biggest Brexit battle is plunging pound

  

  For much of the past two and a half years, the UK has had the luxury of negotiating the terms of its departure from the European Union under little pressure from the financial markets. The new prime minister Boris Johnson could soon come to pine for those calmer days. Sterling fell by more than 1.3 percent to $1.22, hitting its ...

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• 31 July

  Germany’s nitpicks won’t change big tech

  

  German courts, regulators and legislators are deeply suspicious of Big Tech’s business practices. Yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that, when they intervene to fix them, they only skim the surface of what’s wrong with the internet majors. That’s not necessarily wrong, either. Take, for example, Facebook’s practice of collecting data from third-party websites that have embedded the social ...

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• 31 July

  Tesla needs even more than ludicrous speed

  Tesla Inc. refers to its most head-snapping level of acceleration as “ludicrous” mode. What the company needs, though, is escape velocity. And what it needs to escape are its operating costs. The company didn’t manage to turn a profit despite record vehicle deliveries in its last quarter. As cheaper Model 3s account for a bigger proportion of sales, bringing down ...

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• 31 July

  Europe, US must unite to stop Iran’s misadventures

  European nations, alarmed by Iran’s capture of a British oil tanker, are mounting a response to protect their commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf. The Royal Navy has started to escort British ships, and a plan for a European naval mission has been endorsed by Denmark, France and Italy. It’s a promising start. But effectively curbing ...

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• 31 July

  Europe needs a different approach to IMF leadership

  

  Having reportedly agreed on a short list of candidates to replace Christine Lagarde as managing director of International Monetary Fund, European governments are set to announce their nominee by the end of this week. What they should be doing instead is support merit-based nomination of candidates from both inside and outside Europe, as well as a better due diligence process. ...

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• 31 July

  India shouldn’t bail out stressed shadow banks

  

  The slowdown that began among India’s shadow banks is spreading. Sectors that had come to depend on credit from what in India are called non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) are posting awful numbers. Insurance is slowing and real estate is troubled. The automobile sector — which contributes half of India’s manufacturing output — is shrinking as stressed shadow banks prioritise survival ...

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• 31 July

  Startups aim to spark progress on fusion energy

  

  Twenty-five years ago, as a young physicist, I worked on research linked to fusion energy. Nuclear fusion powers sun and stars through reactions that turn hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei, and if we could master the process on Earth, we’d have a safe and virtually limitless source of clean energy. At conferences every year, scientists from around the world gathered ...

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• 31 July

  US stocks edge higher ahead of Fed decision; Treasuries rise

  

  Bloomberg US stocks edged higher as strong earnings and a continuation of trade talks helped ease investor concerns. Treasuries rose ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision. The S&P 500 advanced for the first time in three days, fuelled in large part by Apple Inc after the company lifted its forecast. Sentiment also got a boost after US and Chinese ...

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