June, 2019

• 30 June

  The trade myth Boris Johnson needs

  

  One might have thought that Brexit debate could not be made any more confusing. But the Conservative Party leadership race is doing just that. The obfuscation serves a political purpose. Early this year, Brexiters who are happy for the UK to leave the European Union without a deal latched on to an argument that Britain, once it leaves, can keep ...

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• 30 June

  Huawei’s ties to China’s military aren’t problem

  At first blush, the optics of Huawei Technologies Co. staff working alongside China’s military aren’t great. Company employees teamed up with various organs of the Peoples’ Liberation Army on at least 10 research endeavors over the past decade, spanning artificial intelligence and radio communications, Bloomberg News reported, citing publicly available documents. Among the joint projects: extracting and classifying emotions in ...

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• 30 June

  Currency wars are easy to start and tough to win

  To President Donald Trump, and any other Group of 20 chief thinking about waging a currency war: It’s basically impossible to win. That’s partly because they don’t really happen in practice. If they did, everybody would lose because everyone would play. The surest way to affect the relative value of an exchange rate is through nudging interest rates up or ...

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• 30 June

  Air conditioning is the world’s next big threat

  

  The vast majority of Americans have air conditioning but in Germany almost nobody does. At least not yet. So when temperatures in Berlin rose to an uncomfortable 37 Celsius (99 Fahrenheit) this week – a record for the month of June – I was uncommonly delighted to go to the Bloomberg office, where it’s artificially and blissfully cool. By letting ...

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• 30 June

  Hong Kong banks’ biggest threat could end up saving them

  

  In a poor, underbanked country, there wouldn’t be anything unusual about imposing a $6.40–a-month penalty on depositors unable to keep at least $640 in their savings accounts. That’s just how financial exclusion works. But in rich Hong Kong, a city that gives banks more than $26 billion in annual earnings, it took a fintech revolution to make HSBC Holdings Plc ...

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• 30 June

  The unbanked don’t need Facebook’s money

  

  Among Facebook Inc.’s justifications for introducing a new digital currency, Libra, the company has offered one pious rationale: to connect the 1.7 billion adults who lack bank accounts to the global financial system. That’s certainly one way for the “unbanked” to enjoy the convenience of digital money. Or they could just use a DeathAdder Elite. The DeathAdder is, of course, ...

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• 30 June

  Huawei reprieve is good and bad news for Asia tech stocks

  

  Bloomberg Many are expecting a relief rally after the world’s largest economies declared a truce in their trade war. In Asia, the sector that just won the biggest reprieve is tech stocks. President Donald Trump’s decision to allow US corporations to resume sales to Huawei Technologies Co, China’s largest telecommunications-equipment maker, will boost semiconductor stocks as concerns surrounding demand for ...

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• 30 June

  BIS starts fintech hub as banks look into crypto

  

  Bloomberg The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is setting up shop to help officials embrace financial technology, who may need to speed up developing their own digital currency. The BIS, which promotes cooperation among the world’s monetary officials, announced it was starting an innovation hub for financial technology. And in an interview with the Financial Times, BIS General Manager Agustin ...

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• 30 June

  Philippine peso’s best run in six years is under threat

  Bloomberg The Philippine peso’s longest run of quarterly gains in six years will be tested this week with a report forecast to show inflation resumed its downtrend in June. Evidence consumer-price gains are cooling raises the prospect the central bank will follow up on its May interest-rate cut to support flagging growth. Technical indicators also suggest the peso may struggle ...

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• 30 June

  Wizz Air CEO says new Airbus jets to extend reach to India

  

  Bloomberg Discount carrier Wizz Air Holdings Plc is considering using a new fleet of long-range narrow-body Airbus SE jets to launch flights from London to Dubai and even central Europe to India in a further challenge to network rivals. The 20 A321 XLR planes ordered will allow Wizz to broaden its footprint and beef up capacity on existing destinations, Chief ...

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