June, 2019

• 22 June

  Facebook’s Libra is a good idea with a lot of risks

  Say this for Facebook Inc.: It doesn’t lack ambition. The company unveiled plans to issue a digital currency, called Libra, sometime next year. Using a blockchain-like data system, and anchored by a basket of low-risk financial assets, its ambition is to be bitcoin without the problems. Or, as Facebook modestly puts it, “a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that ...

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• 22 June

  The Fed stands pat while big questions still loom

  On June 19, as most investors expected, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged for now, but said the case for cuts later in the year is stronger than before. That judgment looks reasonable, all things considered. Right now, the US economy is at or close to full employment, growing at a satisfactory rate, with inflation close to the Fed’s ...

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• 22 June

  Can India expand GDP to $5trn in five years?

  

  A few days ago, when talking to an the assembled chief ministers of India’s states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that he wanted India to be a “$5 trillion economy” by 2024, when he once again faces reelection. This would, he said, be “challenging, but achievable.” Modi could never be accused of lacking ambition, but the fact is that getting ...

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• 22 June

  Foxconn game of thrones looms as its king is abdicating

  

  On June 11, for the first time in history, Foxconn Technology Group held an investor relations conference for its flagship company. That’s the good news. The bad news is what the moment portends: The world’s largest electronics manufacturer is about to be left without a CEO. It took founder Terry Gou’s pending departure from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. to ...

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• 22 June

  Germany needs to keep its autobahns free for all

  

  Germany’s famed autobahns have lost an important source of funding. Their new management hoped the money would help them to ease congestion and restore the roads to their former glory. Historically free of charge, the highways are widely viewed as a symbol of freedom. The absence of speed limits on much of the country’s 13,000-kilometer network is part of the ...

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• 22 June

  Walmart’s kickstarting a $1tn driverless delivery market

  

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc came to dominate retailing through its mastery of logistics—the complicated choreography of getting goods from farm or factory to the consumer. But even the world’s biggest store doesn’t make money selling its wares online in the US, largely due to runaway shipping costs. So Walmart is turning to robots. Earlier this month, Walmart’s US chief Greg Foran ...

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• 22 June

  Waymo to study driverless services with ‘auto alliance’

  

  Bloomberg Waymo LLC agreed to explore driverless services with Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp, pairing a leader in self-driving technology with the world’s largest automotive alliance. The three carmakers and Alphabet Inc’s autonomous-vehicle unit will study market opportunities and research legal and safety issues related to driverless transportation services in France and Japan, the companies said ...

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• 22 June

  Rolls-Royce’s chief looks to electric-aircraft future

  

  Bloomberg Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc’s Warren East said he’s keen to lead the engine maker into a new age of electrically powered aircraft after spending years focussed on costs cuts and restructuring. The CEO, recruited by Rolls from semiconductor developer ARM Holdings Plc, said his enthusiasm for leading the UK engineering giant is undimmed by the saga of firings, disposals and ...

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• 22 June

  Fed stress test: Goldman, Morgan Stanley improve after 2018 slip

  

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley improved on last year’s poor results in the first round of the latest Federal Reserve stress tests, a sign they may have more flexibility to boost payouts to shareholders. In figures posted by the Fed, the pair didn’t come as close to breaching regulatory minimums as they did last year, offering hope ...

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• 22 June

  Only a few lenders reap rewards from digital shift globally

  

  Bloomberg While global banks have been pouring money into information technology — to the tune of $1 trillion over three years — only a handful appear to be fully committed to a digital transformation and are therefore reaping the benefits, according to an Accenture Plc study. Just 19 of the 161 largest retail and commercial banks that the consulting firm ...

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