April, 2019

• 6 April

  Zuckerberg’s rules would hurt everyone but Facebook

  Facebook Inc. has mastered an array of corporate aptitudes — including its use of euphemism and obfuscation. So when its boss, Mark Zuckerberg, writes an op-ed asking governments to impose some new regulation on his company, a little skepticism is in order. Make that a lot of skepticism. Zuckerberg’s proposals, published in Washington Post, cover four topics: “harmful content,” elections, ...

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• 6 April

  Despite May’s swerve, the best Brexit is no Brexit

  UK Prime Minister Theresa May stopped trying to get her fellow Tories to back her plan for quitting the European Union (EU), and asked the opposition Labour Party to come to her aid. Could this be that most elusive of Brexit developments: progress? Not exactly. For many reasons — politics, self-interest, the fundamentally incoherent task at hand — May and ...

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• 6 April

  Keep an eye on Donald Trump’s other trade war

  

  If you are looking for the thriller movie that has captured the attention of global markets, this is certainly the trade negotiation between the US and China. It stars an unpredictable leader (President Donald Trump), an impenetrable rival (Chinese President Xi Jinping) and an issue which is typically secretive and hard to understand (trade talks). Equity and currency markets have ...

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• 6 April

  Masa Son’s easy way to make $1bn a year

  

  Masayoshi Son is a very clever man. SoftBank Group Corp., his giant Japanese conglomerate, is in talks with investors to add as much as $15 billion to its Vision Fund, according to Bloomberg News. The $100 billion venture capital fund has already deployed more than $70 billion in tech companies. Son is right on the money. Even if you set ...

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• 6 April

  The Renault-Nissan alliance against Carlos Ghosn

  

  The downfall of Carlos Ghosn, once idolised as the globe-trotting genius who turned France’s Renault SA and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. into the world’s biggest automaking alliance, is turning into a tale of back-stabbing politics, corporate self-interest and excessive greed worthy of grand opera. It’s hard to see how anyone comes out of this looking like a hero – and ...

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• 6 April

  Amazon readies AirPods rival as first Alexa wearable

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc is trying a new way to take its Alexa digital assistant mobile: wireless earbuds that mirror Apple Inc’s popular AirPods. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is readying earbuds with built-in Alexa access for as early as the second half of this year, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The headphones will look and act similar to ...

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• 6 April

  Ford reboots its European strategy with electrification

  

  Bloomberg Ford Motor Co will roll out four plug-in hybrids and two battery-powered models in its latest effort to boost its loss-making business in Europe, where manufacturers face slowing sales and tightening emissions rules. The US carmaker said it will offer a new compact Puma, part of a revamped SUV lineup that includes the Explorer and an overhauled version of ...

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• 6 April

  Fastest electric car chargers waiting for batteries to catch up

  

  Bloomberg The viability of electric vehicles depends in part on a manufacturing plant in eastern Australia, where gleaming white cabinets the size of large refrigerators are loaded onto shipping crates. They’re among the most advanced car chargers available, promising to deliver a full tank of juice in minutes. Automakers and energy companies are spearheading the global rollout of these ultra-fast ...

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• 6 April

  Trump urges Fed to slash rates to boost economy

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump called on the Federal Reserve to open the monetary floodgates to turn the world’s largest economy into a “rocket ship.” “I personally think the Fed should drop rates. I think they really slowed us down. There’s no inflation. I would say in terms of quantitative tightening, it should actually now be quantitative easing,” he told reporters ...

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• 6 April

  SocGen plans 700 Paris job cuts after tough first quarter

  

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA plans to cut as many as 700 jobs in Paris and eliminate hundreds more positions in London and New York after experiencing a difficult first-quarter in investment banking, people with knowledge of the matter said. The French bank is speeding up staff reductions at its headquarters after tough trading conditions persisted into the new year and ...

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