April, 2019

• 9 April

  Germany’s economic data contradicts itself

  

  Germany’s economic outlook resembles Winston Churchill’s description of Russia: a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Analysts are banging their heads over the contradictory data emanating from Europe’s largest economy after it narrowly escaped a recession at the end of last year. The question of how severe Germany’s slowdown really is matters for policy makers, especially for those ...

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• 9 April

  Is pay-as-you-earn model the future of education?

  

  Is it possible to equitise human labour? For years people have talked about the idea of selling shares in one’s own talent, in the hope of attracting funds and assistance from others. Now it seems that this idea is happening at scale, through the Lambda School in California. The Lambda School teaches information technology skills online, and it charges zero ...

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• 9 April

  US futures, Europe stocks edge lower with greenback

  

  Bloomberg US equity futures and European shares edged down after President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs on goods produced in the EU. The dollar slipped while Treasuries nudged higher. Contracts on the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq pointed to a weaker open and the Stoxx 600 Index erased an earlier gain as the European Union prepared retaliatory tariffs in response ...

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• 9 April

  Some stocks surge as Japan redesigns currency notes

  

  Bloomberg Japan announced new currency note designs today, sending shares of several somewhat obscure companies soaring. Glory Ltd — a provider of cash sorting machines — rallied as much as 19 percent, the most in more than 11 years, after the Ministry of Finance said that it plans to circulate new bill designs by the first half of the fiscal ...

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• 9 April

  Big foreign lenders could face new risk rules under Fed’s plan

  

  Bloomberg The Federal Reserve is proposing a new approach for overseeing foreign banks such as Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG that’s expected to require some of them to hold bigger stockpiles of easy-to-sell assets to guard against losses. Fed board members voted 4-1 to seek comment on its plan for a new system that closely ...

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• 9 April

  Trumps says US economy doing well despite ‘destructive’ Fed

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump fired a fresh broadside at the Federal Reserve for raising interest rates last year, saying the economy is in good shape “despite the unnecessary and destructive actions” taken by the central bank. In a tweet, Trump added that trade agreements with China, Canada and Mexico are “moving along nicely, there is little or no Inflation, and ...

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• 9 April

  SocGen to cut 1,600 jobs globally as slump hits trading

  

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA said it plans to cut about 1,600 jobs after a slump in trading revenue pushed Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea to intensify efforts to boost profit at the investment-banking unit. The reductions include close to 1,200 positions at the global banking and investor solutions division, which houses its trading activities, a trade union representing SocGen’s French ...

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• 9 April

  Deutsche Bank’s trading arm key for ECB in takeover talks

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s troubled trading arm will be a focus of European banking regulators when they decide whether to approve a potential takeover of rival Commerzbank AG, according to people familiar with the matter. Supervisors at the European Central Bank and national authorities want a clear idea of how much the combined entity will depend on the securities unit ...

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• 9 April

  Carney: Risk of no-deal Brexit alarmingly high

  Bloomberg The risk of a no-deal Brexit is now “alarmingly high,” according to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who described some claims about how the UK could manage such a situation as “absolute nonsense.” Leaving the European Union without an agreement has become the “default” outcome despite being opposed by Parliament, and could happen by accident, he said in ...

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• 9 April

  ECB needs more scrutiny from parliament: Report

  

  Bloomberg European lawmakers should play a bigger role in scrutinising the European Central Bank and appointing its key officials, according to a report from the Positive Money Europe advocacy group. The organisation, which wants a fairer banking system and opposes policies such as quantitative easing, recommen-ds giving politicians more time to put questions to President Mario Draghi at his quarterly ...

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