November, 2018

• 19 November

  Oil demand for cars is already falling

  

  The International Energy Agency (IEA) published its World Energy Outlook, its annual effort at revising assessments of future demand for and supply of fuels and electricity. There’s a familiar theme within it: The IEA expects more renewable-energy use in the future than it did in last year’s outlook, which was more than it forecast in the 2016 outlook. There’s also ...

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• 19 November

  Google, second fiddle in cloud, needs new tune

  Google’s new cloud boss is used to being the underdog, and that’s fitting for the role he’s stepping into at one of the world’s most powerful corporations. The Alphabet Inc. unit has been trying for years — halfheartedly, at least until recently — to leverage its technical expertise in web search into areas such as renting computer power and data-crunching ...

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• 19 November

  Is the trade war really holding China back?

  With China posting its weakest growth in a decade, officials have blamed a “challenging external environment” – polite language for the trade war. It makes for a good sound bite with an obvious villain. But in reality, responsibility for the slowdown rests squarely with Beijing’s policies and cracks in the economy. For all the headlines and hand-wringing, the macro-level impact ...

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• 19 November

  Harvard problem is a version of America’s

  

  In the hierarchy of pleasures, schadenfreude comes second, so conservatives are enjoying Harvard’s entanglement with two things it has not sufficiently questioned — regulatory government and progressive sentiment. The trial that recently ended in Boston — the judge’s ruling might be months away, and reach the US Supreme Court — concerns whether Harvard’s admissions policy regarding Asian-Americans is unjust, and ...

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• 19 November

  Dell’s bump should be enough to get deal done

  

  Dell Technologies Inc.’s raised bid for its tracking-stock stepchild is so complicated it just might work. The technology giant is now offering $120 per share, or $23.9 billion, to buy out holders of the DVMT stock that was created to fund Dell’s 2016 buyout of EMC Corp. and was meant to reflect the value of that company’s stake in VMware ...

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• 19 November

  Can central banks go broke? A question for India

  

  An institution with money-printing powers should have no difficulty keeping the lights on. But could it continue to act effectively after depleting its net worth? Former Bank of England policymaker Willem Buiter posed that question in early 2008, and it’s currently the biggest challenge facing his long-time research collaborator Urjit Patel, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor. Under pressure ...

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• 19 November

  UBS could face $6 billion in fines as tax-fraud trial ends

  

  Bloomberg In the middle of UBS Group AG’s six-week tax trial in Paris, Presiding Judge Christine Mee’s tone changed. And that may have given a sign of what the bank can expect in a case that could cost it as much as $6 billion. The hearings, which have ended, started well for the Zurich-based bank. A team of 20 high-powered ...

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• 19 November

  Nordea dropped off list of global systemic banks

  

  Bloomberg Nordea Bank Abp just dropped off the list of global banks deemed too big to fail, but that doesn’t mean it can hold less regulatory capital. The Financial Stability Board removed Nordea from a group it defines as global systemically important banks (G-SIB). A G-SIB needs to have more capital than other banks, so the assumption is that no ...

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• 19 November

  Poland vows liquidity for troubled banks

  

  Bloomberg Poland’s finance minister and central bank chief pledged to provide liquidity for two lenders at the center of a corruption scandal as investors again sold battered bank stocks. “We are ready to guarantee that these banks have and will maintain liquidity,” Governor Adam Glapinski said on Monday. “Their clients are safe.” He spoke after the country’s Financial Stability Committee ...

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• 19 November

  Argentina nears end of a key rate floor

  Bloomberg Argentina’s central bank may eliminate the floor on its benchmark interest rate in early December if it sees a second consecutive decline in inflation expectations, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plan. The decision to eliminate the 60 percent floor may come as early as December 3, said the two people. Policy makers want to see ...

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