September, 2018

• 8 September

  Facebook accuses BlackBerry of stealing its ‘tech’

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is suing BlackBerry Ltd. for patent infringement, escalating the legal battle between the two companies over protected technology. In a 118-page complaint filed filed in San Francisco federal court, Facebook accused BlackBerry of stealing its voice messaging technology, among other patented processes. Facebook is seeking unspecified damages for infringement of six patents. BlackBerry didn’t immediately respond to ...

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• 8 September

  The truth about Trump’s record on regulation

  

  Is US  President Donald J Trump dismantling the regulatory state? Not close. To be sure, recent headlines give the impression that he is. On one day, the Department of Transportation proposes to scale back fuel-economy requirements for motor vehicles. On another, the Department of Education proposes to eliminate regulations on for-profit colleges, designed to protect against exploitation and abuse of students. ...

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• 8 September

  Welcome to Italian bond-market circus

  

  Italy’s new government has clearly learned that saying the right sort of thing works. Yields have raced in this week on a barrage of press reports that the populist government is going to respect European Union rules in the 2019 budget. Ten-year BTP yields have fallen nearly 40 basis points this week, driving the spread to German debt down to ...

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• 8 September

  Emerging-market rout claims a blameless victim

  Whenever there’s a bout of emerging-markets flu, Indonesia catches it. Jakarta may be crying foul, because it looked as though the nation was inoculated: Since May, Bank Indonesia has raised benchmark rates by 1.25 percentage points as insurance against the stronger dollar, almost as aggressive a move as during the 2013 taper tantrum. Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo’s government may increase ...

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• 8 September

  In a way, Trump is right about Google’s bias

  Apparently, President Donald Trump doesn’t like the news that he sees about himself on Google, Facebook and Twitter. So he’s accusing them of being rigged against him — and against conservatives in general. Absurd as Trump’s claim may be, the tech giants have it coming. Trump is probably wrong that the gatekeepers of the internet are suppressing conservative views and ...

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• 8 September

  Economists are gearing up to challenge the monopolies

  

  The antitrust movement is making a comeback. Zephyr Teachout, candidate for New York state attorney general, is promising to fight monopolies. Activists such as Matt Stoller of the Open Market Institute are beginning to draw attention to the problem of concentrated market power. Think tanks like the Washington Center for Equitable Growth are starting to zero in on the issue ...

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• 8 September

  When will bleeding stop in emerging markets?

  

  Hedge funds haven’t been this bearish for years. In the last month, funds quickly sold down their positions in emerging markets to levels last seen in August 2015, when China scared the world with a surprise devaluation, and early 2016, when Beijing terminated a silly experiment with circuit breakers in a futile attempt to rescue the stock market. Emerging markets ...

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• 8 September

  Are robots all hype? Nidec may have the answer

  

  Will robots run the factories of the world? There may be clues in Japan. Tokyo-listed Nidec Corp. makes motors of all sizes that show up in just about everything: your car, your washing machine, even hard-disk drives from back in the day. The company was founded in 1973 by Shigenobu Nagamori, an acquisitive and ambitious Japanese billionaire who counts Masayoshi ...

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• 8 September

  Canon joins Sony, Nikon in mirror-less camera battle

  

  Bloomberg Canon Inc. is finally entering the full-frame mirrorless camera market, joining Sony Corp. and Nikon Corp. in a new battleground for professional-grade camera equipment. The Japanese electronics giant will begin selling in late October the EOS R for 237,500 yen ($2,130), a price tag targeted at professionals and enthusiasts. It aims to move 20,000 units a month. Canon is ...

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• 8 September

  Lockheed’s $2 million drone race pits human versus machine

  

  Bloomberg In a modern-day version of John Henry taking on a steam drill, Lockheed Martin Corp. is pitting human pilots against artificial intelligence in a $2 million drone race. The catch is that the computer-driven drones can’t be pre-programmed for the route or rely on human intervention. They must depend only on artificial intelligence and self-learning to navigate obstacle-filled racecourses ...

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