June, 2018

• 17 June

  Ford unit teams with startup to develop ‘Waze’ for self-driving cars

  

  Bloomberg A slew of companies have sprung up to make the smarts, sensors and other integral systems for self-driving cars. Here comes one to tell these cars where to go. Startup RideOS said that it has raised $9 million led by venture firm Sequoia Capital and reached a partnership with a division of Ford Motor Co. Started by two former ...

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• 17 June

  Don’t fear China’s industrial juggernaut

  

  Washington is working up a sweat over China’s industrial policies. There are fears Beijing will build technology companies and advanced manufacturers capable of squashing American rivals by lavishing aid on favoured sectors. Many of the tariffs the US plans to impose are aimed at products generated by this state-led agenda, most of it under the “Made in China 2025” program. ...

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• 17 June

  US companies are bringing cash home

  

  For all the flaws of the tax reform that Congress passed back in December, there’s one area where it appears to be working: Getting US companies to bring back the enormous piles of money they have stashed abroad. Now the question is what they will do with it. Before 2018, the US government taxed companies’ foreign earnings in a highly ...

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• 17 June

  It’s mission accomplished for the ECB, for now

  

  The European Central Bank (ECB) has said it intends to end its bond-buying program at the end of this year. It was the right decision. The aim of the program was to stave off the threat of deflation, and that has been done. Nonetheless, risks remain, and the central bank can’t afford to ignore them. The euro-zone economy has come ...

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• 17 June

  Crypto unicorns do battle while Bitcoin droops

  The Hong Kong market is low-hanging fruit for shy but hungry unicorns. Bitmain Technologies Ltd., the world’s dominant producer of cryptocurrency-mining equipment, is mulling a public listing, founder Jihan Wu told Blake Schmidt of Bloomberg News. Giving early backers such as Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital an exit is a fine gesture, sure, but the four-year-old Chinese company is rushing ...

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• 17 June

  Donald Trump’s G-7 crackup boosts China’s sway in Asia

  

  If US President Donald Trump wanted to discredit the West, he could hardly be doing a more thorough job of it. The hostility he directed at ostensible allies in the G-7 was bad enough, especially when contrasted with the obsequious praise he lavished on North Korea’s murderous Kim Jong Un in Singapore. Worse perhaps was the visual contrast between the ...

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• 17 June

  Citigroup outpaces its rivals in game of risk

  

  When it comes to risky trading, Citigroup Inc. may have a reason to protest too much. At an analysts’ conference, Citigroup CFO John Gerspach was asked about a recent proposed change to the Volcker Rule — the Dodd-Frank regulation that limits banks’ ability to make market bets with their own capital. Gerspach said the change wouldn’t matter much to Citi, ...

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• 17 June

  Scarce liquidity will worsen the next financial crisis

  

  No one can predict how bad the next financial crisis will be. What’s certain, though, is that a lack of liquidity will make the fallout much worse. Holders of securities, currencies and commodities need trading liquidity so they can adjust positions, raise cash to meet redemptions, reduce their risk, or limit losses. Yet they seem to anticipate more liquidity than ...

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• 17 June

  Norway wants to be pioneer in electric jets

  

  Bloomberg Home to some of the busiest flight routes in Europe, whisking passengers across a rugged and mountainous landscape, Norway’s aviation industry now readies to go electric. Norway is one of Tesla’s biggest markets, with about 8,500 cars sold last year. Now, the country whose tourism sales pitch is “Powered by Nature” wants to be a pioneer in the market ...

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• 17 June

  Russian driverless buses debut during World Cup

  

  Bloomberg World Cup soccer spectators got a chance to ride driverless buses to see France’s clash with Australia in Russia’s eastern city of Kazan, part of a state-backed push into autonomous vehicles. Local truck maker Kamaz PJSC is laying on the electric vehicles to show off its technological skills while the world’s eyes are on the remote city on the ...

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