April, 2018

• 4 April

  France hit by second day of rail chaos as strike bites

  

  PARIS / Reuters Millions of French commuters suffered a second consecutive day of travel chaos on Wednesday as striking rail workers locked horns with President Emmanuel Macron’s government in a dispute over reforming the state-owned SNCF railways. Commuters in and around Paris pushed their way onto the few trains running during the rush-hour while many platforms in the French capital’s ...

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• 4 April

  Italy’s 5-Star seeks governing contract with rivals

  

  ROME / Reuters Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement proposed a German-style governing contract with two of its rivals as formal talks aimed at seating a government began on Wednesday, a month after an election ended with a hung parliament. The inconclusive March 4 vote left soft-spoken President Sergio Mattarella to coax sworn adversaries towards a coalition deal. The process could take ...

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• 4 April

  Libyans to take part in public consultations to end political deadlock

  Reuters Libyan citizens are to be asked for their views on the country’s future in a series of UN-backed public consultations aimed at breaking a political stalemate and preparing for new elections after years of conflict and division. The first meetings will be held in the eastern city of Benghazi and the far western city of Zuwara on Thursday. More ...

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• 4 April

  Rational markets theory keeps running into irrational humans

  

  To many young people, the idea of efficient financial markets — the idea that, in the words of economist Eugene Fama, “At any point in time, the actual price of a security will be a good estimate of its intrinsic value” — probably seems like a joke. The financial crisis of 2008, the bursting of the housing bubble, and gyrations ...

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• 4 April

  Murdoch gears up to fight for Sky

  

  Investors betting that Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. is ready to raise its 11.7 billion-pound ($16.4 billion) offer for Sky Plc have had their convictions reinforced. The media tycoon’s US television group has devised a cunning remedy to assuage British trustbusters’ concerns about the deal. It’s also sounding increasingly exasperated with the process. These are signs that Fox is ...

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• 4 April

  The UK finance gender pay gap isn’t bad. It’s worse

  It’s probably worse than it looks. Government-mandated gender pay gap reports are rolling in before Thursday’s deadline. The inequality is stark for UK finance companies — data last month from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. showed a median gender pay gap of 36.4 percent — in other words, women earn 64 pence for every pound that men earn. While the median ...

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• 4 April

  Trade tensions already weigh on metal prices

  The prices of industrial metals, oil and other commodities have risen significantly since the Chinese manufacturing recession ended in June 2016. But many have fallen from their highs in January 2018, first in reaction to the risk of higher interest rates and now, more critically, because of trade tensions and the potential for global manufacturing and growth to be slower ...

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• 4 April

  How the US courts could protect Mueller’s probe

  

  If President Trump fires Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, that won’t necessarily be the end of his investigation. Power to continue the probe, and report on its findings, could also rest with Beryl Howell, who as chief judge of the federal district court here oversees the Mueller grand jury. To prepare for the crisis that Mueller’s firing would cause, ...

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• 4 April

  Good news is no longer unspeakable in Japan

  

  The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is crossing an important threshold. It’s about time. Once off limits, Japan’s eventual exit from ultra-loose monetary policy is now a public topic for Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. In testimony to the Japanese parliament this week, he said there are internal discussions on how to begin to withdraw from the bond buying that’s kept interest rates ...

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• 4 April

  Four ways for technology wizards to perfect the world

  

  A new season of the Mike Judge’s HBO comedy ‘Silicon Valley’ is happily upon us, which means that over the next two months or so we’ll be getting regular reminders of one of the show’s recurring themes: that those who toil in the Valley care about nothing so much as making the world a better place. Or, as Gavin Belson, ...

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