March, 2018

• 24 March

  Fed’s dots are knocking on Asia’s doors

  

  Jerome Powell’s debut rate-setting meeting as Federal Reserve chairman had few surprises. The quarter-percentage-point increase in the target for overnight US interest rates was expected. An added relief was policymakers’ decision to leave their median forecast for end-2018 rates unchanged. Yet the all-important dot-plot—committee members’ individual expectations—are telling Asia something more worrying. A possible fourth rate hike in 2018 hasn’t ...

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• 24 March

  Uber’s self-driving casualty

  

  History will probably remember Elaine Herzberg for a tragic reason: She’s thought to be the first pedestrian ever killed by an autonomous vehicle. Herzberg was struck by a self-driving Uber last week in Arizona, apparently stepping off a median and into traffic too quickly for the car’s sensors to detect her. Even Uber’s safety driver—the human backup sitting behind the ...

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• 24 March

  US and EU can make trade ties great again

  Just when the European Union seemed to have recovered some of its free-trade zeal, it now faces the prospect of a mutually destructive trade war with its biggest economic partner, the US. Escalation has risks for both sides. The US from counter-tariff measures and the EU from a fragmented response as some member states are tempted to accept US offers ...

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• 24 March

  What the public needs and doesn’t from Facebook now

  

  The public is set to hear from Mark Zuckerberg soon to address the latest company crisis. Given how Facebook has mishandled its response so far, the company’s boss could use some advice. Here’s what no one needs from Zuckerberg: A pledge to “do better” or an attempt to recast Facebook as the victim of the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. ...

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• 24 March

  Want to stop the climate change? Take ‘em to court

  

  Climate change is profoundly unfair: By failing to address it, today’s leaders are imposing what could prove to be an unbearable burden on future generations. But how can they be made to recognize the danger and act? Using the US legal system, a group of children has found a novel way to do so. The 2015 Paris Agreement on reducing ...

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• 24 March

  Use your brain; artificial intelligence won’t soon replace it

  

  Nectome promises to preserve the brains of terminally ill people in order to turn them into computer simulations — at some point in the future when such a thing is possible. It’s a startup that’s easy to mock. Just beyond the mockery, however, lies an important reminder to remain skeptical of modern artificial intelligence technology. The idea behind Nectome is ...

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• 24 March

  ECB acts to ensure glitch-free journey to smooth QE end

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank is making sure its bond-buying program doesn’t run into any problems in Germany in the final stretch. Six months before purchases are currently set to expire, the ECB added seven German regional development agencies to the list of institutions whose debt is eligible for quantitative easing. The expansion was done at the request of the ...

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• 24 March

  BofA to pay $42mn in electronic trading probe

  

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp.’s corporate and investment banking division agreed to pay $42 million to settle a New York state probe into a so-called masking scheme in which it misled clients about who was seeing and filling their orders and who was trading in its dark pool. Bank of America Merrill Lynch for years, starting in 2008, had trading ...

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• 24 March

  JPMorgan faces backlash over oil sands funding

  

  Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. considers itself a leader among banks fighting climate change. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon lauded the 2015 global Paris accord, and the bank has committed to buying and financing clean energy, as well as reducing its coal-industry work. Yet the bank is the top US lender and financier to oil-sands producers and pipeline companies, according ...

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• 24 March

  BOJ gets halfway to inflation target as yen clouds outlook

  Bloomberg Japan’s key inflation gauge ticked up in February, putting the Bank of Japan halfway to its goal of 2 percent. Yet a strengthening yen and the threat of a global trade war underscore the central bank’s vulnerability to global markets and events. Despite the progress made, inflation remains far from the BOJ’s target, while the yen’s 7 percent gain ...

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