March, 2018

• 21 March

  Is this time different for Facebook?

  

  Facebook Inc. is on a merry-go-round of crises, and it can’t get off. The question now is whether the latest episode in Facebook’s post-2016 period of reckoning will permanently mar its reputation, impair its business prospects and result in onerous regulatory handcuffs. Investors appear to have decided the answer is yes. In a day-and-a-half of stock market trading, Facebook has ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  General Electric is still valued more than Siemens

  The listing of a minority stake in Siemens AG’s healthcare technology unit was a pretty muted affair — and not just because trading didn’t start on time for technical reasons. That’s a good thing, in part. Spandex-clad dancers cheer-led the unit’s re-branding as “Healthineers” in 2016. You can relive the horror here. Siemens will be disappointed, though, that investors haven’t ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  Treasuries have winning hand over the equities

  Several developments last week indicated that the recent panic in the market for US Treasury bonds was a false alarm. The increase in average hourly earnings has slowed appreciably, reducing the risk of aggressive monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve. Inflation moderated from levels recorded at the beginning of the year. Retail sales dropped for a third month, belying expectations ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  Cities don’t need more jobs; they need more workers

  

  A funny thing happened after Amazon invited cities to compete for its second North American headquarters. Somehow other corporations got the idea that they would be the winners. There’s been a disturbing trend in corporations seeing the tax breaks offered to Amazon and deciding they’re entitled to the same when they pursue their own expansions or relocations. There’s nothing inherently ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  Which nation is leading AI isn’t the intelligent question

  

  This week at the Bloomberg Ideas conference in San Francisco I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of smart, friendly artificial intelligence (AI) researchers. Being the Gadfly that I am, I figured it would be a great chance to ask what, to my mind, was an incisive question. Is China or the US better at artificial intelligence? Turns out, ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  Bank of England needs a better communications plan

  

  Central bankers devote a huge amount of time and resources to communicating with markets, companies and the public. So why do the Bank of England’s (BOE) communications still end up confusing markets and distorting decisions in the real economy? The BOE’s latest inflation report marked a new low on the communication front. The bank explains how the outlook for interest ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  Asian banks set to hold fire as Fed hikes rates

  

  Bloomberg Most Asian central banks will stand pat for now, even with the Federal Reserve poised to raise borrowing costs this week. While previous tightening cycles in the US prompted many Asian nations to move in lockstep, things are different this time. Subdued inflation and healthy foreign reserves reduce the need to move quickly and the risk of a trade ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  China allows foreign firms to payments market

  

  Bloomberg China will now permit foreign companies to access its $27 trillion payments market, which will further open up the world’s second-largest economy. Foreign players can start applying for payment licenses and will be treated the same as local firms, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Wednesday. Applicants must set up local units, establish payment infrastructure ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  Bad loans-ridden Greek banks find Sweden buyer

  

  Bloomberg Hoist Finance AB of Sweden is gearing up to buy non-performing credit portfolios from Greek banks as they prepare to offload loans that soured during the country’s debt crisis. “There’s been a lot of talk about Greece for a long time, but now it’s actually happening,” Klaus-Anders Nysteen, the chief executive officer of Hoist, said in an interview in ...

  Read More »
• 21 March

  ECB faces year of living uncertainly after QE end

  

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank is on a slow walk towards concluding four years of quantitative easing, and that challenge might look easy compared with what comes next. While policy makers are comfortable with market expectations for bond purchases to end this year, the bigger specter of 2019 looms large. That’s when the Governing Council might dare to actually withdraw ...

  Read More »