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Bloomberg The economic boom in Sweden is running into a familiar foe: a lack of skilled workers. Even after a record inflow of migrants over the past three years that boosted the Nordic country’s population to above 10 million, businesses are having a harder and harder time finding workers. The number of job vacancies per person seeking a job is ...
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October, 2017
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10 October
Puerto Rico’s $74 billion burden left it helpless when Maria hit
Bloomberg Year after year, as Puerto Rico’s government drew ever closer to ruin, it cut hundreds of millions of dollars from roads, schools and other public works. It neglected the electricity system, leaving it dilapidated and prone to prolonged outages. The water utility, which was leaking untreated sewage, put a $1.4 billion construction plan on hold. At least 5,800 police ...
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10 October
Ireland braces for loss in fight for post-Brexit spoils
Bloomberg Irish authorities are bracing to lose out in the race to host the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency following the UK’s departure from the EU, a person familiar with the matter said. Dublin is viewed as having little chance of winning either organisation, which are being forced from London after Brexit, in part due to Ireland’s ...
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10 October
Uber, Airbnb get dragged into Scandinavian welfare economics
Bloomberg Denmark wants to bring the so-called sharing economy into its legal codex so that companies like Uber and Airbnb can be absorbed into the Scandinavian welfare model. The Danish government sees little point in resisting the changes these companies represent. Instead, it’s putting forward a number of measures designed to fold the business concept into its tax and labour ...
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10 October
Fresh-food IPOs highlight healthy eating demand
Bloomberg Two European companies in the burgeoning business of fresh food are planning initial public offerings, underlining consumers’ quest for healthier diets as demand for packaged and processed foods wanes. HelloFresh SE, an unprofitable meal-kit startup controlled by Rocket Internet SE, plans to sell as much as $353 million of stock in Frankfurt even after US rival Blue Apron Holdings ...
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10 October
The resilient US consumer
The American consumer is the great engine of growth for the $19 trillion US economy, representing nearly 70 percent of spending. If the consumer is confident and happy, chances are that the economy is satisfactory or robust. On the other hand, if the consumer is confused and worried, the economy may be weak and vulnerable to setbacks. Which is it ...
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10 October
Catalonia and Spain need outside mediation to resolve ongoing crisis
“W hen you got a hundred voices singin’, who can hear a lousy whistle blow?” —Newsies. Instead of managing the Catalonia crisis well, Spain’s central government has inadvertently provided the world with an illustration of what not to do. The heavy-handed response to the region’s desire for greater self-determination has empowered, and not weakened, separatists and has contributed to regrettable ...
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10 October
Currency convertibility is back as a risk in Europe
Besides default, perhaps the biggest risk to holders of euro-denominated bonds is currency convertibility. It isn’t talked about all that often, but it hangs over the market like a black cloud. The fear is that some geopolitical event causes a member of the euro zone to decide to exit the union and investors holding sovereign bonds denominated in euros are ...
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10 October
Trump administration gambles on health costs
Lost in the debate over how best to insure Americans against the high cost of health care has been the question of how to bring that cost down. That’s a shame, because keeping the cost of medical treatment from rising so fast is just as important as providing Americans access to it. Promising efforts to get a grip on medical ...
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10 October
As he turns 65, Putin’s power slowly wanes
On October 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin turned 65. As of this year, this is the maximum retirement age for Russian civil servants, which can only be raised in special cases. Though Putin, as an elected official, is not subject to this law and has indicated that it’s too early for him to retire, he reaches this milestone in a ...
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