June, 2017

• 12 June

  UK house prices climb to record even as sales slow in London

  

  Bloomberg UK house prices climbed to a record last month as a slowdown in London sales was offset by a stronger market in the north of the country, according to a report by Acadata and LSL Property Services Plc. Prices in England and Wales rose 0.3 percent from April to an average of 303,200 pounds ($386,000), despite the uncertainties of ...

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• 12 June

  Canada adds wage gains to stellar jobs performance

  

  Bloomberg Canada’s labor market continued surprising in May, with a greater-than-expected 54,500 jobs gain that also finally came with signs of a pick-up in wages. The employment gain — the third biggest one-month increase in the past five years — was driven by the addition of 77,000 new full-time jobs, which offset falling part-time employment. Economists had forecast a 15,000 ...

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• 12 June

  Are we ‘present at the destruction’?

  

  Seventy years ago on Monday, Secretary of State George Marshall delivered a Harvard commencement day address that became the framework for what we call the ‘Marshall Plan’ for European recovery. It’s a cruel anniversary this year, as we watch President Trump dismember the world order that Marshall and his colleagues helped build. Dean Acheson, one of Marshall’s colleagues and his ...

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• 12 June

  Trump’s Paris exit dims prospects for Indian solar power sector

  

  With Donald Trump pulling the US out of the Paris climate accord, China and India will have to shoulder the burden of keeping a lid on global warming. But even if the two most-populous nations are willing to take up the mantle, their ability to pull it off is uncertain. India’s solar industry offers a case study. Thanks to a ...

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• 12 June

  Europe shows how to deal with a failing bank

  Credit where credit’s due: The sale for 1 euro of Banco Popular Espanol SA, a failing Spanish bank, to rival lender Banco Santander SA shows how the euro zone should handle such cases. The regulators acted swiftly and fairly. Global markets barely noticed. This is a model for future interventions. Banco Popular’s troubles date back to Spain’s real-estate crisis, which ...

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• 12 June

  War on leakers is off to a bad start for Trump

  The prosecution of intelligence contractor Reality Leigh Winner under the Espionage Act is a sure sign that the Trump administration’s war on leakers has begun. But as the opening battle, it’s poorly chosen, and a serious mistake in prosecutorial discretion by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who should know better. Winner has the wrong profile for a headline-grabbing prosecution by ...

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• 12 June

  Uber still doesn’t look like the next Facebook

  

  Uber has been in the news a lot lately, and most of it hasn’t been pretty. Allegations of a sexist workplace culture, a high-profile legal battle with Alphabet Inc. (Google) over self-driving car technology, reports of attempts to skirt local laws, an anti-Uber Twitter campaign, and an exodus of top talent have put the ride-hailing giant on the back foot. ...

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• 12 June

  A mathematician’s secret is we’re not all geniuses

  

  You don’t have to be a genius to become a mathematician. If you find this statement at all surprising, you’re an example of what’s wrong with the way our society identifies, encourages and rewards talent. As a mathematician who studied at Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton, I’ve known geniuses. I got to hang out with Andrew Wiles, who is credited with ...

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• 12 June

  Google wants to block advertisements to save them

  

  Google, which controls more than 40 percent of the US digital ad market, has decided to teach the world which ads are acceptable and which aren’t. Starting next year, its Chrome web browser will block all ads — including those bought through Google — on websites that don’t follow guidelines set by an industry group. This monopolistic move is meant ...

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• 12 June

  US tech selloff batters stocks

  

  Bloomberg A selloff in US technology stocks spread through Asia and Europe, battering shares from South Korea to the Netherlands. The pound fluctuated as an embattled Theresa May fought to survive the fallout from the British general election. Samsung Electronics Co., ASML Holding NV and Tencent Holdings Ltd. led declines in Europe and Asia, dragging down benchmark indexes. US stock ...

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