April, 2017

• 5 April

  Trump needs a plan to deal with China

    On the eve of their first-ever meeting this week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has one great advantage over US President Donald Trump: He knows what he wants. By contrast, US policy towards China looks confused and contradictory. Until and unless this changes, not much progress will be made on critical issues in the most important bilateral relationship in the ...

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• 5 April

  Terrorism must be fought jointly

    The Russian subway bombing, which killed 14 people, was the worst terrorist attack in a major Russian city in years. The suspected bomber has been identified as Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, 22, a Russian citizen born in Kyrgyzstan. It drew wide condemnation from Russia’s friends and foes. The UAE strongly condemned the terrorist bombings and expressed its full solidarity with Russia ...

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• 5 April

  Small European currencies are just a headache

  

    Turmoil continues for small currencies on Europe’s periphery: The Czech Republic finally may be about to drop the koruna’s peg to the euro, and Iceland is looking for a currency to use to value the krona. The agony of these decisions may give central bank governors an illusion of control, but currency pegs appear to be outliving their usefulness. ...

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• 5 April

  No raise? It’s not you. It’s your company

  

    The kind of company you work for makes a big difference to your chances of getting raises, new research has found. This adds to growing evidence that what goes on inside firms matters beyond their walls. Researchers have shown that company-level differences have become large enough to influence national productivity growth and overall wage inequality. The new study suggests ...

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• 5 April

  How China can become a true global climate leader

  

    One of the world’s largest reserves of low-grade, dirty coal is located roughly 250 miles west of Karachi, Pakistan in the Thar Desert. Discovered in the 1990s, it remained largely untapped until last year, when Chinese financing underwrote a $3.5 billion project to exploit it. The investment is part of a larger Chinese energy plan for Pakistan that includes ...

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• 5 April

  Boeing signs US$3bn deal with Iran airline

  

    TEHRAN / AP Boeing Co. has signed a $3 billion deal with an Iranian airline for 30 new aircraft, officials said, in the first major sale by a US company in the Islamic Republic since the Trump administration imposed new sanctions against Tehran. The deal for the 30 737 MAX aircraft, which includes an option for another 30, could ...

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• 5 April

  JAB to acquire Panera bread chain for $7.5 billion

  

    Bloomberg JAB Holding Co. agreed to buy Panera Bread Co. for about $7.5 billion, adding a fast-growing US bakery chain to a food empire that spans coffee, bagels and doughnuts. Panera investors will receive $315 per share in cash, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday. That’s 20 percent higher than the closing price on March 31, the ...

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• 5 April

  Airbus carves out space on A380 to fit 80 more seats

  

    Bloomberg Airbus Group SE is making a fresh sales pitch for its A380 superjumbo with half a dozen proposals to accommodate more than 80 additional seats, seeking to enhance the flagship jet’s economic credentials after a struggle to win orders in recent years. The changes on offer include removing an upper-deck stowage area to add 10 business-class seats, re-positioning ...

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• 5 April

  Warehouse robotics rides wave of change

  

    Bloomberg It was Amazon that drove America’s warehouse operators into the robot business. Quiet Logistics, which ships apparel out of its Devens, Mass., warehouse, had been using robots made by a company called Kiva Systems. When Amazon bought Kiva in 2012, Quiet hired scientists. In 2015 it spun out a new company called Locus Robotics, which raised $8 million ...

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• 5 April

  Tech startups see their share of venture investing pie shrink

  

    Bloomberg Venture capitalists have more cash on hand to invest than ever before, but private technology firms are seeing a shrinking share of the pie. “Tech privates continue to lead the total VC investment landscape, but other primary verticals such as healthcare, consumer, financials, industrials and energy continue to occupy roughly 40 percent of VC investment,’’ Goldman Sachs Group ...

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