September, 2016

• 6 September

  Financial risk is worse when you can’t see it

    Financial crises are becoming more frequent as markets and the rules that govern them grow ever more complex. New research suggests that this is no coincidence — and that a simpler system would be a lot more resilient. Forward-thinking officials have long argued that financial regulation needs to be simpler. In his much-quoted speech “The Dog and the Frisbee,” ...

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• 6 September

  The world might not be ready for quantum computers

    Quantum mechanics, Carl Sagan once observed, is so strange that “common sense is almost useless in approaching it.” Scientists still don’t understand exactly why matter behaves as it does at the quantum level. Yet they’re getting better at exploiting its peculiar dynamics — in ways that may soon upend the technology business. One of the most interesting applications is ...

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• 6 September

  It’s high time for a clear Brexit roadmap

    Brexit pressure is mounting on Theresa May and the British Prime Minister will have to cross the molehills before she hits the mountain ahead. While Japan has warned that its companies might walk out if they don’t get access to the single market in the UK, the US has shown its reluctance to enter into a trade deal with ...

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• 6 September

  India presents dim bright spot for global economy

  

    India’s just-released GDP figures show it’s still the world’s fastest-growing large economy. Over the past decade or so, those numbers have swooped and stuttered —from the boom years of the mid-2000s, when easy money and roaring demand pushed growth up to nearly double digits, to the hard stop at the time of the 2008 financial crisis, to the dramatic, ...

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• 6 September

  Don’t muzzle judicial candidates on politics

    Just about the only thing dumber than judicial elections is trying to regulate what judges can say when they’re running for office. Last year, the Supreme Court struggled with this problem in a case about judicial fundraising. Now an appeals court has struck down elements of Kentucky’s nonpartisan judicial election rules that try to regulate how judges can talk ...

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• 6 September

  Russian deal with Japan may be possible soon

  

    Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be more open than ever to a compromise with Japan that would end the two countries’ post-World War II territorial dispute. Both sides have been making tentative moves toward reconciliation since May, and a deal may finally be in the works after decades of false starts. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Putin ...

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• 6 September

  Gulf mixed in quiet trade, Saudi rebound fades

  

    Dubai / Reuters Gulf stock markets were mixed in quiet trade on Tuesday as Riyadh’s bourse pulled back after rising sharply on the previous day, when Saudi Arabia and Russia said they would cooperate to support oil prices. Riyadh’s stock index gained early on Tuesday but closed 0.2 percent lower at 6,190 points, failing a test of technical resistance ...

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• 6 September

  US stocks rise on Enbridge, GE acquisitions

    New York / AFP Wall Street stocks rose early on Tuesday, lifted by merger announcements, including Canadian pipeline company Enbridge’s acquisition of Spectra Energy in an all-stock deal valued at $28 billion. The Enbridge deal will create an network of oil and gas pipelines serving most of Canada and the United States. Spectra surged 10.7 percent, while Enbridge advanced ...

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• 6 September

  European stocks hover near 8-month high before ECB meet

    Bloomberg European stocks were little changed, poised for their highest close since January, as investors awaited this week’s European Central Bank meeting. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.1 percent at 1:43 p.m. in London, paring a rise of as much as 0.3 percent, while Germany’s DAX Index added 0.4 percent, inching closer to erasing its annual drop. Europe’s ...

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• 6 September

  Apple event has world watching for new iPhone

  

    San Francisco / AFP Apple is expected to unveil a new iPhone and maybe even a second-generation smartwatch at a special event in San Francisco on Wednesday. The rumour mill has been grinding away with talk of iPhone 7 models that will boast faster chips, more sophisticated cameras, and improved software while doing away with jacks for plugging in ...

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