August, 2016

• 1 August

  Is Russia trying to sway the US election?

  

    For many decades, Russian intelligence agencies have used what they call “active measures” to destabilize their rivals. Now they seem to be turning those tools on the U.S. political system, though in the process they appear to have violated Rule No. 1 of the spy business: Don’t get caught. U.S. officials say they have strong evidence that Russian intelligence ...

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• 1 August

  Developing SMEs must be core of UAE economy

    The recent move to exempt small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from bank guarantees has been taken to facilitate smooth functioning of this sector. It will help SMEs to do their business without any uncertainty and apprehension. The UAE’s growing SME sector has been playing a vital role in shaping its economy. Today, there are over 3,50,000 SMEs in the ...

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• 1 August

  One nation, increasingly fuelled by natural gas

    Justin Fox With each monthly data release from the Energy Information Administration (there was one last Tuesday) it gets a little clearer. Natural gas has overtaken coal as the main source of electrical power in the U.S.: Gas’s lead over coal will keep growing. Coal-fired generating capacity has fallen 15 percent in the past six years, according to the ...

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• 1 August

  Social networks are now ready to take on TV

    After years of explosive growth that killed many a print publication, the online advertising market may be reaching maturity. To keep growing, the biggest ad sellers — such as Facebook and Twitter — will need to find ways to get more money out of existing advertisers, and that means it’s television’s turn to feel the squeeze, because the social ...

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• 1 August

  India should rethink its new inflation target

  

    Any day now, India’s government is set to announce an official inflation target for the first time — a major step in the modernization of its economic institutions, particularly the central bank. The idea has been proposed and debated for years, including in a much-discussed 2008 report written for a previous Indian administration by Raghuram Rajan, now governor of ...

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• 1 August

  Get ready for an unpredictable US general election

  

    The U.S. general election officially begins on Labor Day, but the dynamics for this volatile race will be established in August. Or: With a polarized electorate, many of the parameters of the contest are already baked into the cake, so little will change over the next five weeks. Both predictions can’t be true, yet political operatives in both parties ...

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• 1 August

  Getting an answer to hardest question in economics

  

    Noah Smith Xavier Gabaix, a New York University economist who gets far less attention than he should, has written what might prove to be the most interesting macroeconomic theory paper in years. The title, “A Behavioral New Keynesian Model,” isn’t exactly exciting and the paper is still incomplete, but it might help resolve the most important and difficult macroeconomic ...

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• 1 August

  Kuwait development projects estimated at KD 4.7 billion

  

    WAM Projected value of the national development projects for 2017-2018 amounts to KD 4.7 billion, KD 1.5 billion of which covered by the State budget, said Dr. Khaled Al-Mahdi, General Secretary of the Supreme Planning and Development Council. Private sector’s contributions to funding the ventures, this year, are estimated at 16.9 percent, in addition to 33.8 percent by the ...

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• 1 August

  Libya’s NOC welcomes opening of ports

    TRIPOLI / Reuters Libya’s state oil company said it welcomed the “unconditional” reopening of blockaded oil ports following a deal between the U.N.-backed government and an armed force which controls key facilities, saying it would begin work to restart exports from the terminals. The agreement, signed on Thursday, could be a major step in reviving Libya’s crippled oil output. ...

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• 1 August

  Qatar Airways raises holding in IAG to 20%

  

    Bloomberg Qatar Airways Ltd. raised its stake in British Airways owner IAG SA to 20 percent, taking advantage of a drop in the company’s stock price since the Brexit vote last month. Qatar Airways, which increased the holding from 15.7 percent as of July 28, doesn’t plan to add to the stake, the company said Monday in a statement. ...

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