July, 2016

• 28 July

  Social media not that essential, say entrepreneurs

  

    TNS Well, this is a bit troubling. A new survey conducted by industry group The Alternative Board (TAB) found that nearly two out of every three small business owners (or 59%) think social media is not that essential to business operations. It’s an interesting result given how much social media has invaded every area of our lives. Tweets pop ...

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• 28 July

  Feeling ‘voiceless and invisible’

  

    WASHINGTON Columnists get complaints. After my last column (which argued that maybe the economy is better than we say), I got one from Alice Lang of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She accused me (politely) of ignoring the long-term unemployed, of which she is one. After our conversation, I asked her to put her thoughts in an email. Here’s what she ...

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• 28 July

  Fed must combine caution with action

    The Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates untouched was born out of optimism and apprehension. In the end, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) resorted to a studied restraint. And while doing so, they issued an upbeat statement about the improving economic conditions in the US, but didn’t rule out the possibility of hiking the rates should there ...

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• 28 July

  Trump might be keeping it a little too real

    Eli Lake Watching Donald Trump comment on the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s computer servers brings to mind the Dave Chappelle show. In a recurring bit called “when keeping it real goes wrong,” various people would decide to say what they really felt, only to face disastrous consequences. Trump was revealing a little too much about himself when ...

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• 28 July

  Maybe negative bond yields are a sign of prosperity

  

    Just when it seemed that negative yields could not spread any further, they did. Corporate bonds paying negative interest rates now account for about $512 billion of market value, bringing the world close to a total of nearly $10 trillion in securities with yields below zero. Most are government securities. There are numerous explanations for this strange and unexpected ...

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• 28 July

  Apple’s technological lag is starting to show

  

    A lack of ideas is a gloomy thing to behold in a tech leader. Executives try to strike all the right notes and use all the latest buzzwords, but the numbers show a disturbing trend and competitors are way ahead with real innovations that can be seen and touched. This is now happening to Apple. On Tuesday, Apple released ...

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• 28 July

  Slow and steady looks like new norm for US growth

  For the first time since 2009, all sectors of the economy are chugging along at normal rates: The housing industry pulled out of its nosedive, the government sector ended its downturn, and as of this quarter, the industrial recession is over. Policy makers face a new challenge, building on an economy in which no major sector is in contraction. But ...

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• 28 July

  The world isn’t ready for another banking crisis

    Satyajit Das As Europe braces for the release of its bank stress tests on Friday, the world could be on the verge of another banking crisis. The signs are obvious to all. The World Bank estimates the ratio of non-performing loans to total gross loans in 2015 reached 4.3 percent. Before the 2009 global financial crisis, they stood at ...

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• 28 July

  European equities slip in line with dollar

  

    London / AFP European stocks and the dollar slid on Thursday after the Federal Reserve held interest rates and indicated it would take a slow, measured approach to any hikes. Markets also digested a barrage of company results, including from Britain’s Lloyds Banking Group, Rolls-Royce and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as France’s Carrefour, BNP Paribas and Renault, and ...

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• 28 July

  Tokyo shares fall with BoJ meeting in focus

    Tokyo / AFP Tokyo shares fell on Thursday as a Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy meeting kicked off, with markets waiting to see if policymakers unleash a fresh round of stimulus to kickstart sluggish growth. The gathering is the BoJ’s first since Britain’s shock vote to quit the European Union hammered financial markets and sparked a rally in the ...

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