Of all the ideas that presidential candidates are offering to address the country’s economic woes, here’s one of the worst: Taxing, or even outlawing, automation. Many people worry about the prospect of automation causing mass unemployment. This might be justified in the science-fiction future, if machines learn to do anything a human can do. But there’s no sign that the ...
Read More »For airlines, making money is a big mistake
In the airline business, there’s nothing more damaging to a company’s internal harmony than making a profit. The pilot strikes that have grounded almost all British Airways flights for the next two days are a case in point. Unlike most industrial sectors, the usual state of affairs for airlines is spending vast sums of money for little return. In one ...
Read More »Will the real poverty rate please stand up?
It has always been hard to measure poverty, because poverty is as much a state of mind as a condition of material well-being. Still, we seem to have made a bad situation worse. Consider the Census Bureau’s latest estimates. In 2018, the official poverty rate was 11.8%, down from 12.3% in 2017 and the lowest rate since 2001. This translates ...
Read More »US stocks slip, Treasuries advance as oil trims gains
Bloomberg US index futures edged lower with European stocks while Treasuries continued higher as investors weighed the fallout from a drone attack on one of the world’s biggest oil facilities and the record surge in crude prices that followed. Contracts on the three main US stock indexes dipped after fluctuating earlier. The Europe Stoxx 600 index ticked lower, led by ...
Read More »China stocks dip, yuan weakens as PBOC holds loan rate
Bloomberg China’s restrained approach to easing spooked financial markets on Tuesday, with stocks and the yuan dropping the most in weeks. The Shanghai Composite Index retreated 1.7 percent, its biggest decline in more than two months, to close below the psychologically important 3,000 level. The onshore yuan fell 0.37 percent, the most in three weeks, to 7.0950 a dollar as ...
Read More »HK dollar ranks below yuan
Bloomberg The Hong Kong dollar became the ninth most traded currency in the world earlier this year, ranking just below the yuan, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The city’s currency accounted for 3.5 percent of global average daily turnover in April, compared with 1.7 percent during the same month in 2016, the latest triennial survey by BIS ...
Read More »China needs to spend $2.9tn on new jets, services: Boeing
Bloomberg China will need to spend $2.9 trillion on new aircraft and ground services over the next two decades, according to Boeing Co, which continues to pin hopes on the world’s second-largest economy as its trade dispute with the US rolls on. The estimate, released in Boeing’s annual outlook on China’s commercial aviation market, is 7 percent higher than last ...
Read More »UK’s Thomas Cook files for bankruptcy protection in US
Bloomberg Thomas Cook Group Plc has filed for Chapter 15 court protection in the US as part of a broader debt restructuring for the UK travel agent. The company’s Chapter 15 petition was filed in the Southern District of New York, court papers show. Law firm Latham & Watkins is representing the company, according to the documents. Chapter 15 of ...
Read More »FAA chief to assess 737 Max status in trip to Seattle plant
Bloomberg Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Steve Dickson plans to visit Boeing Co facilities in Seattle this week to personally assess the status of the 737 Max, which was grounded after two fatal crashes. Dickson, a former executive and pilot at Delta Air Lines Inc. who is qualified to fly the 737, said he intends to perform test runs on ...
Read More »Airports Company SA profit falls on weak economy, costs
Bloomberg Airports Company South Africa’s full-year profit fell 59 percent to $15.4 million as a weak economy and cost pressures constrained revenue growth. The company, which manages South Africa’s major airports, reported a 4.6 percent decline in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to 2.8 billion rand, despite a 5.6 percent increase in revenue to 7.1 billion rand, Acting ...
Read More »