Economists’ ignorance gap looks pretty huge

The most intriguing and indisputable thing we have learned about economists in recent decades is that they don’t know nearly as much as they thought they knew. We see evidence of this all the time. Just recently, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that the economy had created 263,000 payroll jobs in April. This was almost 40% more than the ...

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Thomas Cook should book a solution

Thomas Cook Plc is on a trip it would rather forget. The company is battling a crisis of investor confidence. A rough 2018 for bookings hammered the share price and leverage has soared. At the latest seasonal peak, net debt of 1.6 billion pounds dwarfed its market capitalisation of 330 million pounds. Sentiment worsened after reports on May 2 that ...

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Power plants cannot escape the eyes in sky

The technology nonprofit WattTime announced that, thanks to a $1.7 million grant from Google.org, it will use satellite technology to measure air pollution from every large power plant in the world. This effort, which will combine data “from a variety of sensors operating at different wavelengths,” will also use artificial intelligence to analyse and calculate carbon emissions, according to David ...

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America should be smart about Venezuela’s future

Democracy’s return to Venezuela has once again been deferred. Juan Guaido, the leader of the National Assembly recognised as interim president by more than 50 countries, failed last week to persuade the military to unseat Nicolas Maduro. Few officers rallied to Guaido’s side, and the regime beat back his followers’ street protests. Whatever the reason — overconfidence on Guaido’s part, ...

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Can Europe go on managing Trump’s war on trade?

As US President Donald Trump imposes punitive tariffs on China, the European Union could be next in line. The EU has been performing a complex balancing act to keep Trump from pouncing. So far it has succeeded – but that may become increasingly difficult. The US leader is due to decide later this month whether to impose levies on car ...

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When digitisation isn’t answer to your prayers

For all the promise that digitisation offers, sometimes it’s worth reminding ourselves that it requires the right conditions. Telefonica SA is illustrating why. The former Spanish national carrier is midway through a digital transformation program, and has succeeded in realising almost two thirds of the 1 billion euros in savings it’s targeting by the end of next year. That’s clearly ...

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Boeing’s 737 Max defense is a textbook mess

For decades, business schools have taught Johnson & Johnson’s handling of its 1982 Tylenol scandal as a textbook example of good crisis management. In the future, we can expect Boeing Co.’s treatment of its two 737 Max crashes to join the syllabus — as an example of what not to do. Engineers at the planemaker discovered problems with the aircraft’s ...

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S&P 500 futures and Europe stocks jump; havens dip

Bloomberg US equity futures rose alongside European stocks on Tuesday, shrugging off losses in Asia as investors assessed the prospects for global trade in the wake of a brutal start to the week for markets. Haven assets including Treasuries, gold and the yen slipped. Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 indexes all rallied after ...

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Dubai stocks, top gainer in just a day

Bloomberg Investors in Dubai’s equities might be feeling whiplash after the main index became the biggest gainer in back-to-back sessions, in response to shifting news on regional tensions and local stocks’ presence in global benchmarks. The DFM General Index advanced 3.5% on Tuesday, gaining more than any other major market tracked by Bloomberg. The Tuesday revival was sparked by MSCI ...

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India’s Sensex advances to snap losing streak

Bloomberg Indian stocks advanced, snapping their longest stretch of losses since February, as some investors felt nine days of declines to be excessive. The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.6% to 37,318.53 in Mumbai after falling as much as 0.4% earlier in the session. That avoided the longest ever losing streak for the benchmark gauge. The NSE Nifty 50 Index gained ...

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