US President Donald Trump rode to power declaring that China had twisted the world trading system out of shape — and plenty of people around the world murmured in agreement, if very quietly. The first shots in Trump’s trade war, however, have been indiscriminate. His steel and aluminium tariffs are the equivalent of firing into a curious crowd of onlookers. ...
Read More »Dislike! Sustainable fund says dump FB
No responsible investor should own Facebook Inc. shares, according to the head of sustainable investing at the biggest bank in the Nordic region. That’s an unjustifiable overreaction. Sasja Beslik, who runs Nordea Bank AB’s sustainable finance unit, made the call to divest this week after Cambridge Analytica used data from as many as 87 million users of the social network ...
Read More »Brexit politics stymies UK healthcare debate
UK Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced that the country’s crisis-ridden National Health Service (NHS) will receive an additional 20 billion pounds at today’s exchange rate by 2023. In normal times, that sort of decision might have followed a public discussion of how much the nation should spend on health care and where the money should come from. But this ...
Read More »When will Apple unveil its wireless charger …
Bloomberg When Apple Inc. introduced AirPods earbuds in 2016, chief designer Jony Ive hailed the beginning of a new “wireless futureâ€. The company’s devices would connect and charge without fiddly white cords and unsightly plugs and sockets. The next step was wireless charging for the iPhone, the ability to drop Apple’s flagship product on a charging mat and juice it ...
Read More »Audi, Hyundai to join forces to push fuel-cell technology
Bloomberg Tesla Inc.’s CEO Elon Musk has called it “ mind-bogglingly stupid†and carmakers have gravitated away from it in recent years. Yet fuel-cell technology — the science behind hydrogen cars that emit only water vapour — is getting fresh impetus. Hyundai Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit plan to team up on vehicle development and share patent licenses ...
Read More »Porsche buys stake in Croatia’s Rimac for battery-powered cars
Bloomberg Porsche bought a 10 percent stake in Rimac Automobili, a Croatian maker of electric supercars and components, as the German sports car brand looks to accelerate its shift into battery-powered vehicles. “Rimac has impressively demonstrated its credentials in the field of electromobility,†Lutz Meschke, finance chief for the unit of Volkswagen AG, said in a statement. “We feel that ...
Read More »Robots missing from largest part of Japan’s economy
Bloomberg Japan is famous as a land of robots, but most of those machines haven’t made their way off of factory floors. That presents an opportunity in a country with a serious labour shortage and a relatively unproductive services sector. Automation is seen as a key to better productivity and higher wages, which would in turn support consumption and help ...
Read More »Ford emerges with less fussy tech features
Bloomberg After struggling for years to address complaints with its audio and connectivity systems, Ford Motor Co. achieved its highest-ever ranking this year in a closely watched annual study of new-car quality. Ford’s namesake brand ranked fifth in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study, which measures problems per 100 vehicles in first 90 days of ownership. Ford was one of the ...
Read More »Wall Street clears first stress test hurdle with ample capital
Bloomberg Big banks cleared the first hurdle of this year’s US stress tests as the Federal Reserve found all 35 lenders examined could withstand a severe economic downturn, though Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trailed the rest of Wall Street in a key measure of leverage. The results announced mark the third straight year every bank exceeded the Fed’s minimum capital ...
Read More »Paschi trial: Deutsche Bank defendant defies prosecutors
Bloomberg An ex-Deutsche Bank AG banker told a Milan court that the controversial Santorini transaction signed with Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA was a risky deal for the German bank and was properly accounted for by the Italian lender, challenging the prosecution’s case. Marco Veroni, the first Deutsche Bank defendant questioned by prosecutors at the Milan trial, disputed ...
Read More »