Economics grapples with what causes recessions

Most of economics is pretty healthy as a discipline. But one branch has really been thrown for a loop — business cycle theory. The financial crisis of 2008 and Great Recession taught macroeconomists that they didn’t really understand the sources of recessions. The long, grinding stagnation that followed demonstrated that economies sometimes don’t bounce back as quickly or automatically as ...

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India’s slippery bond vigilante is back

The 10-year US bond yield breaking through the 3 percent danger level worries India, as it does every emerging market. Still, the price that sends policy makers in New Delhi and Mumbai into paroxysm isn’t that of global capital, but of a commodity: oil. With Brent crude flirting with $75 a barrel, the panic is already beginning to show. Crucial ...

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Sterling believed Carney. That didn’t work out

The pound saw it coming, and now it’s pretty much confirmed — Britain’s economic growth has slowed. And that’s probably killed the Bank of England’s rate hiking cycle before it even got started. Weaker than expected purchasing managers surveys published last week have turned out to be the last straw before the May 10 policy decision. These reports are the ...

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Never let a financial crisis go to waste

Australia’s miracle economy has delivered 26 years of uninterrupted growth, a record among developed nations. So how come its financial sector is riven with scandal and deceit? In truth, the two things are connected. Imagine you had two teenage children. Both have a habit of taking your credit card to spend on clothes and going out, but do it stealthily ...

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Deficits don’t really matter to stocks – until they do

The outlook for US debt and deficits isn’t pretty. The latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office are for $1 trillion annual budget shortfalls. On top of that, Treasury debt held by the public will almost double to $27.1 trillion over the next 10 years as the US steps up its borrowing to finance the deficits. Perhaps the worst part ...

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An emerging markets trade falls out of favour

A popular trade that worked for years is losing its shine. US multinationals – the missionaries of globalization that sell toothpaste, fast food and smartphones to consumers from China to India – have been investor darlings since the 2013 taper tantrum. Buying large diversified companies offered a smart way to gain exposure to these fast-growing young markets, removing the need ...

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I’m extremely sorry I criticized you, Apple. You win

I’ve long been a critic of Apple, but today I give up: It’s the perfect tech company for this day and age, an example to the rest of Silicon Valley. After Apple’s latest results announcement, one could knock it yet again for its stable dependence on a single mature product — the iPhone. That product delivered 62.2 percent of the ...

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Self-driving car pioneers seen slowing their roll after crashes

Bloomberg A series of high-profile accidents involving self-driving cars are slowing the mad rush into the autonomous vehicles business, according to a report issued. The accidents, some of them fatal, have ignited a debate about how to regulate the safety of self-driving vehicles and tempered the public’s expectations, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. They’ve also exposed the downside of rushing ...

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Google wunderkind is building secret social gaming startup

Bloomberg Google is secretly building a social-gaming startup, part of its effort to create fledgling companies within the internet-search giant. The founder and co-owner of the new firm, called Arcade, is Michael Sayman, according to people familiar with the matter. Sayman is the 21-year-old wunderkind who started as a Facebook Inc. intern at age 17 and left that company for ...

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Axon buys Vievu to expand body camera market

Bloomberg Axon Enterprise Inc., the police technology company best known for its Taser stun guns, agreed to purchase its main competitor in the body camera industry, Vievu LLC. The combination of the two largest providers of the recording devices will create a dominant force in police surveillance. The companies declined to disclose financial details; Axon said it would discuss them ...

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