Bloomberg UK inflation resumed its upward march last month, accelerating more than forecast to the fastest pace in four years. An increase in prices for computer games, laptops and package holidays — partly reflecting the impact of the weaker pound — lifted the inflation rate to 2.9 percent, the highest since June 2013. Economists had forecast that it would remain ...
Read More »GE unveils big data tools amid software shift
Bloomberg General Electric Co. is unveiling software for boosting its machines’ productivity and streamlining repairs, alongside deals with Danish shipping line Maersk Corp. and French energy producer Dalkia SA. GE announced new software for power plants, drilling platforms and wind farms at an event in Berlin on Tuesday. The showcase for GE’s IT know-how comes a day after the Boston ...
Read More »Subprime auto has ‘credit issues’: Analyst
Bloomberg There may be trouble ahead for the debt fueling America’s car addiction. Securities backed by certain auto loans have “some real fundamental credit issues,†according to Chris Flanagan, a top-ranked analyst who specializes in structured finance at Bank of America Corp. The dangers lurk in subprime deals and in bonds supported by car rentals, Flanagan wrote in a note ...
Read More »Trump isn’t destiny!
It’s time to take a brief break from Donald Trump. Whatever you think of him, there’s no denying that he dominates the news cycle. We seem to assume that the nation’s future depends on Trump’s fate, for better or worse. The reality is otherwise: The nation’s future also hangs on larger economic and social trends that no president can shape. ...
Read More »For Alibaba, euphoria is having your head in the cloud
How far can the euphoria over Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. go? Even by the standards of online retail, its rise has been extraordinary. Revenue has grown by an average 52 percent annually over the past five years. Its 158 billion yuan ($23 billion) of sales in the 12 months through March was more than 10 times the 2011 figure. Far ...
Read More »Trump actually has a point on air-traffic control
The White House has called it a “revolution,†the “beginning of a new era,†and the “single most exciting thing we can do.†More modestly, you might just call it a pretty good idea. At an otherwise grim moment in Washington, that’s something to cheer. President Donald Trump announced a plan to turn the air-traffic control system over to a ...
Read More »What Europe should do about Britain
Leaders of the European Union are allowed a moment of joy at the outcome of the UK election. Britain’s voters have just handed the Conservative Party, author of the country’s Brexit disaster, its head. But the EU shouldn’t let the cosmic justice of this outcome cloud their judgment about where their own interests lie. The Brexit decision is unlikely to ...
Read More »Authoritarian leaders flop as economic modernizers
No country has more potential for the improvement of the human condition than India. Home to more than 1.3 billion people and soon to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, India is also still desperately poor — its gross domestic product per capita is less than $6,000 in purchasing power parity terms, less than half that of China ...
Read More »UK’s press barons are the other election loser
It’s a bad day to be a UK press baron. Fleet Street’s finest had lined up to endorse Theresa May ahead of an election that backfired badly for her. Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid Sun, credited for swinging elections in the past, had called on Brits to keep Jeremy Corbyn’s “sinister Marxist gang†from power. Given the result could also jeopardize his ...
Read More »How to fix failed banks, and how not to
Three recent bank rescues in Europe could form the backbone of a textbook on how to deal with large, failing banks — and how not to. These are the uncompromising bail-in of Banco Popular in Spain, the controversial rescue of Monte dei Paschi di Siena in Italy and the much-praised but in fact horribly botched nationalization of Ukraine’s largest bank, ...
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