Bloomberg Twitter Inc. is dropping its free-speech lawsuit against the Trump administration over the government’s effort to unmask users critical of the president’s policies. Twitter said in a court filing, a day after it filed the case, that the US had withdrawn its summons to learn the identity of one of the so-called ALT handles purported to be the ...
Read More »Parliamentary disaster of United States of America
America’s Congress is quietly becoming a European-style parliament — and the transformation isn’t for the good. Congress is fanning, not defusing, conflict. Although I have written about this before, the issue is worth revisiting, because its significance is underappreciated and it helps explain the brutal bitterness of today’s politics. Witness the acrimonious debate over Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch ...
Read More »Amazon finds it hard to make friends it will crush later
Amazon is taking over the world. And paradoxically that may hurt Amazon’s ability to take over the world. It’s been clear for a while that Amazon’s ambitions know few bounds. Sure, Amazon is a global shopping mall. But it’s also making its own household products like baby wipes and batteries, becoming a silent giant in advertising, opening its own ...
Read More »Russia inquiry must also probe surveillance leaks
Representative Devin Nunes’ decision to recuse himself from leading the congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election is as surprising as it is welcome. His erratic behavior, much of which appeared intended to protect President Donald Trump and his top aides from scrutiny, had compromised the integrity of the probe before it even got off the ...
Read More »After Syria strike, US needs strategy to remove Assad
What the drowning of Aylan Kurdi, the refugee toddler whose death drew an outpouring of sympathy around the world, failed to do, harrowing images of beautiful babies gasping for breath surrounded by dead bodies have done. The images brought about Trump’s change of heart on Syria. But it is too late. The protracted Syrian civil war has already killed ...
Read More »The GDP is a flawed but magical indicator
Economists have long argued that the gross domestic product has many flaws as a measure of well-being and policy success. Yet there’s a good reason it’s still being used: There’s a certain magic to it, despite its science being somewhat iffy. Recently, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a paper by Harvard economist Martin Feldstein detailing an argument ...
Read More »Norway sovereign wealth fund misses a ‘green’ trick
The Norwegian government is resisting calls for its $873 billion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, to add unlisted infrastructure projects to its portfolio of stocks, bonds and real estate. It should relent, recognizing both the financial and societal benefits from expanding the universe of potential investments available to the fund. Last week, the Conservative-led government rebuffed a second ...
Read More »China’s banks are still in real trouble
Since China’s four major state-owned banks reported results last week, analysts have been cheering. Profit growth was up and non-performing loan ratios were down. Much has been made about progress in improving underwriting standards. But it would be wise to hold off on the euphoric pronouncements — and to take a closer look at how the banks produced these ...
Read More »Uber hits back at Waymo in self-driving car case
SAN FRANCISCO / AP Uber is scoffing at claims that its expansion into self-driving cars hinges on trade secrets stolen from a Google spinoff, arguing that its ride-hailing service has been working on potentially superior technology. The legal defense, presented in documents filed in San Francisco federal court, marks Uber’s first detailed response to explosive allegations that its self-driving ...
Read More »Battle with Apple takes toll on China’s Huawei
Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co.’s earnings grew at their slowest pace in five years, as China’s biggest maker of telecommunications gear sank money into research and a marketing blitz to gain ground on Apple and Samsung in smartphones. Huawei, founded by former army engineer Ren Zhengfei three decades ago, has emerged as one of China’s most recognizable consumer brands. A ...
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