Noah Smith After a landslide victory in Japan’s election on July 10th, the Liberal Democratic Party now has a supermajority in both the upper and lower houses of the Diet. Essentially, there is no longer any effective political opposition in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has more power than any leader in decades — even more than his famous ...
Read More »ECB to pave way for stimulus in September
AFP The European Central Bank, widely expected to hold fire on monetary policy next week, will likely prepare the ground for more stimulus measures in September as the economic fallout for the eurozone from Brexit becomes clearer, analysts predicted. The ECB’s decision-making governing council is scheduled to hold its regular policy meeting on Thursday, a month after Britain voted ...
Read More »Turkish Central Bank holds meeting with lenders
Bloomberg Turkey’s central bank is holding an extraordinary meeting with bank executives to discuss ways to minimize the market impact of the coup attempt, the Haberturk newspaper reported. The bank convened members of the Banks Association of Turkey, the Istanbul-based newspaper said, without saying where it got its information about the meeting. Turkey’s lira plunged the most against the ...
Read More »Barclays chart shows growing negative bond yields
Bloomberg Negative yields are spreading to more areas of the fixed-income market by the day. Data from Barclays Plc highlight the staggering pace of change as this week Deutsche Bahn AG became the first non-financial company to sell negative-yielding bonds, and the German government auctioned 10-year debt with a sub-zero yield for the first time. To get a sense ...
Read More »Swedish Banks punished by drive to level playing field
BLOOMBERG Efforts by regulators to level the playing field among European banks is putting Swedish lenders at a disadvantage, according to the chief executive officer of SEB AB, one of the Nordic country’s four big banks. Regulators from Stockholm to Basel are pushing to shrink differences in how banks estimate potential losses, an undertaking designed to ensure that lenders ...
Read More »ATMs to spit out cash with the help of smart apps
Bloomberg Forgot your bank card at home? No worries. Many ATMs will soon dispense cash with help from a smartphone and banking app. A growing number of banks are letting consumers arrange withdrawals via their mobile app and pick up the cash at a nearby automated teller machine. Customers authenticate the transaction by scanning a QR code with their ...
Read More »Journalism gets a ‘social’ eye
Washington / AFP It may be inside a protest rally, or in front of a deadly shooting. Smartphones, video and social media are empowering citizens to tell their stories like never before. This became clear with the live video earlier this month from Diamond Reynolds when she captured the aftermath of the shooting by a police officer of her ...
Read More »Smart robots gear up to invade your routine
Jean-Claude Elias / TNS Once again robots are making the headlines. Whether it is Amazon’s robotic arms sorting out the stock of goods, packing the clients orders and dispatching them, or Google’s self-driving car, robots are on us, and for good. Beyond the extraordinary prototypes that always manage to impress the crowd like Honda’s celebrated Asimo, robots working hard ...
Read More »Emirati safety officers must in construction sector from 2017
ABU DHABI / WAM The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation announced that all construction facilities with a 500 plus workforce must appoint at least one local occupational health and safety officer from 2017. Saqr bin Ghobash Saeed Ghobash, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation explained, “We will stop granting facilities with over 500 workers any further work permits, ...
Read More »RDC, UAE Central Bank sign deal to solve rental rows fast
Dubai / Emirates Business The Rental Disputes Center (RDC), the judicial arm of the Dubai Land Department (DLD), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, in order to facilitate prompt information exchanges between the RDC and banks operating in the UAE for Rental Disputes. Furthermore, an electronic framework of cooperation will ...
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