Researchers differ on whether rising wages gave the impetus to industrialise
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/the-industrial-revolution-could-shed-light-on-modern-productivity
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Thursday, 2 August 2018
Myanmar’s state-owned enterprises show how much reform is still needed
The bureaucratic leviathans, most still under army control, are a drag on the economy
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/myanmars-state-owned-enterprises-show-how-much-reform-is-still-needed
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/myanmars-state-owned-enterprises-show-how-much-reform-is-still-needed
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Tech startups are reviving point-of-sale lending
Young people dislike big banks. But they still want consumer credit
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/tech-startups-are-reviving-point-of-sale-lending
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/tech-startups-are-reviving-point-of-sale-lending
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Greece exits its bail-out programme, but its marathon has further to go
The economy is expanding again, but the crisis has caused lasting damage
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/greece-exits-its-bail-out-programme-but-its-marathon-has-further-to-go
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/greece-exits-its-bail-out-programme-but-its-marathon-has-further-to-go
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A milestone is reached with the first zero-cost tracker funds
As Fidelity goes to zero, will other asset managers follow?
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/a-milestone-is-reached-with-the-first-zero-cost-tracker-funds
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/a-milestone-is-reached-with-the-first-zero-cost-tracker-funds
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The Industrial Revolution could shed light on modern productivity
Researchers differ on whether rising wages gave the impetus to industrialise
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/the-industrial-revolution-could-shed-light-on-modern-productivity
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/the-industrial-revolution-could-shed-light-on-modern-productivity
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Myanmar’s state-owned enterprises show how much reform is still needed
The bureaucratic leviathans, most still under army control, are a drag on the economy
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/myanmars-state-owned-enterprises-show-how-much-reform-is-still-needed
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/myanmars-state-owned-enterprises-show-how-much-reform-is-still-needed
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Tech startups are reviving point-of-sale lending
Young people dislike big banks. But they still want consumer credit
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/tech-startups-are-reviving-point-of-sale-lending
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/tech-startups-are-reviving-point-of-sale-lending
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Greece exits its bail-out programme, but its marathon has further to go
The economy is expanding again, but the crisis has caused lasting damage
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/greece-exits-its-bail-out-programme-but-its-marathon-has-further-to-go
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/greece-exits-its-bail-out-programme-but-its-marathon-has-further-to-go
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A milestone is reached with the first zero-cost tracker funds
As Fidelity goes to zero, will other asset managers follow?
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/a-milestone-is-reached-with-the-first-zero-cost-tracker-funds
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/04/a-milestone-is-reached-with-the-first-zero-cost-tracker-funds
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Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Japan still has great influence on global financial markets
Though its economic heft has declined, its surplus savings are felt around the world
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/01/japan-still-has-great-influence-on-global-financial-markets
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/01/japan-still-has-great-influence-on-global-financial-markets
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Japan still has great influence on global financial markets
Though its economic heft has declined, its surplus savings are felt around the world
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/01/japan-still-has-great-influence-on-global-financial-markets
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/08/01/japan-still-has-great-influence-on-global-financial-markets
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Friday, 27 July 2018
Has BRICS lived up to expectations?
The bloc of big emerging economies is surprisingly good at keeping its promises
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2018/07/27/has-brics-lived-up-to-expectations
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2018/07/27/has-brics-lived-up-to-expectations
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Australia’s Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment will merge
A television network absorbs a newspaper empire in a joint bid to survive
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/27/australias-fairfax-media-and-nine-entertainment-will-merge
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/27/australias-fairfax-media-and-nine-entertainment-will-merge
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Has BRICS lived up to expectations?
The bloc of big emerging economies is surprisingly good at keeping its promises
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2018/07/27/has-brics-lived-up-to-expectations
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2018/07/27/has-brics-lived-up-to-expectations
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Australia’s Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment will merge
A television network absorbs a newspaper empire in a joint bid to survive
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/27/australias-fairfax-media-and-nine-entertainment-will-merge
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/27/australias-fairfax-media-and-nine-entertainment-will-merge
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Thursday, 26 July 2018
Tech firms are suddenly the corporate world’s biggest investors
Apple’s new headquarters has created 13,000 new construction jobs
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/tech-firms-are-suddenly-the-corporate-worlds-biggest-investors
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/tech-firms-are-suddenly-the-corporate-worlds-biggest-investors
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How the medical-tourism business thrives
More people are going under the knife abroad
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/how-the-medical-tourism-business-thrives
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/how-the-medical-tourism-business-thrives
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Ryanair’s battle with its unions gets nasty
Passengers should prepare for more delays and cancellations
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/26/ryanairs-battle-with-its-unions-gets-nasty
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/26/ryanairs-battle-with-its-unions-gets-nasty
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Defence companies target the cyber-security market
Demand for cyber-products is growing at twice the rate of that for military hardware
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/defence-companies-target-the-cyber-security-market
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/defence-companies-target-the-cyber-security-market
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Japan finally gets casinos
Yet owing to fears about addiction and crime they will be tightly regulated
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/japan-finally-gets-casinos
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/japan-finally-gets-casinos
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Japanese banks’ foreign exposure may threaten financial stability
TOKYOAfter sailing through the financial crisis, they are taking risks with foreign loans
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/japanese-banks-foreign-exposure-may-threaten-financial-stability
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/japanese-banks-foreign-exposure-may-threaten-financial-stability
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Why simple rules are best when spreading your investment bets
Rebalancing stops portfolios becoming riskier or safer than desired
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/why-simple-rules-are-best-when-spreading-your-investment-bets
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/why-simple-rules-are-best-when-spreading-your-investment-bets
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America and the EU are both toughening up on foreign capital
Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker share suspicions of Chinese investment
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/america-and-the-eu-are-both-toughening-up-on-foreign-capital
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/america-and-the-eu-are-both-toughening-up-on-foreign-capital
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As private-equity firms mature, the way they buy and sell is changing
They are reshaping Wall Street’s ecosystem
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/as-private-equity-firms-mature-the-way-they-buy-and-sell-is-changing
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/as-private-equity-firms-mature-the-way-they-buy-and-sell-is-changing
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Open offices can lead to closed minds
Some workplace designs are more about cost-cutting than collaboration
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/open-offices-can-lead-to-closed-minds
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/open-offices-can-lead-to-closed-minds
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Private equity is piling into health care
High prices and stiff competition mean investors must think creatively
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/private-equity-is-piling-into-health-care
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/private-equity-is-piling-into-health-care
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Car dealerships have become targets for cross-border investment
Big investors are snapping up small franchises. Why?
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/car-dealerships-have-become-targets-for-cross-border-investment
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/car-dealerships-have-become-targets-for-cross-border-investment
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More misbehaving American executives get the boot
Boards are scrutinising not only how bosses treat people but how they talk
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/more-misbehaving-american-executives-get-the-boot
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/more-misbehaving-american-executives-get-the-boot
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Bond yields reliably predict recessions. Why?
An inverted yield curve may mean a few things, none of them cheering
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/bond-yields-reliably-predict-recessions.-why
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/bond-yields-reliably-predict-recessions.-why
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Tech firms are suddenly the corporate world’s biggest investors
Apple’s new headquarters has created 13,000 new construction jobs
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/tech-firms-are-suddenly-the-corporate-worlds-biggest-investors
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/tech-firms-are-suddenly-the-corporate-worlds-biggest-investors
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
How the medical-tourism business thrives
More people are going under the knife abroad
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/how-the-medical-tourism-business-thrives
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/28/how-the-medical-tourism-business-thrives
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Ryanair’s battle with its unions gets nasty
Passengers should prepare for more delays and cancellations
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/26/ryanairs-battle-with-its-unions-gets-nasty
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/26/ryanairs-battle-with-its-unions-gets-nasty
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Defence companies target the cyber-security market
Demand for cyber-products is growing at twice the rate of that for military hardware
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/defence-companies-target-the-cyber-security-market
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/defence-companies-target-the-cyber-security-market
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Japan finally gets casinos
Yet owing to fears about addiction and crime they will be tightly regulated
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/japan-finally-gets-casinos
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/japan-finally-gets-casinos
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Japanese banks’ foreign exposure may threaten financial stability
TOKYOAfter sailing through the financial crisis, they are taking risks with foreign loans
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/japanese-banks-foreign-exposure-may-threaten-financial-stability
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/japanese-banks-foreign-exposure-may-threaten-financial-stability
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Why simple rules are best when spreading your investment bets
Rebalancing stops portfolios becoming riskier or safer than desired
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/why-simple-rules-are-best-when-spreading-your-investment-bets
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/why-simple-rules-are-best-when-spreading-your-investment-bets
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
America and the EU are both toughening up on foreign capital
Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker share suspicions of Chinese investment
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/america-and-the-eu-are-both-toughening-up-on-foreign-capital
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/america-and-the-eu-are-both-toughening-up-on-foreign-capital
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
As private-equity firms mature, the way they buy and sell is changing
They are reshaping Wall Street’s ecosystem
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/as-private-equity-firms-mature-the-way-they-buy-and-sell-is-changing
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/26/as-private-equity-firms-mature-the-way-they-buy-and-sell-is-changing
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
Open offices can lead to closed minds
Some workplace designs are more about cost-cutting than collaboration
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/open-offices-can-lead-to-closed-minds
http://ifttt.com/images/no_image_card.png
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/26/open-offices-can-lead-to-closed-minds
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Wednesday, 25 July 2018
The death of Sergio Marchionne leaves a big gap at FCA
Will Mike Manley measure up to his predecessor?
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/25/the-death-of-sergio-marchionne-leaves-a-big-gap-at-fca
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/25/the-death-of-sergio-marchionne-leaves-a-big-gap-at-fca
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The death of Sergio Marchionne leaves a big gap at FCA
Will Mike Manley measure up to his predecessor?
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/25/the-death-of-sergio-marchionne-leaves-a-big-gap-at-fca
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/25/the-death-of-sergio-marchionne-leaves-a-big-gap-at-fca
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Why Mitsubishi’s new regional jet shouldn’t be written off yet
The company has grand ambitions in the aerospace industry
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/25/why-mitsubishis-new-regional-jet-shouldnt-be-written-off-yet
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/25/why-mitsubishis-new-regional-jet-shouldnt-be-written-off-yet
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Why Mitsubishi’s new regional jet shouldn’t be written off yet
The company has grand ambitions in the aerospace industry
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/25/why-mitsubishis-new-regional-jet-shouldnt-be-written-off-yet
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/25/why-mitsubishis-new-regional-jet-shouldnt-be-written-off-yet
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Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Despite falling foul of the #MeToo movement, Lululemon is soaring
The “athleisure” firm is outclassing most other retailers globally
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/14/despite-falling-foul-of-the-metoo-movement-lululemon-is-soaring
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/14/despite-falling-foul-of-the-metoo-movement-lululemon-is-soaring
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Mini-grids could be a boon to poor people in Africa and Asia
When allied with microfinance, “green grids” can boost economic activity
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/14/mini-grids-could-be-a-boon-to-poor-people-in-africa-and-asia
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/14/mini-grids-could-be-a-boon-to-poor-people-in-africa-and-asia
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Are strikes making a big dent in Ryanair’s profits?
Europe’s largest airline has been hit by a series of walk-outs since it began to recognise trade unions
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/23/are-strikes-making-a-big-dent-in-ryanairs-profits
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/23/are-strikes-making-a-big-dent-in-ryanairs-profits
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Fiat Chrysler appoints a new boss
Mike Manley has a tough act to follow
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/22/fiat-chrysler-appoints-a-new-boss
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/22/fiat-chrysler-appoints-a-new-boss
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The stress that kills American workers
Poor health care and job insecurity shorten lives
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-stress-that-kills-american-workers
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-stress-that-kills-american-workers
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Universities withstood MOOCs but risk being outwitted by OPMs
Most revenue from web degrees goes not to their providers but to middlemen
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/universities-withstood-moocs-but-risk-being-outwitted-by-opms
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/universities-withstood-moocs-but-risk-being-outwitted-by-opms
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Google is fined €4.3bn in the biggest-ever antitrust penalty
But America’s online giants have not much more to fear from regulators
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/google-is-fined-eu4.3bn-in-the-biggest-ever-antitrust-penalty
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/google-is-fined-eu4.3bn-in-the-biggest-ever-antitrust-penalty
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In China, a rare public spat between officials as debt pressures build
Fiscal policy turns contentious. Only Xi Jinping and his advisers can resolve the debate
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/in-china-a-rare-public-spat-between-officials-as-debt-pressures-build
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/in-china-a-rare-public-spat-between-officials-as-debt-pressures-build
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Football talent scouts become more rational
The World Cup no longer distorts the transfer market as egregiously as it used to
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/football-talent-scouts-become-more-rational
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/football-talent-scouts-become-more-rational
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As inequality grows, so does the political influence of the rich
Concentrated wealth leads to concentrated power
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/as-inequality-grows-so-does-the-political-influence-of-the-rich
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/as-inequality-grows-so-does-the-political-influence-of-the-rich
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The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will strengthen Russia’s hand
Despite the threat of sanctions, Russia’s pipeline to Germany is in progress
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-will-strengthen-russias-hand
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-will-strengthen-russias-hand
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Mario Draghi’s replacement is already being discussed
The next president of the ECB will be chosen after much political haggling
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/mario-draghis-replacement-is-already-being-discussed
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/mario-draghis-replacement-is-already-being-discussed
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David Solomon will be the new CEO of Goldman Sachs
He is replacing Lloyd Blankfein, stepping down after steering the bank through the financial crisis
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/david-solomon-will-be-the-new-ceo-of-goldman-sachs
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/david-solomon-will-be-the-new-ceo-of-goldman-sachs
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How bosses should respond to the sound of the clock ticking
Companies have to balance living in the moment against long-term planning
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/how-bosses-should-respond-to-the-sound-of-the-clock-ticking
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/how-bosses-should-respond-to-the-sound-of-the-clock-ticking
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What Venezuelan savers can teach everyone else
Lessons in preserving the value of savings from hyperinflation
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/what-venezuelan-savers-can-teach-everyone-else
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/what-venezuelan-savers-can-teach-everyone-else
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Vanadium is the latest beneficiary of the battery craze
A metal used to harden steel could also help prevent global warming
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/vanadium-is-the-latest-beneficiary-of-the-battery-craze
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/vanadium-is-the-latest-beneficiary-of-the-battery-craze
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Income-share agreements are a novel way to pay tuition fees
They shift risk from students to investors and nudge universities to think about employability
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/income-share-agreements-are-a-novel-way-to-pay-tuition-fees
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/income-share-agreements-are-a-novel-way-to-pay-tuition-fees
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Netflix suffers a big wobble
Markets have reason to be jittery over the firm’s valuation and finances
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/netflix-suffers-a-big-wobble
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/netflix-suffers-a-big-wobble
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The case for treating disabled travellers better
Many are currently treated in an unacceptably shoddy way by the travel industry
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/20/the-case-for-treating-disabled-travellers-better
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/20/the-case-for-treating-disabled-travellers-better
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What really happened to EgyptAir Flight 804?
Egypt's suggestion that a bomb brought down the plane appears to lack credibility
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/14/what-really-happened-to-egyptair-flight-804
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/14/what-really-happened-to-egyptair-flight-804
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Big corporates’ quest to be hip is helping WeWork
Sceptics abound, but there may be more to the startup than meets the eye
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/14/big-corporates-quest-to-be-hip-is-helping-wework
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/14/big-corporates-quest-to-be-hip-is-helping-wework
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A welcome upgrade to apprenticeships
University degrees for manufacturing apprentices erode an old class divide
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/14/a-welcome-upgrade-to-apprenticeships
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/14/a-welcome-upgrade-to-apprenticeships
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Are strikes making a big dent in Ryanair’s profits?
Europe’s largest airline has been hit by a series of walk-outs since it began to recognise trade unions
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/23/are-strikes-making-a-big-dent-in-ryanairs-profits
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2018/07/23/are-strikes-making-a-big-dent-in-ryanairs-profits
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Fiat Chrysler appoints a new boss
Mike Manley has a tough act to follow
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/22/fiat-chrysler-appoints-a-new-boss
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/22/fiat-chrysler-appoints-a-new-boss
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The stress that kills American workers
Poor health care and job insecurity shorten lives
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-stress-that-kills-american-workers
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-stress-that-kills-american-workers
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Universities withstood MOOCs but risk being outwitted by OPMs
Most revenue from web degrees goes not to their providers but to middlemen
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/universities-withstood-moocs-but-risk-being-outwitted-by-opms
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/universities-withstood-moocs-but-risk-being-outwitted-by-opms
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Google is fined €4.3bn in the biggest-ever antitrust penalty
But America’s online giants have not much more to fear from regulators
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/google-is-fined-eu4.3bn-in-the-biggest-ever-antitrust-penalty
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/google-is-fined-eu4.3bn-in-the-biggest-ever-antitrust-penalty
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In China, a rare public spat between officials as debt pressures build
Fiscal policy turns contentious. Only Xi Jinping and his advisers can resolve the debate
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/in-china-a-rare-public-spat-between-officials-as-debt-pressures-build
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/in-china-a-rare-public-spat-between-officials-as-debt-pressures-build
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Football talent scouts become more rational
The World Cup no longer distorts the transfer market as egregiously as it used to
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/football-talent-scouts-become-more-rational
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/football-talent-scouts-become-more-rational
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As inequality grows, so does the political influence of the rich
Concentrated wealth leads to concentrated power
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/as-inequality-grows-so-does-the-political-influence-of-the-rich
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/as-inequality-grows-so-does-the-political-influence-of-the-rich
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The Nord Stream 2 pipeline will strengthen Russia’s hand
Despite the threat of sanctions, Russia’s pipeline to Germany is in progress
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-will-strengthen-russias-hand
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/business/2018/07/21/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-will-strengthen-russias-hand
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Mario Draghi’s replacement is already being discussed
The next president of the ECB will be chosen after much political haggling
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/mario-draghis-replacement-is-already-being-discussed
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from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/07/21/mario-draghis-replacement-is-already-being-discussed
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Monday, 23 July 2018
Are strikes making a big dent in Ryanair’s profits?
ALL should be rosy at Europe’s largest low-cost airline. Ryanair’s passenger numbers are growing and costs per seat-kilometre flown are—just about—lower than its competitors’. But investors have been sent into a flap by its announcement on July 23rd that its profits in the first quarter fell 20% year-on-year, which sent its share price down nearly 7% on the day. Growing demand for pilots and cabin crew is having an effect. Last September the airline was forced to cancel over 2,000 flights owing to a pilot shortage. To attract enough staff to keep up with its breakneck expansion it has been improving pay and conditions, as well as recognising trade unions for the first time. That decision has already made itself felt: this week Ryanair is cancelling more than 600 flights because of striking staff.
Neil Sorahan, Ryanair’s finance director, cites other factors for the slide in profits. The amount of airline capacity in Europe is growing faster than demand, putting downward pressure on fares. And on the cost side, rising oil prices has...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2018/07/trouble-cockpit?fsrc=rss
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Sunday, 22 July 2018
Fiat Chrysler appoints a new boss
THE question of who would replace Sergio Marchionne has been in the air for a year or more, ever since the boss of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced that he would step down in 2019. But the way the answer came was both shocking and sad. Complications after a routine operation around three weeks ago have had a devastating effect on the health of the 66-year-old, who was hard-working even by the standards of big-name CEOs. Not only will Mr Marchionne leave the helm of FCA earlier than planned but he will also quit as boss of Ferrari, a sportscar-maker, which he had been expected to lead until at least 2021.
A sudden deterioration in Mr Marchionne’s condition forced FCA’s board to meet on July 21st to confirm that Mike Manley, boss of the Jeep brand, would take his place. Replacing someone who is regarded as one of the all-time stars of the car industry is a tough job.
Mr Marchionne was refreshingly outspoken in an era when bosses have become ever more wary of...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21746844-mike-manley-has-tough-act-follow-fiat-chrysler-appoints-new-boss?fsrc=rss
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Friday, 20 July 2018
The case for treating disabled travellers better
TRAVELLING for work can be expensive, uncomfortable and unpleasant, even for those without a mobility issue. But spare a thought for people who do, many of whom get appalling service from train firms and airlines around the world. The latest case to have hit the headlines is that of Tanyalee Davis, a Canadian living in England, who has said that she was left feeling so humiliated that she “wanted to crawl under a rock and die” after a recent train journey from Plymouth to Norwich. Ms Davis, who uses a mobility scooter as she has a form of dwarfism, was forced to move from an unreserved wheelchair space to make way for a pushchair (pushchairs do not have priority for such spaces). When she complained, the guard announced to the train that they would be stopping indefinitely at the next station because the “woman in the mobility scooter was causing problems.”
For Ms Davis, a touring comedian, incidents like this are all too frequent and are no laughing matter. And she is not alone. Frank Gardner, a disabled journalist at the BBC, a...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2018/07/some-way-go?fsrc=rss
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Thursday, 19 July 2018
The stress that kills American workers
WORK can make you sick and shorten your life. That is the argument of a hard-hitting book* by Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In an obvious way, that claim is outdated. Health-and-safety rules help explain why deaths from accidents in American workplaces fell by 65% between 1970 and 2015. But one problem has not gone away: stress. As many as 80% of American workers suffer from high levels of stress in their job, according to a survey entitled “Attitudes in the American Workplace”. Nearly half say it is so debilitating that they need help.
Firms are at least aware of the issue. A study in 2008 by Watson Wyatt (a consultancy that is now part of Towers Watson) found that 48% of organisations said job-related stress affected performance. But only 5% of employers said they were doing anything to deal with the matter.
Mr Pfeffer’s book focuses on America, where the problem seems particularly acute. One survey found that 55% of employees log into...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21746270-poor-health-care-and-job-insecurity-shorten-lives-stress-kills-american-workers?fsrc=rss
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As inequality grows, so does the political influence of the rich
SQUEEZING the top 1% ought to be the most natural thing in the world for politicians seeking to please the masses. Yet, with few exceptions, today’s populist insurgents are more concerned with immigration and sovereignty than with the top rate of income tax. This disconnect may be more than an oddity. It may be a sign of the corrupting influence of inequality on democracy.
You might reasonably suppose that the more democratic a country’s institutions, the less inequality it should support. Rising inequality means that resources are concentrated in the hands of a few; they should be ever more easily outvoted by the majority who are left with a shrinking share of national income.
Indeed, some social scientists think that historical expansions of the franchise came as governments sought credible ways to assure voters that resources would be distributed more equitably. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue that in the 19th century governments across the West faced the threat of...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21746256-concentrated-wealth-leads-concentrated-power-inequality-grows-so-does?fsrc=rss
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Netflix suffers a big wobble
EVEN the most celebrated firms have their hiccups. On July 16th Netflix, an online-streaming giant, presented disappointing news to investors: it had added just 5.2m new subscribers in the second quarter of 2018, well below its projected number of 6.2m. Shares plunged by 14%; they have since recovered some ground.
This most recent bout of volatility may say more about the firm’s soothsaying abilities than the strength of its underlying business. Although Netflix’s subscriber growth fell short of its own projections, it was still in line with that of past quarters (see chart). In percentage terms, Netflix registered a bigger miss against projected subscriber growth in the second quarter of 2016, when its shares fell by 13%. The firm has also had much bigger forecasting misses on the upside.
When asked this week to explain the forecasting error, Netflix’s chief executive, Reed Hastings, responded that the company never worked out what happened in 2016 either, “other than...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21746300-markets-have-reason-be-jittery-over-firms-valuation-and-finances-netflix-suffers-big?fsrc=rss
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Vanadium is the latest beneficiary of the battery craze
OPEN a toolbox, pull out a spanner and you may be holding a bit of the answer to global warming: vanadium, a metal named after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty. Used mostly in alloys to strengthen steel, its appearance may not live up to the romance of its name. Yet vanadium could become a vital ingredient in large clean-energy batteries, in which case it will shine a lot brighter.
Its price has already been rising faster than cobalt, copper and nickel, all of which are used in lithium-ion batteries (see chart). The main reason for the run-up is prosaic. About nine-tenths of the world’s vanadium is used to harden steel; China has tightened standards on the strength of rebar to make buildings more earthquake-proof. Mark Smith, boss of Largo Resources, which mines high-purity vanadium in Brazil, says this alone should increase demand for the metal by up to 15,000 tonnes in 2018-19. Last year total production was 83,000 tonnes.
But...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21746299-metal-used-harden-steel-could-also-help-prevent-global-warming-vanadium-latest?fsrc=rss
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Universities withstood MOOCs but risk being outwitted by OPMs
“THERE’S only two things you do in the navy,” says Vice-Admiral Al Harms, former commander of the USS Nimitz, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that is one of the world’s biggest ships. “You fight, and you train to fight. Hopefully, most of the time you’re training.” The navy got Mr Harms hooked on continuous education, and in his 60s he felt the need for a top-up, so he took the online MBA programme of the University of Illinois (UoI), alongside his son. “I found it a very cool way to learn. You have the self-directed portion, working by yourself, and the enriching portion with class projects.”
When the web started to shake up higher education a decade or more ago, it was widely expected that the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) it spawned would disrupt universities in the same way that digital media undermined newspapers and music firms. But that assumption rested on a misunderstanding of what students are paying for. They are not...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21746298-most-revenue-web-degrees-goes-not-their-providers-middlemen-universities?fsrc=rss
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David Solomon will be the new CEO of Goldman Sachs
LAME-DUCK periods can last for only so long. It was clear beforehand that a Goldman Sachs earnings call this week would be packed with questions about succession. When would the chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, step down? (He had said in March he was leaving, but gave no date.) What would his departure mean for the firm’s other over-achievers? Several had already decamped, including Harvey Schwartz, the bank’s co-president and co-chief operating officer. Left as heir-apparent was the man he had shared both jobs with, David Solomon, but with no hint of when his elevation would take place.
On July 17th Goldman ended the speculation by confirming the choice of Mr Solomon as CEO and saying that he would take over in October, earlier than predicted. Quarterly results presented that day by Martin Chavez, the chief financial officer, who is thought to be in his own succession battle to replace Mr Solomon, beat forecasts. Still, the share price sagged....Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21746280-he-replacing-lloyd-blankfein-stepping-down-after-steering-bank-through?fsrc=rss
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What Venezuelan savers can teach everyone else
ASK the chief investment officer of a fund-management firm how to spread your investments and you will be told to put so much in stocks, so much in bonds and something in hedge funds or private equity. Chances are that white-elephant buildings, eggs and long-life milk will not feature. But in Venezuela, where the inflation rate is in the tens of thousands, things that people elsewhere would shun for fear they will lose value have become stores of real wealth.
That is why you can see scaffolding and other signs of a building boom dotted around Caracas, the capital of a country that has endured an economic collapse. Businesses need to park their earnings where they will not be wiped out by inflation. A smaller-scale response to galloping prices is the emerging “egg economy”. Eggs hold their value better than cash, for a while at least. They make for a convenient currency, too. It is easier to carry around a half-dozen eggs than a trunkful of banknotes. And many tradespeople would be happier to...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21746278-lessons-preserving-value-savings-hyperinflation-what-venezuelan?fsrc=rss
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Football talent scouts become more rational
CHEERS erupted from Calais to Cannes when Kylian Mbappé, a 19-year-old striker, thumped in France’s fourth goal in the World Cup final on July 15th. Among the smuggest onlookers were the accountants at Paris Saint-Germain, Mr Mbappé’s club. He was already a prized asset before the tournament, having broken the record for goals scored by a teenager in the Champions League, Europe’s premier-club competition. CIES Football Observatory, a research organisation, reckoned then that his club could charge €190m ($223m) for him. But an electrifying World Cup, with four goals, has surely increased his value.
That, at least, is how the transfer market usually responds to international tournaments. According to 21st Club, a consultancy, each time a player found the net in the World Cup and European Championship tournaments in 2004-16, his price went up by, on average, 13%. After the 2014 World Cup James Rodríguez, whose six goals for Colombia made...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21746277-world-cup-no-longer-distorts-transfer-market-egregiously-it-used?fsrc=rss
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Mario Draghi’s replacement is already being discussed
A LOT rests on the shoulders of the euro zone’s top central banker. The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) is not just in charge of ensuring monetary and financial stability in one of the world’s largest economies. In the absence of a single European fiscal authority, it also falls to the ECB to act as a backstop for the currency bloc. In times of crisis, the very survival of the monetary union seems to depend on the president’s words and actions. Central-bank bosses in America, Japan or Britain bear no burden as great.
With such demands, though, comes great influence. Those in need of convincing need only cast their minds back to July 2012. Greek interest rates were soaring and investors were entertaining the possibility that the euro zone would break up. But Mario Draghi, the ECB’s boss, soothed markets with a promise to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. Six years on, that commitment still helps to contain Italy’s sovereign-bond yields, despite unease about its new...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21746274-next-president-ecb-will-be-chosen-after-much-political-haggling-mario?fsrc=rss
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How bosses should respond to the sound of the clock ticking
TIME is one of the most disputed and confusing subjects in business. Schumpeter is writing this column after attending a conference which began with experts describing a new era of exponential technological change. It ended with a guru who had studied 70,000 years of history and who confidently discussed humanity’s fate over the 21st century (it does not look good). In the sessions in between, specialists discussed Asia’s outlook in 2030—though they struggled to cope with Asia in 2018, starting 68 minutes behind schedule, a daily lag which, if maintained across the intervening period, would mean the fourth decade of the century would begin seven months late.
In business well-established frameworks exist for everything from corporate finance to supply chains and human resources. Time is more slippery. Should firms act now or later? Quickly or slowly? There are no clear rules. In a state-led economy the government controls the future to some extent, setting laws and allocating resources in order...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21746273-companies-have-balance-living-moment-against-long-term-planning-how-bosses-should?fsrc=rss
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Google is fined €4.3bn in the biggest-ever antitrust penalty
“THE making of a big tech reckoning,” blared one typical headline earlier this year. “The case for breaking up Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google,” touted another. Based on media coverage alone it might seem as if the tech titans are in trouble. Add in the news, on July 18th, of a record €4.3bn fine for Google by the European Commission and that impression is strengthened. But if you look hard at where the regulatory rubber is actually hitting the road, the techlash seems much less brutal. Notwithstanding this week’s fine—which amounts to just over $5bn and is the biggest antitrust penalty ever—the online giants are nowhere near being reined in.
To be sure, the mood has changed. In America a survey for Axios, a news website, found that between October and March the favourability ratings of Facebook, Amazon and Google had fallen by 28%, 13% and 12%, respectively. Republicans such as Ted Cruz, a senator, now employ anti-tech rhetoric. Last month the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)...Continue reading
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Monday, 16 July 2018
What really happened to EgyptAir Flight 804?
GULLIVER is not the type of person to kick up a fuss on his travels, least of all when lucky enough to be at the front of the plane. But his patience was pushed to the limit a couple of years ago, when his EgyptAir flight from Cairo to London was blighted by the near-constant stench of cigarette smoke wafting in from the cockpit. Shackled by British meekness and an unwillingness to challenge a flight crew, your asthmatic correspondent suffered the coughs and tried instead to focus on work. Conversations with Egyptian friends later revealed that on-board cigarette smoke is hardly a rarity when flying with the North African flag-carrier.
Naturally, anecdotes such as this provide only a snapshot of an airline’s safety standards. But it is a deeply disturbing snapshot given the stalled investigation into EgyptAir Flight 804, which crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during a routine flight from Paris to Cairo in 2016, killing all 66 people aboard. This month, France’s air-crash investigation agency, BEA, took the unusual step of criticising...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2018/07/no-smoke-without-fire?fsrc=rss
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Friday, 13 July 2018
A Chinese music-video app is making WeChat sweat
A PUBLIC spat between two warring and wildly popular Chinese apps has had the feel of a teenage dance-off. “Sorry, Douyin Fans”, ran an article from the short-video app on its WeChat account, in which it accused the mobile-messaging service of disabling links to Douyin’s most popular videos. “All hail Douyin the drama queen,” retorted Tencent, WeChat’s parent, which said it had acted because the content was “inappropriate”.
On June 1st Tencent sued Douyin’s parent company, Bytedance, for 1 yuan (15 cents) and demanded it apologise for its accusations—on its own platforms (and presumably without the snark). Tencent also alleged unfair competition. Within hours Douyin counter-sued for 90m yuan. Bytedance and Tencent later swapped accusations of tolerating smear campaigns against the other on their apps, and filed police reports about defamatory posts.
Rarely has an upstart so piqued Tencent, a Chinese gaming and social-media titan which in November became Asia’s first...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21745797-tik-tok-has-become-worlds-most-downloaded-iphone-app-barring-games-chinese-music-video?fsrc=rss
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Law firms climb aboard the AI wagon
LONG hours have been the bane of the legal profession for ages; few of them involve thrilling courtroom antics. As a junior corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm in New York, John Bick remembers spending most of his waking hours poring over contracts looking for clauses that could complicate or kill off a deal. Even once he became a partner he still had to pitch in on due diligence for large transactions. In 2015 nearly a third of British lawyers were looking to leave the profession, according to the job searches of more than 1,000 of them by Life Productions, a career-change consultancy, perhaps because of the drudgery.
Such dissatisfaction may recede in future. Now on his firm’s management committee, Mr Bick is drafting in artificial intelligence (AI) to do the gruntwork—like many others at top law firms in New York and London. The shift could transform lawyers’ work and slash costs for clients.
Prestigious firms make their money by throwing large...Continue reading
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Even stockmarket bulls are more cautious than at the start of the year
BEARS sound clever; bulls make money. This piece of financial acumen, imparted by a trader to a colleague, is hard to beat for brevity. It also makes a good point. There is something about market pessimism that endows bears with an aura of wisdom that is not always deserved. The cautious sound clever because they appear to have weighed the odds. Optimists seem heedless by comparison. Yet it is only by taking on risk that investors can hope to make money.
So it is telling that even bulls are now sounding cautious. The economy and stockmarket in America have had a good run, after all. The expansion, which started in 2009, is now the second-longest on record. Unemployment is low. The Federal Reserve is hawkish. This mix tends to kill a bull market sooner rather than later. The question is how much further stocks can rise. Is there still time for bulls to make money? Or will being a bear save you money as well as make you sound clever?
In this debate, each side has a distinctive way of looking at...Continue reading
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Despite falling foul of the #MeToo movement, Lululemon is soaring
BOSS wanted for firm with tarnished reputation in troubled industry. On the face of it, the vacancy to become chief executive of Lululemon doesn’t ooze appeal. It is a clothing company, an industry that has been battered in recent years. And its previous two bosses have both left under a cloud.
In February its chief executive, Laurent Potdevin, resigned for conduct that the firm said fell short of its standards on integrity and showing respect for all employees. Industry observers considered his sudden departure to fit into a succession of corporate resignations sparked by the #MeToo movement against impropriety in the workplace. Mr Potdevin’s exit came three years after Lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, left the firm after more than a decade running it. Mr Wilson won notoriety for his on-air proclamation in 2013, after the company had to recall nearly a fifth of its yoga pants for being too sheer, that some women’s bodies “just don’t...Continue reading
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Why the euro zone hasn’t seen more cross-border bank mergers
MERGERS of euro-area banks from different countries, a banker jokes, are “very much like teenage sex. There’s a lot of talk, but little action. And when it does happen, there’s a lot of disappointment.” In recent months gossip has linked each of France’s three biggest banks (BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale), as well as UniCredit, Italy’s largest, with Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest listed bank. Lately chatter has connected UniCredit and Société Générale. But no big, cross-border takeover is imminent.
A stream of deals in the 2000s—notably UniCredit’s purchase of HypoVereinsbank, another leading German lender, in 2005—has slowed to a trickle (see chart, top panel). Policymakers at both the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) would like the flow to revive. The euro area’s banking markets are still essentially national ones. “European banking remains as fragmented today as it was in 2012,” notes Magdalena Stoklosa...Continue reading
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Big corporates’ quest to be hip is helping WeWork
WITH his flowing locks and hip clothes Adam Neumann, co-founder and chief executive of WeWork, looks less like a property baron than the frontman of a rock group. He speaks expansively on the subjects of character, destiny and God. His four-year-old daughter wanders through his office during an interview with The Economist. Yet Mr Neumann, a veteran of the Israeli navy, also has a reputation for being an intense and demanding businessman. Both sides to his character come together in WeWork. Mr Neumann thinks of his property startup as a profit-making version of Israel’s famed communal farms—a sort of “capitalist kibbutz”.
Shaking up the market for commercial offices globally is the firm’s mission. WeWork’s “co-working” offices, in more than 250 locations and over 70 cities worldwide, are a blend of small private spaces and large public areas designed to encourage a sense of community among its users. The firm rents huge chunks of space from landlords, kits them...Continue reading
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MoviePass’s useful financial horror show
EVEN by the standards of Hollywood, it sounds an unlikely pitch—an app that offers almost unlimited access to cinemas for $10 a month. The service, called MoviePass, pays cinemas full price for nearly every ticket that filmgoers use. By design, it loses more money the more people use it. The ending seems to be predictable. But might it have a twist?
MoviePass has burned far more cash even than its executives anticipated since introducing the unlimited plan in August last year. It has attracted more than 3m subscribers and will lose “at least” $45m this month, according to a filing to the Securities & Exchange Commission on July 10th by Helios & Matheson, a data firm which bought a majority stake in MoviePass last year and now owns 92% of it. Helios & Matheson reported it had lost $242m in the nine months to June 30th and that its monthly losses would increase as the service becomes more popular. The firm wants to issue more shares and...Continue reading
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A welcome upgrade to apprenticeships
THE Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in South Yorkshire, England, looks like the very model of a modern industrial site—bright, shiny, airy and clean. In June 1984 it was the site of a traumatic moment in British history—the Battle of Orgreave, when picketing miners clashed with police as they tried to stop lorries collecting supplies from a coking plant. The incident symbolised Britain’s post-war record of industrial decline and bitter strikes.
The old coking plant is long gone. In its place is a promising attempt to create jobs for a new generation of workers, and to tackle an ancient and ridiculous British class divide. An important part of this divide is that universities have long been seen as a place for academic subjects, calling for essays and equations. People who got their hands dirty making stuff did not go to college. But as of last autumn apprentices at the AMRC have been able to study for degree courses. When they graduate they will have an engineering degree from...Continue reading
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Life as you know it is IPOver
DEAR chief executive. First, congratulations. You have decided to float your firm’s shares on the stockmarket. After years of toil behind the scenes, it’s time for the big stage. You probably feel pretty good right now, especially after those insightful bankers from Goldman Sachs said that your firm is one of the most impressive that they have ever seen in their careers and that they are generously going to give you a discount on their normal fee and charge you only 4% of the IPO proceeds. Unfortunately, though, things will now get much worse before they get better. An IPO is like having children: months of waiting, an agonising delivery and afterwards your world is never the same again.
At least you are not alone. American IPO volumes are at their highest level for three years. In New York Dropbox and Spotify recently listed. Even Michael Dell, who took his computer firm private in 2013 and grumbles about the myopia of stockmarkets, is taking his firm public again, through a merger. In China a...Continue reading
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Development-impact bonds are costly, cumbersome—and good
IF A girl in a poor country goes to school, she will probably have a more comfortable life than if she stays at home. She will be less likely to marry while still a child, and therefore less likely to die in childbirth. So, not surprisingly, there is an Indian charity that tries to get girls into school and ensure they learn something, and there are Western philanthropists willing to pay for its work. What is noteworthy is how they have gone about this transaction.
On July 13th the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, presents the results of the world’s first large development-impact bond, which paid for girls’ education in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan. In this novel way of funding charitable work, a financial institution gives money to a charity, which tries to achieve various specified outcomes. If a neutral arbiter rules that it has succeeded, a donor or philanthropist repays the investor, plus a bonus. If it fails, the investor loses some or all of its money.
This is...Continue reading
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Donald Trump insists on trade reciprocity. But what kind?
IN THE sixth episode of “The Apprentice”, a reality-television show first broadcast in 2004, Donald Trump, as always, fired a contestant vying for a job in his company. She was, he said, the worst negotiator. And she had failed to fight back when belittled by her teammate. The episode was entitled “Tit For Tat”.
That same principle of reciprocity guides Mr Trump’s trade policy as president. And it is animating his tariff war with China. On July 6th America imposed 25% duties on Chinese imports worth about $34bn. (Another $16bn-worth will be hit in due course.) China responded by slapping tariffs on a similar amount of American goods (including a cargo of soyabeans aboard the Peak Pegasus that arrived at the port of Dalian mere hours later).
The two sides disagree, however, about which is tit and which tat. China believes it is responding dollar-for-dollar to American aggression. But America too believes it is retaliating: punishing China for trade and...Continue reading
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Thursday, 12 July 2018
Investors are gorging on American assets
ECONOMISTS think prices, like spilt ketchup, are sticky. They move only slowly as firms digest economic conditions. Financial markets are an exception. Computerised trading by thousands of participants means prices, especially of currencies, can move in a McFlurry.
Since The Economist last updated the Big Mac index (BMI), our lighthearted guide to currency valuation, burger prices have remained constant in 19 of 44 countries. But every currency has shifted in value (see chart 1). Our index uses a nugget of economic wisdom called purchasing-power parity: currencies should adjust until goods cost the same everywhere. If, once converted into dollars, Big Mac prices vary, one or other currency looks dear. Big movements in exchange rates, without similarly supersized shifts in burger prices, can send a currency up or down the index.
Continue reading
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Wednesday, 11 July 2018
Airbus and Boeing are tightening their hold on the sky
AT A glitzy party in Toulouse on July 10th Airbus, Europe’s aerospace giant, revealed its “newest” plane. But many aviation buffs might find it familiar. It was a repainted C-Series aircraft—originally developed by Bombardier of Canada—a project in which Airbus bought a 50.01% stake on July 1st. Airbus welcomed the aircraft into its family of planes by renaming the CS-100 as the A220-100 and the CS-300 as the A220-300. The message was clear: it is now an Airbus plane. But with Airbus and Bombardier’s arch rivals, Boeing of America and Embraer of Brazil, announcing their own joint venture last week, the skies are running out of competition.
The tie-up between Airbus and Bombardier, originally signed last October, initially came as good news for many airlines. Before Airbus swooped, the C-Series project was financially on its knees following an attempt by Boeing, Airbus’s arch-rival, to get tariffs slapped on imports of the planes into America. That would have decimated its order book and pushed Bombardier to the brink of bankruptcy....Continue reading
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Tuesday, 10 July 2018
Amazon wins from a Supreme Court ruling
FOR years, online retailers in America have enjoyed an unfair advantage over their bricks-and-mortar competitors. Unless they were physically located in the same state as a shopper, they were not obliged to collect state and local sales taxes. Shoppers were still legally required to pay taxes on their online purchases, but not everyone did in practice. Many instead to chose to treat the internet as a place to find discounts. Given that state and local taxes can add up to as much as 12% of a product’s prices, the potential savings were substantial. This practice is now coming to an end. On June 21st America’s Supreme Court ruled that online retailers would finally have to start collecting sales tax themselves.
The company that has benefited most from this loophole is probably Amazon, America’s biggest online retailer. When it started out, it collected sales taxes only from customers who lived in its home state of Washington. In recent years, however, Amazon has built distribution...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21745688-bricks-and-mortar-retailers-may-benefit-only-modestly-courts-ruling-sales-tax-amazon?fsrc=rss
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Thursday, 5 July 2018
China’s statistics are bad. Many criticisms of them are worse
“Our people crave, more than anything else, to know the extent of the nation,” says the narrator in “Do You Love Me?”, a short story by Peter Carey set on an imaginary world that lionises cartographers. To satisfy that craving, the country carries out a regular, exhaustive census: a “total inventory of the contents of the nation”. Helpful householders even move their possessions—furniture, appliances, utensils, heirlooms—into the street for easier counting.
China, like many countries, is keen to know its own extent. This year it is preparing its latest economic census, a twice-a-decade undertaking. Like the census in Mr Carey’s fable, it is a “mammoth task”. The most recent one employed 3m people, counted more than 8m enterprises and estimated a GDP of almost 59trn yuan ($9.5trn at the time). This year’s census may find that GDP per person has exceeded $10,000, enough to form a tidy pile of possessions on the street.
But why, many people will ask,...Continue reading
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Amazon takes a big step into online pharma
FOR roughly a year speculation has been feverish: would Amazon, an online retail giant, muscle into America’s prescription-drugs market? On June 28th that uncertainty ended when it bought a small online pharmacy, PillPack, based in Manchester, New Hampshire, for about $1bn. When the deal is completed later this year, Amazon will be able to sell prescription drugs to customers in the 50 states where PillPack has licenses.
The news of Amazon’s entry had a predictable effect on incumbent firms. Shares of three large bricks-and-mortar pharmacy chains, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Rite Aid and CVS Health, lost $11bn in value. Drug distributors such as Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen were also hit. Amazon gained $19.8bn. Michael Rea, boss of Rx Savings Solutions, a health-technology firm, says the purchase increased the speed with which Amazon can get into the prescription-drug market, making slimmer profit margins...Continue reading
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Canada’s cannabis firms plot world domination
IT IS rare to see the words “Canada” and “world domination” in the same sentence. The country’s cannabis producers want to change that. With an eye on October 17th, the date on which recreational marijuana will become legal, medical-cannabis firms have been expanding at home and talking up their global ambitions in a most un-Canadian way. Lots of joint ventures—in the legal sense—are being signed abroad. The hope is that having a base in the first large country to make pot legal for adults (Uruguay legalised cannabis in 2017) will give them an unbeatable lead.
To date firms have financed their expansion plans largely by selling shares, supplemented by funding from smaller investment banks and credit unions. Enthusiastic investors have pushed share prices to stratospheric levels (see chart)—many warn of a bubble. But the biggest banks, without whom nothing substantial is financed in Canada, have been wary. That changed on June 26th when the Bank of Montreal agreed to loan Aurora Cannabis up...Continue reading
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New auto tariffs would batter German carmakers
THE menace to Americans from immigration of the wrong sort is immense, according to President Donald Trump. The list of items he wants to deter from crossing the border includes objects as well as people, and one in particular holds his attention. In trade terms, he told Fox News on July 1st, “the cars are the big one.” With good reason, he views auto tariffs as a far deadlier weapon than the duties already imposed on steel and aluminium when it comes to extracting trade concessions from other countries.
That is dire news for all carmakers, which are among the world’s most globalised firms. But Germany’s are the most dependent on exports. Most well-off Americans long ago traded in Lincolns and Cadillacs for the refinement of Teutonic marques. A tweet from Mr Trump on June 22nd reaffirming his tariff plans sent the shares of Daimler, which makes Mercedes, and of BMW into a nosedive.
Mr Trump fumes that American cars exported...Continue reading
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Shortages of carbon dioxide in Europe may get worse
IN THEORY, the world has too much carbon dioxide. In 2015 the Paris climate agreement set limits on emissions of the gas to prevent global temperatures rising by more than two degrees Celsius above those of pre-industrial times. But in practice, makers of food and drink in Europe have found that they cannot find enough of the gas. And this unlikely shortage is likely to get worse in future.
Food-grade CO2 is a vital ingredient: it puts the fizz in carbonated drinks and beer, knocks out animals before slaughter and, as one of the gases inside packaging, delays meat and salad from going off. A shortage of the stuff has therefore created havoc in foodmakers’ supply chains. Heineken, a Dutch brewer, and Coca-Cola, an American drinks giant, have been forced to close some of their European plants. JD Wetherspoon, a British pub chain, ran out of some beers. Scotland’s largest pig slaughterhouse was forced to shut. On June 29th Warburtons,...Continue reading
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Glencore faces a DoJ probe stretching from Africa to the Americas
IT EMERGED on July 2nd that Hollywood may make “The King of Oil”, a film about Marc Rich, an American-Swiss commodities trader who became a fabulously rich fugitive from American justice. On July 3rd Glencore, the firm founded by Mr Rich, said America’s Department of Justice (DoJ) had requested documents regarding its compliance with corruption and money-laundering laws. Depending on the outcome, the film may have a good sequel.
It has been a year of pain for Glencore, a mining and trading giant. News that the DoJ wanted over ten years of documents related to activities in three countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria and Venezuela, knocked its market value by 8.5%, or $4.3bn (on July 5th it announced a $1bn share buyback). Its shares had already lagged its peers this year because of its exposure to the DRC and Russia, where it has suffered collateral damage from American sanctions.
Glencore, whose boss, Ivan Glasenberg, is its second-biggest...Continue reading
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China’s new $15bn tech fund emulates SoftBank’s Vision Fund
THE story of China Merchants Group began in the 1870s. After its defeats in the Opium wars, the Qing government tried to learn from the West by adopting foreign technology and encouraging new commercial ventures, including China Merchants. The banking-to-shipping conglomerate, based in Hong Kong, has since evolved into one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises, with $1.1trn in assets.
Fittingly, its latest endeavour again involves looking westward for new technologies. On July 1st it announced that its investment arm and other China-based investors would put 40bn yuan ($6bn) into a 100bn yuan venture-capital (VC) fund, the China New Era Technology Fund.
That total pot is a nod to the much larger project that it aims to replicate: the $100bn Vision Fund, formed by Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, a Japanese telecoms and internet firm, to invest in flashy startups. It borrows a little of its aura by partnering with Centricus, a British investment company that helped Mr...Continue reading
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The growth of index investing has not made markets less efficient
IN THE autumn of 1974 Paul Samuelson, a prominent economist and Nobel prizewinner, issued a challenge. Most stockpickers should go out of business, he argued. Even the best of them could not always beat the market average. But there was a snag. “If this advice to drop dead is good advice, it is obviously not counsel that will be eagerly followed.” An alternative was needed to set an example. Someone should set up a low-cost, low-turnover fund that simply tracked the S&P 500 index of stocks.
The following year Vanguard, then a fledgling firm, took up Samuelson’s challenge and launched an index fund for retail investors. It was not eagerly received. Denounced on Wall Street as “un-American”, the index fund raised a mere $17m in the half-decade after its launch. It has been only in the past two decades that index investing has prospered. Indexed funds have grown around six times faster than those tended by active fund managers who select stocks to buy. Lots of investors now get the average...Continue reading
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Central Europe’s Goldilocks economies
THEY evoke metal gorillas in a cavernous, floodlit hall: 640 robots with riveting guns and arms for handling parts. They will spring into action this autumn at the opening of a new plant for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), built at a cost of €1.4bn ($1.6bn) on former farmland in Nitra, in western Slovakia. Cars under construction will travel along 3.9km of elevated maglev track, taking just two days from start to completion. The robots, together with 2,800 human workers, will assemble a Land Rover Discovery every two minutes.
JLR is just the latest carmaker to come to Slovakia. VW arrived 27 years ago, followed by Kia and PSA. The firms together churn out over 1m cars annually, more per head of population than any other country. JLR considered 30 or 40 locations, says Alexander Wortberg, who oversees operations at Nitra. Mexico has cheaper workers and (for now, at least) favourable access to the American market. But Nitra is close to a new motorway and Slovakia has an impressive supply chain,...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21745589-region-enjoying-boom-long-term-success-requires-more-skilled-workers?fsrc=rss
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Argentina’s currency crisis is far from over
ON A residential street corner in Buenos Aires, Van Koning Market sells imported beers to the city’s well-heeled. Since it opened in June last year costs have soared. The peso has plummeted, meaning wholesale prices have shot up. Inflation is running at 26%; the reduction of government subsidies means the monthly electricity bill has risen from 700 pesos to 4,000 pesos ($142). Already losing customers, Sergio Discenza, the manager, is reluctant to raise prices much. “In a normal country this would be a viable business,” he says. “But here everyone is struggling.”
The year started badly for Argentina when the worst drought in 50 years hit the harvest of maize and soyabeans, both important exports. In May a stronger dollar and higher US Treasury yields prompted international investors to flee risky assets. Most emerging-market currencies suffered, Argentina’s especially. Its twin fiscal and current-account deficits have seen the peso...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21745577-buenos-airesa-weak-currency-and-punishingly-high-interest-rates-mean-recession?fsrc=rss
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Companies appear to be gaining market power
COMPETITION forces companies to keep prices low to attract customers. But if a few firms become powerful enough, they can see off competitors and charge more. A new working paper by Jan De Loecker of the University of Leuven and Jan Eeckhout of University College London presents evidence that this is happening across the rich world.
The researchers examine markups—selling prices divided by production costs. At 1, products are sold at cost; above 1, there is a gross profit. Using the financial statements of 70,000 firms in 134 countries, the authors find average markups rose from 1.1 in 1980 to 1.6 in 2016.
America and Europe saw the biggest increases (see chart). But in many emerging markets markups barely rose. In China they fell. That suggests rich-world firms may have been able to increase markups by outsourcing to cut labour costs. Another possibility is that corporate concentration may have increased because of lax antitrust enforcement or the growing heft of companies benefiting from...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21745573-may-mean-lower-pay-workers-and-less-innovation-companies-appear-be?fsrc=rss
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Chinese and US tech giants go at it in emerging markets
TWO contests are under way in which titans holding billions in their thrall vie for global domination. One is unfolding on Russian football pitches and features the likes of Neymar and Harry Kane. The other is playing out on the smartphone screens of consumers in India, Indonesia, Brazil and other emerging economies. There, American online superstars such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are pitted against a Chinese dream team led by Alibaba and Tencent.
The geopolitics of business means that the world’s biggest tech firms have swelled to combined market capitalisations of over $4trn without really going head to head. China blocked Google et al with its Great Firewall, preventing American firms (Apple is an obvious exception) from taking on Chinese rivals on the mainland. Chinese giants have stayed out of America; Europe fell under the spell of Silicon Valley before Chinese tech had matured.
Time, and capabilities, have changed. Chinese tech firms once simply mimicked Silicon Valley...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21745572-colossi-such-facebook-and-tencent-have-never-competed-directly-until-now-chinese-and-us-tech?fsrc=rss
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Wednesday, 4 July 2018
The American president is stirring up trouble in a volatile oil market
IT USED to be said that America’s shale producers were the new “swing factor” in global oil markets. It turns out that role is being taken by America’s president.
At a time when oil prices are at three-and-a-half-year highs, markets are being buffeted by three countervailing forces unleashed by President Donald Trump: his geopolitical agenda, particularly sanctions on Iran; his domestic political agenda, to lower American petrol prices before the mid-term elections; and his looming trade war with China. If he does not get his way, he may have a dangerous weapon up his sleeve—America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). His meddling risks making OPEC, the oil cartel that is a focus of his wrath, look like a paragon of predictability.
First, geopolitics. Despite an agreement late last month by Saudi-led OPEC and Russia to increase output by up to 1m barrels a day (b/d), the price of Brent crude, a benchmark, has risen to above $77 a barrel. The proximate...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21745521-if-he-cannot-arm-twist-opec-he-may-unleash-americas-special-petroleum-reserve?fsrc=rss
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Monday, 2 July 2018
User-rating systems are cut-rate substitutes for a skilful boss
IT OFTEN arrives as you stroll from the kerb to your front door. An e-mail with a question: how many stars do you want to give your Uber driver? Rating systems like the ride-hailing firm’s are essential infrastructure in the world of digital commerce. Just about anything you might seek to buy online comes with a crowdsourced rating, from a subscription to this newspaper to a broken iPhone on eBay to, increasingly, people providing services. But people are not objects. As ratings are applied to workers it is worth considering the consequences—for rater and rated.
User-rating systems were developed in the 1990s. The web held promise as a grand bazaar, where anyone could buy from or sell to anyone else. But e-commerce platforms had to create trust. Buyers and sellers needed to believe that payment would be forthcoming, and that the product would be as described. E-tailers like Amazon and eBay adopted reputation systems, in which sellers and buyers gave feedback about transactions. Reputation scores...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21745182-management-growing-share-workers-outsourced-strangers-user-rating?fsrc=rss
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Friday, 29 June 2018
Thursday, 28 June 2018
China starts easing monetary policy. Or does it?
CHINESE investors often refer in jest to the central bank as “central mama”. The idea is that it can be counted on to provide tender love—that is, policy easing—when market conditions are rough. But during the past couple of years it has been more of a disciplinarian, taking cash away from reckless investors. Its latest move, a cut of banks’ required reserves, has triggered a debate about which school of parenting it subscribes to these days. Is central mama turning soft again, or is she still cracking the whip?
On June 24th the People’s Bank of China said it would reduce the portion of cash that most banks must hold in reserve by 50 basis points. This was equivalent to deploying 700bn yuan ($106bn) in the financial system, or nearly 1% of GDP, which might sound like a healthy dose of liquidity to shore up growth. But the central bank insisted that it was not easing policy.
Many analysts take the central bank at its word. In the past, when it focused on the quantity of money in the economy, reducing required reserves could be seen as a form of loosening. But in recent years it has placed more emphasis on interest rates. Its most important target is banks’ short-term cost of borrowing from each other. That remained stable over the past week at about 2.8% in annual terms, proof that the announcement had little discernible...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21745236-challenges-interpreting-central-banks-latest-move-china-starts-easing?fsrc=rss
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Tortured by meetings
MOST workers view the prospect of a two-hour meeting with the same enthusiasm as Prometheus awaited the daily arrival of the eagle, sent by the gods to peck at his liver. Meetings have been a form of torture for office staff for as long as they have pushed pencils and bashed keyboards.
One eternal problem has been their inefficiency. In 1957, C. Northcote Parkinson, an academic and legendary writer on management, came up with the law of triviality, that “the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved.” In that same spirit, this columnist would like to propose an even broader principle, applying to gatherings of ten people or more, and immodestly called Bartleby’s Law: “80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted.”
Various corollaries to this law follow. After at least 80% of meetings, any decisions taken will be in line with the HIPPO, or “highest-paid person’s opinion”. In short, those who backed a...Continue reading
from Business and finance https://www.economist.com/news/business/21745278-you-take-minutes-and-waste-hours-tortured-meetings?fsrc=rss
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