The global benchmark interest rate for trillions of dollars of corporate loans, credit cards and derivative contracts is approaching 1 per cent for the first time since the US emerged from recession, as global markets reach the end of a turbulent week. With the US Federal Reserve anticipating greater US economic strength in 2017, this has pushed the dollar to a 14-year high and spurred further selling […]
Submitted by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com, Stimulus, in a general sense, is something that causes an action or response. A ringing alarm clock may prompt someone to exit their slumber. Or a fist to the gut may force someone to gasp for breath. Stimulus can come in many forms and varieties. It can come in the form of a stick; do this and you won’t get whacked […]
From left, Richard Baraniuk, Tan Nguyen and Ankit Patel. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University Neuroscience and artificial intelligence experts from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have taken inspiration from the human brain in creating a new “deep learning” method that enables computers to learn about the visual world largely on their own, much as human babies do. In tests, the group’s “deep rendering mixture model” largely […]
General Motors seems determined not to get sidelined by the recent flurry of announcements in the self-driving car category such as those issued by Waymo and Uber. GM’s Chairman and CEO Mary Barra presided a rare press conference last Dec. 15 to declare that GM’s autonomous vehicle called Chevrolet Bolt is now prowling the streets of southeast Michigan. Fleet of self-driving Bolts have already been unleashed in San Francisco […]
ABU DHABI // The UAE has appointed its first Ambassador to a Baltic nation. Hanan Al Alili will become Ambassador to Latvia when the UAE Embassy opens in the capital, Riga, next month. Inara Murniece, Latvia’s speaker of parliament, was in Abu Dhabi for the Global Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament when the announcement was made. “It is important to have women in key positions in […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Fetal disposal rule: A federal judge temporarily halted a Texas regulation that would require abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetal tissue through burial or cremation. [Reuters] Jailhouse informants: The Justice Department launched a civil investigation of the district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office in Orange County, […] (via WSJ)
Credit: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne A drone has been equipped with feathers to increase its precision during flight. The bio-inspired device can spread or close its wings while flying, making it easier to maneuver and more resistant in high winds. When they need to change direction, increase their speed or counter headwinds, birds alter the configuration of their wings. To steer, for example, they spread one […]
China has ceded its status as America’s largest creditor nation to Japan after spending a large portion of its foreign exchange reserves to defend the renminbi. Beijing’s ownership of US Treasuries fell by $41.3bn to $1.12tn in October, according to data from the US Treasury released on Thursday — the sixth straight month of decline. Japan’s holdings fell by $4.5bn to $1.13tn for the same period. Thomas […]
The Supreme Court’s dealing with the Panama Papers has run up against procedural issues. First comes the retirement at the end of the month of the head of the bench, none other than the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali. At the last hearing of the case, it was announced that the case would be reheard, not treated as partly heard. Then there is […]
Friday 08:00 GMT Overview Equity markets are steady, holding near recent highs, as the dollar’s bounce to a 14-year peak on expectations of a more hawkish Federal Reserve pauses for breath. Bond markets are calmer too after the recent battering that pushed yields to their richest in many months, while gold edges up. Hot topic The dollar and surging bond yields has been one of the biggest […]
Chinese government bond yields retreated slightly after the central bank eased a credit squeeze that has been exacerbated by the US Federal Reserve’s rate increase. On Friday morning the People’s Bank of China injected a net Rmb45bn ($6.5bn) into the interbank market through reverse repos, bringing total net injections for the week to Rmb250bn. This marked a reversal from last week when the central bank drained more than […]
Investors have piled into Russian equity and bond funds over the past week as oil prices have rallied and President-elect Donald Trump named an oil executive with close ties to Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state. Russian stock funds recorded inflows of $451m in the week to December 14, the biggest weekly haul since the first quarter of 2011, according to EPFR. Mutual funds and exchange […]
Friday 02:10 GMT Overview The US dollar has climbed to a 14-year high in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s decision this week to lift interest rates, putting pressure on Asian currencies and prompting caution among traders of regional stocks. Hot topic The dollar has been one of the biggest stories of the December quarter thanks to a more robust outlook for US inflation and growth. That […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: petitions SCOTUS: General Motors asked the Supreme Court to maintain a bankruptcy shield blocking some lawsuits over faulty ignition switches after a lower court ruled the Detroit auto giant’s failure to reveal the safety defect violated consumers’ legal rights. [WSJ] Clinton case: A Manhattan federal judge indicated he […] (via WSJ)
Submitted by Eric Zuesse via Strategic-Culture.org, Was the Cold War against communism, or against Russia? Russia was our ally in World War II, and we’d have a Nazi world today if 26 million Russians hadn’t died from Hitler’s bombs and attacks while Russia fought on with courage amidst desperation, finally to crush his regime. But Russia was communist, so the Cold War developed after that alliance (the Allies in […]
By Joseph Menn The U.S. agency charged with ensuring that voting machines meet security standards was itself penetrated by a hacker after the November elections, according to a security firm working with law enforcement on the matter. The security firm, Recorded Future, was monitoring underground electronic markets where hackers buy and sell wares and discovered someone offering log-on credentials for access to computers at the U.S. Election […]
A Los Angeles class-action lawyer is trying to block the IRS from obtaining a sweeping array of customer records from a leading bitcoin company. The lawyer’s legal filing, filed in federal court late Tuesday, is the first substantive legal challenge to the so-called “John Doe” summons on San Francisco-based Bitcoin platform Coinbase Inc. Law Blog reported […] (via WSJ)
A one-two punch of a surging US dollar and rising interest rates sent the price of gold tumbling to its lowest level since February on Thursday, hurting the shares of miners and spurring hefty liquidations of exchange traded funds that track the metal. The price of gold in New York fell as much as 1.8 per cent to $1,122 an ounce, as the dollar rose across the […]
WASHINGTON A Singapore citizen pleaded guilty on Thursday to a federal charge stemming from his role in illegally exporting, through Iran, parts found in improvised explosive devices in Iraq, the U.S. Justice Department said. Lim Yong Nam, also known as Steven Lim, 42, was extradited from Indonesia earlier this year. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9 in Washington, and the parties have agreed that […]
A federal appeals court ruled that a local police department in Virginia unconstitutionally shielded itself from public scrutiny by imposing an overly restrictive social media policy on officers. The First Amendment ruling by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond was largely a victory for the two former City of Petersburg cops who […] (via WSJ)
By Greg Lacour | CHARLESTON, S.C. CHARLESTON, S.C. A jury on Thursday found avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof guilty of federal hate crimes resulting in the deaths of nine black parishioners at a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, last year. Jurors also said Roof, 22, was guilty of firearms violations and obstructing the exercise of religion for those he shot and killed during a Bible study […]
By Diane Bartz and Sarah N. Lynch | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Two years after high generic drug prices became a public controversy, legal cases are starting to land. Twenty states filed a lawsuit Thursday against Mylan NV (MYL.O), Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA.TA) and four other generic drug makers, saying they conspired over steak dinners and “girls nights out” on pricing of two common generic drugs, according to a copy […]
If Donald Trump has made bank stocks great again, Janet Yellen has just made them even greater. US financial stocks were on a tear on Thursday, extending their strong post-election market gains after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and signalled that at least three more rises are on the cards for next year. The prospect that the US central bank might have to raise […]
On Wednesday afternoon, Yahoo disclosed that it had discovered a data breach exposing the private information of more than one billion user accounts. Less than 12 hours later that same day, a plaintiffs’ firm in Los Angeles had cranked out and filed in federal court a class-action complaint against the internet company. “Despite Yahoo’s assurances, Yahoo has […] (via WSJ)
