A new study derived optimal policies and data-driven, problem-solving techniques for firms to learn about demand so that they can decide when and by how much they should adjust their capacity level. (via WSJ)
By Emily Stephenson and Steve Holland | NATIONAL HARBOR, Md./WASHINGTON NATIONAL HARBOR, Md./WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said he would make a massive budget request for one of the “greatest military buildups in American history” on Friday in a feisty, campaign-style speech extolling robust nationalism to eager conservative activists. Trump used remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an organization that gave him one of his first […]
The onset of the Trump era forced economists to confront their doubts about their usefulness to the public. They shared this ordeal with political forecasters, Democrats, logicians and journalists. Maybe we all deserved the anguish. Those economists who remain in a funk should nonetheless snap themselves out of it. One reason is that the sappy self-loathing economist is now embarrassingly cliché. Take it from a sappy self-loathing […]
By Balazs Koranyi | FRANKFURT FRANKFURT Devastated by the collapse of its iconic wine industry over a century ago, France may have inadvertently discovered the ideal way for central banks to aid an economy in crisis – open up the purse strings. The Great French Wine Blight, caused by an infestation of phylloxera aphids, laid waste to much of the French countryside in the second half of […]
YANGON Around 100 Buddhist monks and nationalists in Myanmar staged a protest against Thailand on Friday, denouncing the government of the neighbouring country for its actions against a temple that has defied orders to hand over a wanted monk. For the past week, Thai police and soldiers have surrounded the Dhammakaya temple outside the capital, Bangkok, to try to bring in the former head abbot who is […]
BEIJING China on Friday dismissed renewed pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump over its role in North Korea, saying the crux of the matter was a dispute between Washington and Pyongyang. Trump told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea “very easily if they want to”, turning up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to […]
Submitted by Daniel Mitchell via The Foundation for Economic Education, Early last month, in a column on my hopes and fears for 2017, I fretted about fiscal chaos in Italy leading to default and bailouts. Simply stated, I fear that Italy, along with certain other “Club Med” nations, has passed the point of no return in terms of big government, demographic decline, and societal dependency. And this […]
Google has announced that it has cracked the Secured Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1) cryptographic function, marking a milestone that spells both danger and opportunity for the computing world. The unprecedented feat was achieved through the real-world collision attack on the cryptographic algorithm, which led to the production of two PDF files that contain similar SHA-1 signature. What Is SHA-1? As a mathematical algorithm, the SHA-1 is capable […]
Should we try to time the market? And has the boom in passive investments brought any problems in its wake? The problems are linked and urgent. The move from traditional actively managed funds to passive indexed funds, which aim merely to track and index and reduce costs, continues to intensify. Meanwhile, if ever there was a point when it might seem right to time the market, and […]
By Marja Novak | LJUBLJANA LJUBLJANA Slovenia permitted same-sex marriages for the first time from Friday under a law giving gay couples largely the same rights as heterosexuals though barring them from jointly adopting children. The head of the unit in charge of weddings in Slovenia’s second largest city Maribor, Ksenija Klampfer, told Reuters the first lesbian wedding would take place there on Saturday. “We are very […]
By Rozanna Latiff and Emily Chow | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR VX nerve agent, a chemical on a U.N. list of weapons of mass destruction, was used to kill the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in last week’s bizarre murder in a busy Kuala Lumpur airport, Malaysian police said on Friday. Kim Jong Nam died on Feb. 13 after being assaulted by two […]
By A. Ananthalakshmi and Liz Lee | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR VX, the chemical used in the airport murder Kim Jong Nam, is one of the deadliest chemical weapons created by man. Just 10 milligrams of the nerve agent or a single drop enough to kill in minutes, experts say. With the texture and feel of engine oil, VX was first produced in the United Kingdom in […]
We may be about to witness the extinction of a very rare bird indeed: the $1m Monaco home. Savills agent Irene Luke hasn’t seen one on her books for several years. “We’re selling a parking space for €190,000,” she says, “so you’re not going to get very much for a million dollars.” Luke taps at a computer, trawling through all sorts of listings the public doesn’t have […]
By Alexandra Alper and Noe Torres | MEXICO CITY MEXICO CITY Mexico on Thursday expressed “worry and irritation” about U.S. policies to two of President Donald Trump’s top envoys, giving a chilly reply to the new administration’s hard line on immigration, trade and security. Comments by Trump about a “military operation” to deport criminals added to the tense atmosphere, and prompted a clarification from Homeland Security chief […]
For a century after the incredibly influential writings of Carl von Clausewitz in the early years of the 19th-century, the study of war, specifically the study of battles, occupied a regal prominence in the field of history-writing. It was taken as a given that the study of battles was illustrative, even vaguely ennobling, and monumental, multi-volume battle-histories appeared at regular intervals, often running to many reprints and […]
US and European authorities eased enforcement of new derivatives rules on Thursday less than a week before the standards come into effect, allowing small financial institutions more time to prepare for the wide-ranging reforms. In a series of statements hours apart, supervisory watchdogs bowed to growing concerns of a potential dislocation in the swaps market and hundreds of unprepared pension funds, asset managers and credit institutions likely […]
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would soon know his political fate with the SupremeCourt on Thursday saying that it would come out with a detailed judgement in the high-profile Panama Papers case. File image of Nawaz Sharif. Reuters The apex court, which completed hearing the case on Thursday, reserved its verdict to a later date. The case pertains to investments allegedly made by Sharif and members of his family in Mossack […]
By Tom Miles and John Irish | GENEVA GENEVA Opposing sides in the Syrian war came face-to-face in U.N. peace talks for the first time in three years on Thursday, to hear mediator Staffan de Mistura implore them to cooperate to find a way out of almost six years of war. “I ask you to work together. I know it’s not going to be easy to end […]
Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, struck a conciliatory tone during a visit to Mexico, saying the neighbouring countries had an opportunity to upgrade their economic relationship. After meeting Mexican officials during his second mission as the top US diplomat, Mr Tillerson said the countries had agreed to “seize the opportunity to modernise and strengthen our trade and energy relationship”. His remarks came just after President Donald […]
In this May 26, 2015 file photo, an iPhone is connected to a 2016 Chevrolet Malibu equipped with Apple CarPlay apps, displayed on the car’s MyLink screen, top, during a demonstration in Detroit. The rapidly evolving in-car infotainment and navigation systems can be bewildering for all but the most tech-savvy car buyers. The average vehicle on U.S. roads is 11 years old; that means many people last […]
“What’s up with the dollar?” has been the recurring question for investors lately as the reserve currency has slipped from a 14-year high set at the start of January. The answer may lie in the link between the dollar and real yields, a proxy for how investors in the bond market view prospects for stronger economic growth and the normalisation of interest rates. Whereas nominal yields give […]
A recent meme under the hashtag #OscarsWeNeed, dubbed “Outstanding Background Extra”, perfectly encapsulates what The National’s Alternative Academy Awards (aka The Other Oscars) is all about. There he was, an extra standing behind Spectre star Daniel Craig, sweeping as if his life depended on it – even as his broom never came close to the ground. As Hollywood prepares to honour the best of American and foreign […]
Frank Sorrentino used to do a lot of mortgages. But since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act seven years ago, he has mostly shied away. Rules have been tightened so far as to make home loans uneconomic, says the chairman and chief executive of ConnectOne, a bank with $3.7bn in assets based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. “Community banks used to be able to cut through the […]
By Humeyra Pamuk and John Davison | ISTANBUL/BEIRUT ISTANBUL/BEIRUT Turkey-backed rebels have seized the centre of the town of al-Bab from Islamic State, Turkish state media and rebels officials said on Thursday, marking a likely breakthrough in Ankara’s drive to wipe out the militant group in northern Syria. Turkey launched its Syrian operation, dubbed “Operation Euphrates Shield”, in August in an effort to push Islamic State from […]
