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New York Times (July 29)

2018/ 07/ 31 by jd in Global News

“While Japan famously brought the world the concept of ‘death from overwork,’ South Koreans work longer hours, according to labor data. In fact, they put in 240 more work hours per year than Americans do — or, put another way, an extra month of eight-hour workdays.” South Korea is now trying to break free of this convention with a new law mandating 52-hour workweek caps for a large number of employees.

 

Reuters (July 29)

2018/ 07/ 30 by jd in Global News

“The Bank of Japan meets on Tuesday and might be doing some ‘jinarashi’ i.e. preparing markets for some changes to its unique, ultra-loose monetary policy.” With five years of mixed results, as well as “a global trade war now threatening trouble for its big exporters and zero interest rates hurting its banks, the BOJ seems to have recognized that something needs to give.”

 

The Economist (July 28)

2018/ 07/ 30 by jd in Global News

“No consequence of global warming is as self-evident as higher temperatures. Earth is roughly 1°C hotter today than it was before humanity started belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution.” This summer the consequences are widespread: “Heat is causing problems across the world.” But if global warming continues, “the toll on human lives is hard to imagine.” The bright spot is that better government response appears to be saving some lives. “If only the world could take in a similar lesson about the importance of stopping climate change in the first place.”

 

Inc (July/August Issue)

2018/ 07/ 29 by jd in Global News

“Artificially intelligent machines could streamline a company’s operations. Or, as the doom-and-gloomers say, one day they could supersede human founders.” The answer probably lies closer to the latter. “According to a recent article in the Washington University Law Review, algorithmic entities, or AEs, are nearly sophisticated enough to run a company–and have a particular comparative edge when it comes to ‘criminal enterprise.’”

 

South China Morning Post (July 26)

2018/ 07/ 28 by jd in Global News

“Trump says trade talks are ‘going really well’. US and China officials ask: ‘What talks?’ Diplomatic sources say no high-level discussions to defuse the growing trade war have taken place since June.”

 

Wall Street Journal (July 26)

2018/ 07/ 27 by jd in Global News

“The Trump administration is on the verge of launching a global trade war, the magnitude of which the world hasn’t seen in a century….If all the threatened Trump tariffs take effect, and the targeted countries respond with the expected retaliatory tariffs on American exports, everyone will lose.”

 

Washington Post (July 24)

2018/ 07/ 26 by jd in Global News

Somehow Trump’s appeal keeps rising. “His support within the Republican Party has risen and solidified. It now stands at around 90 percent, which is what tin-pot dictators get in rigged elections.” This leaves many befuddled, but his trick is telling people what they already believe. Playing to prejudice is Trump’s appeal. “He validates the thinking—some of it ugly—of many Americans. To them, Helsinki doesn’t matter and even Putin doesn’t matter. Only Trump does. To them, he hates the right people.”

 

Bloomberg (July 24)

2018/ 07/ 26 by jd in Global News

“Nobody thought the U.K. would put jobs and money at risk by leaving the EU without an agreement on trade terms. Until now.”

 

The Independent (July 23)

2018/ 07/ 25 by jd in Global News

“Cultural history offers no ready cliche for a mesmerically unimpressive travelling salesman, going from town to town, selling something that’s already well-known to be broken beyond repair. This is because, it is probably safe to assume, no one has yet been daft enough to try it. Theresa May’s “Chequers agreement”, the thing which she will spend the summer selling to the country, only actually has one potential customer, and that is the European Union. That customer could not have been more unambiguous about the fact that it will not buy it.”

 

New York Magazine (July 23)

2018/ 07/ 24 by jd in Global News

Donald Trump is “slowly realizing it’s North Korea’s reality show, not his.” The President “seems to be learning, the hard way, that epic peace deals with foreign leaders work a lot better when those deals actually exist before celebrating or trying to implement them. North Korea has been blowing the U.S. off since the summit, leaving denuclearization negotiations at a standstill, and the impatient Trump has been fuming at aides about it.”

 

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