New York Times (September 18)
“The A.I. industry’s new worry” is “‘liability exposure.” Significant “corporate or personal legal exposure” could arise from “civil tort laws,
which could be relevant if AI “models were to facilitate criminal activity, including cybersecurity attacks or the manufacturing of bioweapons.” This prospect presents the AI “companies and their leaders with a legal challenge.” Investors also will “also need to weigh whether to buy into companies with potentially unprecedented risk profiles.”
Tags: Risk profiles
The Economist (September 17)
“Two things should make you consider what artificial intelligence could mean for humanity. One is that those working with the technology are warning about it leading to a catastrophe—human extinction, even. The other is how technological innovation is aggravating the destruction of Ukraine. These things offer conflicting lessons for whether AI’s rapid progress can or should be slowed down.”
Tags: AI, Catastrophe, Conflicting lessons, Destruction, Human extinction, Humanity, Technological innovation, Technology, Ukraine, Warning
South China Morning Post (September 17)
“What is clear is that while the US is putting pressure on Japanese monetary policy, Japan could end up putting global markets under more strain.” Aside from undermining the Bank of Japan’s credibility, the outside pressure could “cause the yen carry trade… to unwind,” leaving especially exposed “technology-heavy stock markets such as South Korea and Taiwan.” Moreover the “higher Japanese bond yields could draw capital away from the US Treasury market, which is already under pressure because of the Fed’s hawkish pivot.”
Tags: BOJ, Bond yields, Carry trade, Clear, Credibility, Exposed, Fed, Global markets, Japan, Monetary policy, Pressure, South Korea, Strain, Taiwan, U.S., Undermining, Unwind, Yen
Wall Street Journal (September 16)
“The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years, a sharp reversal that began taking back cuts it made last year.” The decision to “raise the benchmark federal-funds rate range by a quarter point to between 3.75% and 4%” was unanimous and most “officials penciled in one more hike this year in interest-rate projections released after their meeting.”
Tags: 3.75%, Benchmark, Decision, Fed, Federal-funds rate, Hike, Interest rates, Projections, Quarter-point, Raise, Reversal, Unanimous
Financial Times (September 15)
“Credibility is the most precious resource a Treasury secretary has” and Scott Bessent’s has gone up in flames. “For reasons even his defenders find hard to explain, Scott Bessent has been on a credibility-spending spree. Bessent told the currency markets last week that he was ‘the house’ and warned that nobody should bet against him. But the bond markets did and he lost. What weight will traders attach to his next pronouncement?”
Tags: Bessent, Bet, Bond markets, Credibility, Currency markets, Defenders, Lost, The house, Traders, Treasury secretary, Warned
Barron’s (September 14)
“AI stocks aren’t alone when it comes to being sensitive to interest rates; equities in general tend to be reactive” and they also averse to the “potential chilling effect on demand” of higher rates. Though expectations are that “the Fed will raise rates when the FOMC announces its monetary policy decision,” the resilience of the economy this year provides “a hopeful thought for anyone dreading a rate hike.”
Tags: AI, Averse, Chilling effect, Demand, Dreading, Economy, Equities, Expectations, Fed, FOMC, Hike, Interest rates, Monetary policy, Reactive, Resilience, Sensitive, Stocks
The Guardian (September 11)
“Humanity cannot outsource its survival.” AI must be controlled, but that’s no easy feat. “Keeping people in charge means little if supercomputers determine the evidence, choices and time on which their decisions depend.” Yet we must. “The dangers of AI-enabled pandemics or attacks on nuclear systems are real. Countries need not agree on democracy or trade policy to accept this.”
Tags: AI, Attacks, Choices, Controlled, Dangers, Decisions, Democracy, Evidence, Humanity, Nuclear systems, Outsource, Pandemics, Real, Supercomputers, Survival, Time, Trade policy
Reuters (September 11)
“Analysts at JPMorgan now expect eight of the nine developed-market central banks to hike interest rates by the year end, including the Fed, BOJ, all four central banks in Europe, and the reserve banks of Australia and New Zealand.”
Tags: Analysts, Australia, BOJ, Central banks, Developed market, Europe, Fed, Hike, Interest rates, JPMorgan, Reserve banks, Year end
Washington Post (September 10)
“Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, powerful agencies and vast legal authorities created to stop another terrorist catastrophe are being turned inward, with the Trump administration using many of those powers to round up immigrants, battle drug traffickers and target political dissent.”
Tags: 9/11 attacks, Drug traffickers, Immigrants, Legal authorities, Political dissent, Powerful agencies, Powers, Terrorist catastrophe, Trump administration, Turned inward
Time (September 9)
As the “Buy Canadian” movement gains momentum, “Consumers in Canada are finding different ways to navigate how best to boycott U.S. goods and services, putting extra time in at the grocery store to ensure they are buying Canadian as often as they can.” The movement’s resurgence “comes amid a deepening U.S.-Canada trade dispute that shows no signs of waning.”
Tags: Boycott, Buy Canadian, Canada, Consumers, Deepening, Goods, Grocery store, Momentum, Movement, Navigate, Resurgence, Services, U.S.
