Deutsche Welle (February 2)
“EU member states on Friday finally came to agreement and approved new laws governing the safety and use of artificial intelligence, or AI…. The crux of the problem in finding unanimity came down to the balance between giving companies enough maneuvering room to make the development of AI products lucrative within the EU, while at the same time establishing rules for the use of a technology that is already affecting every aspect of society.”
Tags: Agreement, Approved, Artificial intelligence, Companies, EU, Lucrative, Rules, Safety, Society, Technology, Unanimity
Wall Street Journal (January 30)
“Logistics technology companies are cutting costs and slashing staff as a prolonged slump in freight stretches into 2024.” After soaring to “huge valuations during the Covid pandemic when a wave of consumer spending pushed freight volumes and shipping rates to record levels,” high interest rates and weak freight volumes are now “stretching some companies to their limit.”
Tags: Companies, Consumer spending, Costs, Covid, Freight volumes, Logistics, Pandemic, Prolonged, Shipping rates, Slashing, Slump, Staff, Technology, Valuations
Euromoney (October 30)
“There comes a point when investors cannot ignore the E, the S and the G in their investment strategies because there will be companies, business models and even entire industries that will no longer function if global temperatures exceed1.5 degrees over preindustrial levels, or if socio-political crises escalate, or if corporate mismanagement scandals multiply.”
Tags: 1.5 degrees, Business models, Companies, Corporate mismanagement, Crises, ESG, Industries, Investment strategies, Investors, Preindustrial, Scandals, Socio-political, Temperatures
Financial Times (October 5)
“Japan’s demographics — for all the socio-economic hand-wringing they cause — are now arguably the biggest ‘buy’ signal the country has sent for decades…. In several critical areas, Japan’s demographics are aligned to work strongly in favour of companies and investors.” One of these stems from “from labour shortages and the profound psychological difference they make to corporations’ ability to restructure.” This will enable corporations to “divest everything non-core and focus instead on what they are best at.”
Tags: Buy signal, Companies, Demographics, Divest, Hand-wringing, Investors, Japan, Labour shortages, Non-core, Psychological, Restructure, Socio-economic
Bloomberg (September 1)
“That jump in the unemployment rate was not a reflection of companies firing workers in anticipation of a slowdown.” A “very large 700,000 increase” in job seekers “caused the labor force participation rate to jump to 62.8%, the highest since before the pandemic.”
Tags: 62.8%, Companies, Firing, Highest, Job seekers, Jump, Labor force, Pandemic, Participation rate, Slowdown, Unemployment rate, Workers
Investment Week (July 31)
“British American Tobacco is resisting shareholder pressure to move its primary listing from London to New York.” Others haven’t. “The London Stock Exchange has seen a string of departures this year, as companies flee from cheap valuations towards the deeper investor pool the US market offers.”
Tags: BAT, Cheap valuations, Companies, Departures, Flee, Investor pool, London, LSE, New York, Primary listing, Resisting, Shareholder pressure, U.S.
American Banker (June 22)
“Companies and government agencies have been added in recent days to the list of institutions victimized by a supply chain cyberattack by a ransomware gang that exploited a weakness in file transfer software popular with enterprises.” Cl0p, a ransomware gang, “started exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Progress Software’s product MoveIt to steal data from at least 91 organizations, including state and federal agencies and at least 10 U.S. banks and credit unions. Data compromised in the leaks included names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and more.”
Tags: Banks, Companies, Compromised, Credit unions, Cyberattack, FTP, Government, Institutions, MoveIt, Ransomware, Supply chain, U.S., Victimized, Weakness, Zero-day vulnerability
New York Times (May 14)
Nearly three years after George Floyd’s murder prompted many companies to embrace Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (D.E.I.), “some companies are amending their approach to D.E.I., even renaming their departments to include ‘belonging.’ It’s the age of D.E.I.-B.”
Tags: Approach, Belonging, Companies, D.E.I.-B., Diversity, Equity, George Floyd, Inclusion, Murder, U.S.
Nikkei Asia (October 31)
“A record sell-off of China stocks has revealed investors’ fears over the country’s largest companies after Xi Jinping secured his third term,” cementing his grip on leadership. Any hopes “that China’s down-beaten tech sector would revive” or that more open borders might “boost the economy were apparently dashed” when the CCP’s national congress affirmed a Politburo Standing Committee most “notable for a lack of reform-minded top leaders.”
Tags: Borders, CCP’s, China, Companies, Dashed, Down-beaten, Economy, Fears, Grip, Hopes, Investors, Leadership, Politburo Standing Committee, Record, Reform, Sell-off, Stocks, Tech sector, Xi
Washington Post (October 9)
“Quantum research still has plenty of obstacles to overcome before it reaches widespread use. But banks, health-care companies and others are starting to run experiments on the quantum internet. Some industries are also tinkering with early-stage quantum computers to see whether they might eventually crack problems that current computers can’t, such as discovering new pharmaceuticals to treat intractable disease.”
Tags: Banks, Companies, Computers, Early-stage, Health care, Industries, Internet, Obstacles, Overcome, Quantum, Research, Tinkering
