The Economist (June 3)
“It is the fourth time in a year that BA’s computer systems have suffered a major crash. And debilitating IT breakdowns are becoming increasingly common” across an industry with particularly high IT demands. “The sheer quantity and complexity of the data they handle make airlines particularly vulnerable to IT disasters.” And yet, “in 2015 airlines spent 2.7% of their revenues on IT, half the norm across all industries and a lower share even than hotels.” The pressure to pressure to cut costs is strong, given the industry’s harsh competition. The cost of an IT melt down, however, is much greater. Airlines must “refrain from pruning investment in IT too far.”
Tags: Airlines, BA, Complexity, Computer, Crash, Data, Investment, IT, Quantity, Systems
Bloomberg (June 2)
“China’s yuan policy has blindsided forecasters once again. The sudden surge in the last four days — for the onshore exchange rate, it’s been the steepest gain in more than four months — pushed the currency beyond levels predicted by even the most optimistic analysts.” At least eight analysts rushing to change their estimates. This is not the first time they have been caught flat footed. “Market watchers were caught off guard earlier in the year as well, when the yuan confounded expectations by strengthening in the first quarter.”
Tags: Analysts, Blindsided, China, Confounded, Currency, Exchange rate, Expectations, Forecasters, Gain, Yuan
Fund Strategy (June 1)
“European sceptics are being forced to acknowledge the recovery in a region that they have failed to understand politically, as the eurozone enjoys positive PMIs and employment figures while rejecting populist politics…. April saw the fifth largest allocation shift from US to European equities since the start of the eurozone in 1999.”
Tags: Allocation, Employment, Equities, Europe, eurozone, PMIs, Populist, Positive, Recovery, Sceptics, US
Washington Post (June 1)
“Even as the Trump administration’s commitment to the [Paris] climate accord wavered, the Exxon vote showed that climate concerns were gaining ground in the business world.” BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street apparently cast their “shares in opposition to Exxon management.” Their success “marked an important step for groups that have been trying to force corporations to adopt greater disclosure and transparency about the financial fallout of climate change.” Ultimately, 62.3% of shares cast were against ExxonMobil management, effectively forcing “the oil giant to report on the impact of global measures designed to keep climate change to 2 degrees centigrade.”
Tags: BlackRock, Climate, Disclosure, Exxon, Fallout, Impact, Management, Opposition, Paris accord, State Street, Transparency, Trump, Vanguard
Equities.com (May 31)
“Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, and its meteoric rise has made it a mainstay of conversation for investors, media, and technologists alike,” especially now that a coin is priced at over $2,000. “But the true impact of Bitcoin is actually far more reaching than this – it’s actually helped to birth new markets for over 800 other cryptocurrencies…. For the first time since Bitcoin was founded, it now makes up the minority of the entire cryptocurrency market at about 47.9% of all coins and assets.”
Tags: Bitcoin, Coins, Cryptocurrency, Impact, Investors, Mainstay, Media, Technologists
U.S. News & World Report (May 30)
Trump’s tweets “tell more of the ‘real story’ than he understands: the story of a president with few commitments to a pluralistic society, with little impulse control and who still remains distinct – and distant – from the office he holds.”
Tags: Commitments, Distant, Distinct, Impulse control, Pluralistic, Society, Trump, Tweets
