Investment Week (April 27)
The European Union’s Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPS) regulation “is aimed at helping retail investors better understand and compare the key features, risks, rewards and costs of different products through a short Key Information Document (KID).” However, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) “has expressed he is ‘concerned’ about the new PRIIPS legislation, highlighting literature requirements ‘are not providing useful context’ while there is evidence it is causing US funds to withdraw from Europe.”
Tags: Bailey, Context, Costs, EU, FCA, KID, PRIIPS, Regulation, Retail investors, Rewards, Risks, US funds, Useful
CNBC (April 27)
“So is it really the end of the American car on its home turf? From the way Detroit’s major executives are talking, it would seem so. Ford said Wednesday it will only offer two new cars in North America over the coming years…. GM is moving along the same lines.”
CNN (April 26)
“It looked like a Mission Impossible…. For Emmanuel Macron, capturing Trump’s heart risked turning the rest of the world’s stomachs.” But somehow he did it. He even addressed a joint session of Congress, giving “a masterful performance” while “tackling a nearly impossible mission. No wonder the entire Congress gave him a lengthy standing ovation.”
Tags: Congress, Joint session, Macron, Masterful, Mission Impossible, Ovation, Trump
The Guardian (April 26)
“There is little chance of a concrete agreement of any kind resulting from the summit” between North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in on April 27. “Beginning negotiations with a meeting between the two leaders, before any details have been hammered out, is always risky. The meeting will likely be followed by months, if not years, of negotiations at the lower levels before anything is signed.”
Tags: Agreement, Kim Jong Un, Moon Jae-in, Negotiations, North Korea, Risky, South Korea, Summit
The Atlantic (April 25)
“More and more Americans are first sharing a home, then having children. Marriage comes later, if at all.” According to the Pew Research Center “35 percent of all unmarried parents are now living together, up from 20 percent of unmarried parents in 1997” and less than 1 percent in 1968. Aside from changing social norms, much of the trend appears to be linked to economic reasons and financial instability. “In response to an unintended pregnancy, a couple is three times more likely to move in together than get married.”
Tags: Children, Economic, Financial instability, Marriage, Parents, Pew, Social norms, U.S., Unmarried
Toronto Star (April 23)
“Toronto can be proud of how it faced the van attack.” The senseless loss was terrible, but “something outstanding happened as well, as the city refused to overreact in the face of a horrific van attack.”
Tags: Loss, Outstanding, Overreact, Senseless, Terrible, Toronto, Van attack
Reuters (April 23)
“For investors, the key question is whether the ECB’s carefully calibrated exit plan from its ultra easy policy could be scuppered by trade tensions, especially if the dispute between the United States and China sucks in the euro zone. The ECB would have to alter its march towards a more normal policy stance if growing risks from protectionism, exchange rates or market swings end up depressing inflation.”
Tags: China, ECB, Euro zone, Exchange rates, Exit plan, Inflation, Investors, Market swings, Protectionism, Risks, Trade tensions, U.S.
The Economist (April 21)
“Humans have had a good run. But with the most recent breakthrough in robotics, it is clear that their time as masters of planet Earth has come to an end.” Such statements remain unlikely and “furniture-assembly helps explain why.” Researchers in Singapore were able to get two robots to assemble an Ikea flat pack, but it was a long, painstaking exercise. Robots and AI continue to struggle in the real world. “It seems to be a fundamental truth: physical dexterity is computationally harder than playing Go.”
Tags: AI, Breakthrough, Dexterity, Earth, Flat pack, Humans, Ikea, Real world, Robotics, Singapore
New York Times (April 20)
A recent spate of “dizzying” progress on the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) is both an ironic and probably unintended consequence of the Trump presidency. “Now, on Mr. Trump’s watch, feminists could reach a goal nearly a century in the making…ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.” The fight was started so long ago that a recent poll found “80 percent of respondents thought the Constitution already explicitly guaranteed equal rights for women and men.” It doesn’t. Not yet…anyway.
Tags: Amendment, Constitution, Dizzying, E.R.A., Feminists, Progress, Ratification, Trump
Institutional Investor (April 19)
“Targeted by an activist hedge fund? Try calling in the influencers. A new study of institutional investor relationships found that how shareholders vote—and if they vote—is deeply impacted by who they know. Among major investors, networks move markets.”
Tags: Activist, Hedge-fund, Influencers, Investors, Markets, Networks, Relationships, Shareholders, Target, Vote