Financial Times (April 10)
Boeing’s failure was essentially a “human error.” Boeing “was lured into hubris by its commercial success and safety record. It could not believe it had blundered so badly in trying to avoid harm. With hindsight, the reaction of Boeing and the FAA on the day after the second crash feels absurd.” This delusion, however, “has broader lessons. Companies in regulated industries employing many specialists such as engineers often find it hard to concede errors promptly, not just because of potential legal liability, but due to faith in their expertise. Car-makers and energy companies are also prone to such blindness.”
Tags: Blindness
New Zealand Herald (April 10)
New Zealand just experienced “a sickening demonstration of the killing power of semi-automatic weapons in the wrong hands.” This entirely justifies “Parliament’s haste in outlawing military style semi-automatic weapons…. All MPs except one are now doing what previous governments now know they should have done.”
Tags: Killing power, Military style, MPs, New Zealand, Outlawing, Parliament, Semi-automatic weapons, Sickening
Bloomberg (April 10)
“India has so far been spared the kind of populist revolt that’s testing many rich Western democracies. It’s far from immune, however.” Whoever wins the upcoming election should “recognize that many of the conditions for a similar upheaval are in place — and that the best way to avoid it is to promote growth and opportunity through economic reform.”
Tags: Election, Growth, India, Populist revolt, Rich, Upheaval, Western democracies
Time (April 8)
“The end of the special counsel’s probe gives Donald Trump one of the biggest wins of his presidency…. A special-counsel investigation of this ilk might have proven fatal to Trump’s predecessors, yet the President survived it.” Still, “Mueller’s verdict was not nearly as definitive as the President and his allies would claim. He did not clear Trump of obstruction.”
Tags: Investigation, Mueller, Obstruction, Probe, Special counsel, Trump, Verdict
Wall Street Journal (April 7)
“Friday’s solid labor report out to ease fears that the U.S. Economy is skidding toward recession…While growth has cooled, neither recession nor runaway inflation appear imminent.”
Chicago Tribune (April 5)
“Trump is terrible at making deals. His threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border offers the latest example…. Trump tried to get Mexico to pay for his cherished wall and failed. He tried to get Congress to provide $5.7 billion to construct it and failed despite putting the country through a 35-day government shutdown.” The President “is good at making demands and issuing threats, but those are useful only if you know how to bargain and compromise. He fails at making deals because he has never learned that in negotiations, as in war, the other side gets a vote.”
Tags: Border, Compromise, Demands, Failed, Making deals, Mexico, Negotiations, Shutdown, Terrible, Threats, Trump, U.S., Wall
Reuters (April 5)
“As the U.S. yield curve makes up its mind whether to invert or not, investors seeking reassurance that we are in a Goldilocks era of non-inflationary growth will get to scour two monthly price gauges this week.”
Tags: Goldilocks era, Invert, Investors, Non-inflationary growth, Price gauges, Reassurance, U.S., Yield curve
Wall Street Journal (April 4)
“Japan is joining much of the world in facing weaker economic growth, but in one respect it’s unique. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems determined to make it worse by imposing a tax increase later this year.”
Tags: Abe, Economic growth, Japan, Tax increase, Weak
Institutional Investor (April 3)
“Hedge funds are in danger of losing a battle with low-cost exchange-traded funds.” According to a recent study comparing hedge funds with similar ETFs, “The results were mostly bad news for hedge funds. Two of the largest ETFs in each sector outperformed their respective hedge fund index counterparts. Hedge funds did, however, provide a smoother ride for investors.”
Tags: Danger, ETFs, Hedge funds, Index, Investors, Losing battle, Results, Sector
New York Times (April 3)
“President Trump and President Xi Jinping of China will probably soon reach a trade agreement, but that won’t solve the biggest problems…. A good trade deal with China is welcome. But when so many Americans are dying from Chinese fentanyl, when one million Muslims are interned, when Emperor Xi is dragging China in the wrong direction, let’s not celebrate but, instead, keep up the international pressure.”
Tags: China, Fentanyl, International pressure, Muslims, Trade agreement, Trump, Xi
