Newsweek (May 11)
“Business leaders are particularly enthralled by AI’s growing capabilities,” but the general public is unsold. “Two-thirds of American adults—across all income and education levels—don’t trust generative AI and believe it presents a threat to humanity.” The urgent challenge must be addressed. “As was the case at the dawn of the nuclear age, we all have a role to play in demanding governance of this new technology. Scientists, along with society more generally, have made it clear that now is the time.”
Tags: AI, Business leaders, Education, Enthralled, General public, Generative, Governance, Growing capabilities, Humanity, Income, Scientists, Society, Technology, Threat, Trust
Investment Week (May 10)
“The Bank of England is widely expected to make a 25 basis points hike tomorrow (11 May) as inflation remains stickily in the double digits, despite record rises in interest rates over the past two years. The move would come in the wake of similar decisions from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank last week.” Looking ahead, a rate cut seems more likely from the Fed, with analysts “split on the path forward for the BoE following the presumed 25bps hike, with much depending on economic data released over the next few months.”
Tags: 25 basis points, Analysts, BOE, ECB, Economic data, Fed, Hike, Inflation, Interest rates, Rate cut, Split
Seeking Alpha (May 7)
“Berkshire Hathaway holds $130 billion in cash. That is over 18% of the company’s market cap. Clearly, management is not confident in the near term outlook of U.S. equity markets” in light of “the increasing preponderance of data that supports lower growth and lower earnings. The U.S. has certainly experienced an incredible period of growth and profits over the last 3 years. That phase is coming to an end.”
Tags: $130 billion, Berkshire Hathaway, Cash, Confident, Data, Earnings, Equity markets, Lower growth, Management, Market-cap, Near term, Outlook, Profits, U.S.
Fortune (May 6)
“Warren Buffett, whose economic insights are craved for Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s deep ties to the American economy, had a gloomy prediction for his own businesses: the good times may be over. The billionaire investor expects earnings at the majority of Berkshire’s operations to fall this year as a long-predicted downturn slows economic activity.”
Tags: Berkshire Hathaway, Billionaire, Buffett, Craved, Downturn, Earnings, Economy, Gloomy, Insights, Investor, Predicted, Prediction
Reuters (May 6)
The SEC and its Chair Gary Gensler have refused to “make clear how existing securities laws apply to digital assets.” From their perspective, “there’s little upside in breaking the silence.” If they state digital assets are securities, “Gensler would have to show his reasoning, opening the SEC up to more costly legal battles that it could lose.” By refusing to rule make, “the agency can keep firing off enforcement actions.”
Tags: Costly, Digital assets, Eforcement actions, Gensler, Laws, Legal battles, Reasoning, Refusing, Rule make, SEC, Securities, Silence, Upside
Hindustan Times (May 5)
“India entered into a new age as the world’s largest country in 2023.” With a large percentage of its population falling into working age, India has “the potential to produce a ‘phenomenal’ demographic dividend to catapult India into the top three economies of the world in the next 25 years.” To do so, however, “harnessing the gender dividend is even more critical and transformational.”
Tags: Catapult, Critical, Demographic, Dividend, Economies, Gender, Harnessing, India, Phenomenal, Population, Potential, Working-age, World’s largest
Wall Street Journal (May 4)
“Companies will need to jump through more hoops to buy back their stock.” A new rule adopted by the SEC will require “more disclosure from public companies about share repurchases starting in the fourth quarter,” including daily data on buybacks, whether directors or officers sold shares within four days of a buyback, and the rationale for the buyback. The SEC believes this will “make it easier for analysts to compare the timing of buybacks and insider trades, or to identify buybacks designed to boost executive compensation or earnings per share.”
Tags: Analysts, Buybacks, Directors, Disclosure, EPS, Executive compensation, Hoops, Insider trades, Officers, Public companies, Q4, Rationale, SEC, Share repurchases, Stock, Timing
Financial Times (May 3)
“The trio of bank failures since March has cast a pall over KPMG’s lucrative business as the largest auditor of the US banking sector.” SVB, Signature and First Republic all “had one thing in common: KPMG” and the auditor will be facing “scrutiny in aftermath of their collapses.”
Tags: Aftermath, Auditor, Bank failures, Banking sector, Collapses, First Republic, KPMG, Lucrative, Pall, Scrutiny, Signature, SVB, U.S.
Washington Post (May 2)
“As generative artificial intelligence becomes eerily lifelike and gives rise to chatbots that can draft letters, write computer code or create songs, experts have warned about its ability to put people out of jobs. A Goldman Sachs report in late March said generative AI could significantly disrupt the global economy and subject 300 million jobs, particularly white-collar ones, to automation.”
Tags: AI, Automation, Chatbots, Computer code, Disrupt, Experts, Generative, Global economy, Goldman Sachs, Jobs, Lifelike, People, Songs, White collar
Reuters (May 2)
“Diversifying abroad looks attractive to many Japanese companies given weak home markets” as demonstrated by Astellas recent $5.9 billion acquisition of Iveric Bio. “For the $28 billion drugmaker, which already earns the bulk of its revenue from overseas, exceptionally low borrowing costs at home may have boosted its offshore appetite even more.”
Tags: Acquisition, Astellas, Attractive, Borrowing costs, Diversifying, Drugmaker, Home markets, Iveric Bio, Japanese, Offshore appetite, Overseas, Revenue, Weak
