The Times (September 21)
“America’s Nato allies must lay the Greenland matter to rest. Donald Trump has declared victory in negotiations with Denmark over its Arctic territory. Despite the damage to Nato, US allies would do well to humour the president.” Trump has made much of the right to build bases, a concession that has existed since a 1951 treaty. In reality, “Greenland remains Danish and nothing much has changed on the ground. Nato should celebrate” and hand Trump his imaginary victory.
Tags: Imaginary
Bloomberg (September 20)
The U.S. China summit will take place on Thursday. Though it looks “set to be the week’s pivotal event,” any ultimate outcomes “are likely to come down to the wire after both sides played for leverage in recent weeks. It’s not clear if their trade truce will be extended by a year… or if the US side will insist on a shorter timeframe as a way to pressure China into more concessions. Beijing, for its part, would like the detente to last until the end of Trump’s term.”
Tags: Xi
New York Times (September 18)
“The A.I. industry’s new worry” is “‘liability exposure.” Significant “corporate or personal legal exposure” could arise from “civil tort laws,
which could be relevant if AI “models were to facilitate criminal activity, including cybersecurity attacks or the manufacturing of bioweapons.” This prospect presents the AI “companies and their leaders with a legal challenge.” Investors also will “also need to weigh whether to buy into companies with potentially unprecedented risk profiles.”
Tags: Risk profiles
The Economist (September 17)
“Two things should make you consider what artificial intelligence could mean for humanity. One is that those working with the technology are warning about it leading to a catastrophe—human extinction, even. The other is how technological innovation is aggravating the destruction of Ukraine. These things offer conflicting lessons for whether AI’s rapid progress can or should be slowed down.”
Tags: AI, Catastrophe, Conflicting lessons, Destruction, Human extinction, Humanity, Technological innovation, Technology, Ukraine, Warning
South China Morning Post (September 17)
“What is clear is that while the US is putting pressure on Japanese monetary policy, Japan could end up putting global markets under more strain.” Aside from undermining the Bank of Japan’s credibility, the outside pressure could “cause the yen carry trade… to unwind,” leaving especially exposed “technology-heavy stock markets such as South Korea and Taiwan.” Moreover the “higher Japanese bond yields could draw capital away from the US Treasury market, which is already under pressure because of the Fed’s hawkish pivot.”
Tags: BOJ, Bond yields, Carry trade, Clear, Credibility, Exposed, Fed, Global markets, Japan, Monetary policy, Pressure, South Korea, Strain, Taiwan, U.S., Undermining, Unwind, Yen
Wall Street Journal (September 16)
“The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday for the first time in three years, a sharp reversal that began taking back cuts it made last year.” The decision to “raise the benchmark federal-funds rate range by a quarter point to between 3.75% and 4%” was unanimous and most “officials penciled in one more hike this year in interest-rate projections released after their meeting.”
Tags: 3.75%, Benchmark, Decision, Fed, Federal-funds rate, Hike, Interest rates, Projections, Quarter-point, Raise, Reversal, Unanimous
Financial Times (September 15)
“Credibility is the most precious resource a Treasury secretary has” and Scott Bessent’s has gone up in flames. “For reasons even his defenders find hard to explain, Scott Bessent has been on a credibility-spending spree. Bessent told the currency markets last week that he was ‘the house’ and warned that nobody should bet against him. But the bond markets did and he lost. What weight will traders attach to his next pronouncement?”
Tags: Bessent, Bet, Bond markets, Credibility, Currency markets, Defenders, Lost, The house, Traders, Treasury secretary, Warned
Barron’s (September 14)
“AI stocks aren’t alone when it comes to being sensitive to interest rates; equities in general tend to be reactive” and they also averse to the “potential chilling effect on demand” of higher rates. Though expectations are that “the Fed will raise rates when the FOMC announces its monetary policy decision,” the resilience of the economy this year provides “a hopeful thought for anyone dreading a rate hike.”
Tags: AI, Averse, Chilling effect, Demand, Dreading, Economy, Equities, Expectations, Fed, FOMC, Hike, Interest rates, Monetary policy, Reactive, Resilience, Sensitive, Stocks
The Guardian (September 11)
“Humanity cannot outsource its survival.” AI must be controlled, but that’s no easy feat. “Keeping people in charge means little if supercomputers determine the evidence, choices and time on which their decisions depend.” Yet we must. “The dangers of AI-enabled pandemics or attacks on nuclear systems are real. Countries need not agree on democracy or trade policy to accept this.”
Tags: AI, Attacks, Choices, Controlled, Dangers, Decisions, Democracy, Evidence, Humanity, Nuclear systems, Outsource, Pandemics, Real, Supercomputers, Survival, Time, Trade policy
Reuters (September 11)
“Analysts at JPMorgan now expect eight of the nine developed-market central banks to hike interest rates by the year end, including the Fed, BOJ, all four central banks in Europe, and the reserve banks of Australia and New Zealand.”
Tags: Analysts, Australia, BOJ, Central banks, Developed market, Europe, Fed, Hike, Interest rates, JPMorgan, Reserve banks, Year end
