Bloomberg (February 2)
“The US president’s stance toward the greenback may help Xi Jinping realize his dream of making the yuan a global reserve currency.” At the top of President Xi’s wish “list is a ‘powerful currency’ with global-reserve status that punches its weight in international trade and foreign-exchange markets.” China now looks “well positioned to benefit from any long-term shift away from the dollar.” Despite Trump’s America First bluster, his “disruptive policies may be playing into the hands of rivals like China, who are only too eager to exploit US weakness wherever they see an opening.”
Tags: America first, Disruptive policies, Dollar, Exploit, Forex, Global reserve currency, Greenback, International trade, Powerful, President, U.S., Xi, Yuan
Washington Post (May 9)
“A group of powerful investment managers and public treasurers with assets invested in McDonald’s are demanding that the company take tougher steps to address child-labor violations at its franchises.” The investors want McDonalds, as well as Wendy’s, “to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for the use of child labor at franchised restaurants” and “conduct third-party human rights risk assessments of their businesses.”
Tags: Assets, Child labor, Child-labor violations, Demanding, Franchises, Human rights, Investment managers, McDonald's, Powerful, Risk assessments, Treasurers, Wendy’s, Zero tolerance
Bloomberg (March 16)
“Powerful AI systems like GPT-4 aren’t going to replace large swaths of professional workers, as many have instinctively feared. But they will put them under greater pressure to be more productive and faster at what they do. They will raise the bar on what is considered acceptable output and usher in an era of ultra-efficiency unlike anything we’ve seen before…. Watch out for how they might take you a tiny step closer to burnout.”
Tags: Acceptable, AI, Faster, Fear, GPT-4, Output, Powerful, Pressure, Productive, Professional workers, Replace, Ultra-efficiency
The Economist (October 9)
“Spending has come roaring back, as governments have stimulated the economy and consumers let rip. The surge in demand is so powerful that supply is struggling to keep up. Lorry drivers are getting signing bonuses, an armada of container ships is anchored off California waiting for ports to clear and energy prices are spiralling upwards. As rising inflation spooks investors, the gluts of the 2010s have given way to a shortage economy.”
Tags: Consumers, Container ships, Demand, Economy, Energy, Gluts, Governments, Inflation, Investors, Ports, Powerful, Roaring, Signing bonuses, Spending, Supply, Surge
New York Times (August 28)
“Under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s most powerful leader since Mao, China has taken a hard ideological turn against unfettered private enterprise. It has set out a series of strictures against “disorderly” corporate expansion. No longer will titans of industry be permitted to march out of step with the party’s priorities and dictates.”
Tags: China, Communist, Corporate expansion, Dictates, Disorderly, Ideological, Industry, Leader, Mao, Powerful, Private enterprise, Strictures, Unfettered, Xi
Chicago Tribune (September 13)
Chicago “like other major cities around the world, is a global city, a hub in the global economy, and that economy is on the ropes.” But “globalization is no unalloyed blessing.” Some would rather say goodbye to this “powerful economic force that richly rewards some and impoverishes others.” We can’t. “For better or worse, the global economy is the only economy we’ve got. Like the industrial economy before it, it is flawed, often cruel, but it pays the bills. If Chicago is to mend its divisions, it will have to do it with the money it reaps from its status as a global city.”
Tags: Chicago, Cruel, Economic force, Flawed, Global economy, Globalization, Impoverishes, Industrial economy, Major cities, Powerful, Rewards
1843 (April/May Issue)
“The emoji is the modern hieroglyph. Thousands of years after the Egyptians made their mark, picture-based writing is transforming how we communicate.” This is not a step backwards “to a more primitive, childish form of communication…. Both hieroglyphs and emoji are far more powerful than they appear.”
Tags: Childish, Communicate, Communication, Egyptians, Emoji, Hieroglyph, Picture-based, Powerful, Primitive, Writing
New York Times (December 14)
“The distress of 50 million Americans should concern everyone. Powerful economic forces are arrayed against rural America and, so far, efforts to turn it around have failed. Not every small town can be a tech hub, nor should it be. But that can’t be the only answer.”
Tags: Concern, Distress, Economic forces, Efforts, Failed, Powerful, Rural America, Small town, Tech hub
Financial Times (June 5)
“A clear lesson from last week’s sharp sell-off in Italian bond markets: the ‘doom loop’ that creates a direct link between eurozone countries and their banking systems is still a powerful force.”
Institutional Investor (November 13)
“AI will transform asset management,” but “the biggest challenge we face may not be developing powerful predictive AI-based investment models.” Rather, it will be “simply convincing investors not to trust their own judgment. More broadly, the winners and losers will be decided not by the current market position of a firm or even the size of its checkbook, but by its ability to overcome its anthropocentric prejudice and trust AI like it would trust a human being.”
Tags: AI, Anthropocentric, Asset management, Challenge, Investment models, Investors, Judgment, Powerful, Predictive, Trust
