The Economist (April 15)
Anxiety over the U.S. economy “obscures a stunning success story—one of enduring but underappreciated outperformance. America remains the world’s richest, most productive and most innovative big economy. By an impressive number of measures, it is leaving its peers ever further in the dust.”
Tags: Anxiety, Economy, Enduring, Innovative, Obscures, Outperformance, Productive, Richest, Stunning, Success story, U.S., Underappreciated
Reuters (December 13)
Apple “rose about 11% last week, extending its more than 30% gain for the year as investors remain confident that flush consumers will continue to pay top dollar” for its products.” The company’s “market value hovered just shy of the $3 trillion mark on Monday, following a stunning run over the past decade that has turned it into the world’s most valuable company.”
Tags: $3 trillion, Apple, Confident, Consumers, Extending, Gain, Investors, Market value, Stunning
The Guardian (October 23)
“This is Donald Trump’s America. It’s no wonder he doesn’t want to answer for it. What’s stunning, though, is the degree to which he has simply given up on articulating any plan for the future – and that he’s so sure voters won’t care.”
Gizmodo (October 19)
A “stunning AI breakthrough” has moved “us one step closer to the singularity.” Over the past year, the world marveled as AlphaGo has defeated Go masters at a game that has more possible combinations than the known universe has atoms. That now seems like child’s play. An improved version AlphaGo Zero (AGZ) took “just three days to train itself from scratch and acquire literally thousands of years of human Go knowledge simply by playing itself.” After three days of preparation, AGZ beat AlphaGo in each of 100 games. The technological singularity is “inching ever closer.”
Tags: AI, AlphaGo Zero, Breakthrough, Go, Knowledge, Singularity, Stunning
Toronto Star (June 26)
“A deep national revulsion toward President Donald Trump has sent Canadians’ opinions of the United States plummeting to a level of antipathy never before seen.” The decline is particularly steep when compared with “the final year of Democrat Barack Obama’s presidency, when Pew found 65 per cent of Canadians favourably disposed to the U.S.” The figure has dropped to 43 per cent. Equally stunning, “under Obama last year, 83 per cent of Canadians had confidence in the president to do the right thing in world affairs. Under Trump this year, it is a mere 22 per cent.”
Washington Post (June 24)
“British voters have defied the will of their leaders, foreign allies and much of the political establishment by opting to rupture this country’s primary connection to Europe in a stunning result that will radiate economic and political uncertainty across the globe.”
Tags: Allies, Establishment, Europe, Leaders, Stunning, UK, Uncertainty, Voters