Pablo Pardo (Washington) | Donald Trump could nominate Herman Cain, an eccentric businessman who has accumulated various scandals and a questionable economic baggage, as a board member of the Federal Reserve. Cain is famous for having directed the El Padrino pizza chain and also for having been a senior executive at Burger King.
Following the reopening of the US Government after its shutdown, the market has been operating without data from both the US Department of Agriculture and speculative positioning data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Next report by Wisdom Tree covers a period of three months about commodity markets.
Shaun Riordan | Banks and other financial institutions are all too aware of the cybersecurity threat. They have lost millions in theft and fraud over the years. In response they have spent millions on technical measures to protect themselves, both perimeter and in depth defences. Such measures are necessary, but not sufficient.
Chandra Roy | Although Trump praised Powell for his “wisdom” and “skills” when he formally nominated him back in November 2017, within a year of this endorsement he relentlessly called in to question Jay Powell’s stewardess of the economy against the advice of top White House economic advisers, unprecedently claiming the Fed to be the “only problem in our economy”.
It was known yesterday that in January the financing to the Chinese economy reached a historical maximum in volume, growing almost 200% since December and exceeding the most optimistic forecasts. This indicator is one of the main tools that the government monitors to stimulate growth.
The crimes of the III Reich, product of Adolf Hitler, still horrify. But no-one remembers the II Reich, whose Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, is no less execrable than his successor, at least outside Europe. We can thank proofs like “Guilt and Debt” of the German Dierk Schmidt, exhibited at the Velazquez Palace (Madrid) until 10 March.
Until now, cryptocurrencies have only been a speculative bubble which burst, leaving bankrupt millions of people which had believed in the tale of anarcho-liberalism, which claims that they were the new international gold standard. But with 1500, or a million, possible candidates, it is difficult for states to take this data as a guarantee of stability.
via The Conversation | It is almost too easy to bash Facebook these days. Nearly a third of Americans feel the country’s most popular social media platform is bad for society. As the company approaches its 15th birthday, Americans rate its social benefit as better than Marlboro cigarettes, but worse than McDonald’s.
Leonardo Vivas | Until January this year, Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s strongman, seemed to have overcome all the obstacles in his battle for political survival. But after a few years preaching in the wilderness, the country’s democratic forces found a new energy with Juan Guaidó.
Shaun Riordan | It now appears obligatory for major companies to issue strategic plans explaining what they will do over the next two or three years, at least in Spain. Market analysts scramble to evaluate them, inventing “objective prices” on the basis of these evaluations. What neither the companies nor the analysts seem to understand is that “strategic plan” is an oxymoron. It is either a plan or it is a strategy. It cannot be both.