Tag: Business and finance

HONEYMOONS don’t last for ever. Having been a reluctant bride to President Donald Trump when courted in the run-up to November’s election, the American stockmarket quickly melted into a mood of romantic euphoria. Shares rose by 12% between election day and March 1st (see chart). But in recent days, sentiment has dimmed. There is talk of the “Trump-disappointment trade”.

For the markets to experience some kind of sell-off is hardly a surprise. The S&P 500 index had gone more than 100 days without a 1% decline, the longest such streak since 1995. And the setback should not be exaggerated. The S&P 500 remains well above its pre-election level, compared with the dollar, which has given up around half its gains. The ten-year Treasury-bond yield, which hit 2.62% on March 13th, has dropped back to 2.38%.

The immediate cause of the retreat seemed to be the failure of Mr Trump to repeal his predecessor’s health-care bill. That logic was hardly a great advertisement for capitalism, implying that the fewer Americans had access to health insurance, the happier investors would be. But the broader rationale seemed to be that, if the Republicans…Continue reading

IN THEORY, leaving an item in an Uber car should induce less panic than leaving something in a cab. After all, you can just pull out your phone and look up the name and number of your driver. Unless, of course, the item you left behind is your phone.

This week, the ride-hailing company unveiled the “Uber Lost & Found Index”, which documents the things most commonly left behind in its cars. Topping the list is, inevitably, phones.

Rings are the second most frequently abandoned possessions, followed by keys, wallets and glasses. The firm says that the day of the week has a significant effect on what is lost. (In truth, many of the conclusions can probably be explained by the Texas sharpshooter fallacy, but why spoil a fun story?) Saturdays bring the biggest haul of lost plane tickets. Passengers are likeliest to leave their swimsuits behind on Tuesdays. And wedding dresses are most often forgotten on Sundays—presumably because they are left behind by tired and emotional couples who had tied the knot the day…Continue reading

IN THE early 20th century the future seemed bright for horse employment. Within 50 years cars and tractors made short work of equine livelihoods. Some futurists see a cautionary tale for humanity in the fate of the horse: it was economically indispensable until it wasn’t. The common retort to such concerns is that humans are far more cognitively adaptable than beasts of burden. Yet as robots grow more nimble, humans look increasingly vulnerable. A new working paper concludes that between 1990 and 2007, each industrial robot added per thousand workers reduced employment in America by nearly six workers. Humanity may not be sent out to pasture, but the parallel with horses is still uncomfortably close. 

Robots are just one small part of the technological wave squeezing people. The International Federation of Robotics defines industrial robots as machines that are automatically controlled and re-programmable; single-purpose equipment does not count. The worldwide population of such creatures is below 2m; America has slightly less than two robots per 1,000 workers (Europe has a bit more than two). But their numbers are growing, as is the range of tasks they…Continue reading

IN THE early 20th century the future seemed bright for horse employment. Within 50 years cars and tractors made short work of equine livelihoods. Some futurists see a cautionary tale for humanity in the fate of the horse: it was economically indispensable until it wasn’t. The common retort to such concerns is that humans are far more cognitively adaptable than beasts of burden. Yet as robots grow more nimble, humans look increasingly vulnerable. A new working paper concludes that, between 1990 and 2007, each industrial robot added per thousand workers reduced employment in America by nearly six workers. Humanity may not be sent out to pasture, but the parallel with horses is still uncomfortably close.

Robots are just one small part of the technological wave squeezing people. The International Federation of Robotics defines industrial robots as machines that are automatically controlled and re-programmable; single-purpose equipment does not count. The worldwide population of such creatures is below 2m; America has slightly fewer than two robots per 1,000 workers (Europe has a bit more than two). But their numbers are growing, as is the range of tasks they can tackle, so…Continue reading

The Chinese middle class led a boom in demand for luxury goods. But a government crackdown made consumers wary about showing off their wealth. How has China’s new modesty affected the luxury business as a whole? Also: India’s power sector has until now been dependent on using dirty coal but things are changing. And sand has become a scarce resource, leading to a burgeoning trade in illegal mining. Simon Long hosts.