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Rise of the Robots
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in title, tags, annotations or urlRise of the Robots - NYTimes.com - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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The most valuable part of each computer, a motherboard loaded with microprocessors and memory, is already largely made with robots, according to my colleague Quentin Hardy. People do things like fitting in batteries and snapping on screens.
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Robots mean that labor costs don’t matter much, so you might as well locate in advanced countries with large markets and good infrastructure (which may soon not include us, but that’s another issue)
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Tourists Also Tell Greece No: Drop in Summer Bookings - WSJ.com - 0 views
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Greek-vacation bookings from Germany and the rest of Europe are down sharply, as would-be tourists take fright at the prospect of strikes and street protests.
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Early reservations for this summer's tourist season are down by around 15% from a year ago. Last year's record total of 16.4 million visitors is already out of reach, he says.
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The industry accounts for about one-sixth of economic activity and nearly one in five jobs.
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Tomato Imports Deal Reached by U.S. and Mexico - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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The agreement, reached late Saturday, raises the minimum sales price for Mexican tomatoes in the United States, aims to strengthen compliance and enforcement, and increases the types of tomatoes governed by the bilateral pact to four from one.
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“The draft agreement raises reference prices substantially, in some cases more than double the current reference price for certain products,
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Florida growers contended it set the minimum price of Mexican tomatoes so low that the Florida growers could not compete.
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Banks' Fire Drill for Greece Election - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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In New York and London, banks have set up dedicated crisis teams, and rehearsed elaborate responses.
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Citigroup has $84 billion in loans, bonds and other types of exposure to troubled European countries, plus France. The bank’s filings indicate that all but $8 billion of that exposure is offset with collateral it has collected and hedges on the portfolio.
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Some banks are testing their systems to deal with the possibility of new currencies and preparing guidance for clients on how to operate in such an environment.
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World leaders scramble to respond to Ukraine-Russian conflict - 0 views
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Interactive: Key geography, demographics in Ukraine
Multinationals beach tax bills in Spanish shells - FT.com - 0 views
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From here a single employee presided over a company that from 2009 to 2011 made €9.9bn of net profits, all while earning an annual salary of only €55,000.
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Exxon’s Spanish subsidiary was structured as a so-called ETVE, a type of holding company used by many multinationals, including Hewlett-Packard, Pepsi, Eli Lilly, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Vodafone.
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According to the ETVE’s 2009 accounts, Exxon was able to transfer €3.6bn of dividends from its unit in Luxembourg to Spain. A dividend of €2.26bn was then paid on to its US parent without incurring withholding taxes that it would typically have to pay when moving money outside of the EU.
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How Putin Forged a Pipeline Deal That Derailed - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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How Putin Forged a Pipeline Deal That Derailed
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The pipeline, known as South Stream, was Mr. Putin’s most important European project, a tool of economic and geopolitical power critical to twin goals: keeping Europe hooked on Russian gas, and further entrenching Russian influence in fragile former Soviet satellite states as part of a broader effort to undermine European unity.
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The bill that Parliament took up on April 4 was arcane. But it swept aside a host of European regulations — rules that Mr. Putin did not want to abide by — for a pipeline that would deliver gas throughout southern Europe. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage In Diplomatic Defeat, Putin Diverts Pipeline to TurkeyDEC. 1, 2014
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A Multibillion-Dollar Question for Airbus and Its A330 - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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A Multibillion-Dollar Question for Airbus and Its A330
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While the A330 continues to generate around 40 percent of Airbus’s civilian aircraft profits, new orders for the plane have slowed significantly in recent years.
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But with the wait times to receive new planes now stretching to more than six years, airlines have been slower to reach for their checkbooks.
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Apple's Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes
Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
Jobs, Productivity and the Great Decoupling - NYTimes.com - 1 views
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Jobs, Productivity and the Great Decoupling
Learning about global value chains by looking beyond official trade data: Part 1 | vox - 0 views
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Gross trade accounting: A transparent method to discover global value chain-related information behind official trade data: Part 1
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With the rapid increase in intermediate trade flows, trade economists and policymakers have reached a near consensus that official trade statistics based on gross terms are deficient, often hiding the extent of global value chains. There is also widespread recognition among the official international statistics agencies that fragmentation of global production requires a new approach to measure trade, in particular the need to measure trade in value-added. This led the WTO and the OECD to launch a joint “Measuring Trade in Value-Added” initiative on 15 March 2012, which is designed to mainstream the production of trade in value-added statistics and make them a permanent part of the statistical landscape.
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All the estimation methods used in recent efforts to measure trade in value-added are rooted in Leontief (1936). His work demonstrated that the amount and type of intermediate inputs needed in the production of one unit of output can be estimated based on the input-output structures across countries and industries.
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Business and government: The new age of crony capitalism | The Economist - 1 views
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Rent-seeking” is what economists call a special type of money-making: the sort made possible by political connections. This can range from outright graft to a lack of competition, poor regulation and the transfer of public assets to firms at bargain prices. Well-placed people have made their fortunes this way ever since rulers had enough power to issue profitable licences, permits and contracts to their cronies.
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Capitalism based on rent-seeking is not just unfair, but also bad for long-term growth.
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It identifies sectors which are particularly dependent on government—such as mining, oil and gas, banking and casinos—
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Sub-Saharan Africa's Subprime Borrowers by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Hamid Rashid - Project Syndicate - 0 views
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Taking the lead in October 2007, when it issued a $750 million Eurobond with an 8.5% coupon rate, Ghana earned the distinction of being the first Sub-Saharan country – other than South Africa – to issue bonds in 30 years.
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Nine other countries – Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Angola, Nigeria, Namibia, Zambia, and Tanzania – followed suit. By February 2013, these ten African economies had collectively raised $8.1 billion from their maiden sovereign-bond issues, with an average maturity of 11.2 years and an average coupon rate of 6.2%. These countries’ existing foreign debt, by contrast, carried an average interest rate of 1.6% with an average maturity of 28.7 years.
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So why are an increasing number of developing countries resorting to sovereign-bond issues? And why have lenders suddenly found these countries desirable?
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If You Think China's Air Is Bad ... - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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If You Think China’s Air Is Bad
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China contains only about 7 percent of the world’s fresh water while sustaining nearly 20 percent of its population. In stark contrast, Lake Michigan in the United States holds about 4 percent of the world’s freshwater (the Great Lakes combined contain about 20 percent).
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Water levels in the Mekong Delta reached their lowest levels in 50 years in 2010,
Financial Globalization in Reverse? by Martin N. Baily and Susan Lund - Project Syndicate - 0 views
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Cross-border capital flows abruptly collapsed. Almost five years later, they remain 60% below their pre-crisis peak.
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After expanding across national borders with the creation of the euro, eurozone banks have now reduced cross-border lending and other claims within the eurozone by $2.8 trillion since the end of 2007. Other types of cross-border investment in Europe have fallen by more than half. The rationale for the euro’s creation – the financial and economic integration of Europe – is now being undermined.
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Current trends seem to be leading toward a more fragmented global financial system in which countries rely primarily on domestic capital formation. Sharper regional disparities in the availability and cost of capital could emerge, particularly for smaller businesses and consumers, constraining investment and growth in some countries. And, while a more balkanized financial system does reduce the likelihood of global shocks creating volatility in far-flung markets, it may also concentrate risks within local banking systems and increase the chance of domestic financial crises.
Where Factory Apprenticeship Is Latest Model From Germany - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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Working with five local high schools and a career center in Aiken County, S.C. — and a curriculum nearly identical to the one at the company’s headquarters in Friedrichshafen — Tognum now has nine juniors and seniors enrolled in its apprenticeship program.
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Since 2008, the number of apprentices has fallen by nearly 40 percent, according to the Center for American Progress study.
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Some 330 types of apprenticeships are accredited by the government in Berlin, including such jobs as hairdresser, roofer and automobile electronics specialist. About 60 percent of German high school students go through some kind of apprenticeship program, which leads to a formal certificate in the chosen skill and often a permanent job at the company where the young person trained.
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