German Bundesbank President Goes Against Europe's Plans To Stimulate Its Floundering Economy | ||
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Bundesbank boss Jens Weidmann, the man most closely associated with Germany's opposition to easier monetary policy, is slamming the brakes on expectations that the European Central Bank will finally go for quantitative easing (QE). He was speaking to Handelsblatt, a German business newspapers, and his comments are here:
He added that Germany shouldn't offer Europe a stimulatory boost with fiscal policy either:
ECB president Mario Draghi has hinted that the ECB will go for QE. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America expect that the purchases of government debt will start in 2015. Draghi's continued insistence that the ECB will add about €1 trillion ($1.25 trillion) to its balance sheet would probably need full QE. The bank is already buying some bonds and securities, but the markets in those assets are probably too small to reach such a big goal. The ECB could push for QE without Weidmann, but it's previously been keen to get unanimous decisions, so as not to alienate big European economies like Germany. These sort of comments might make some analysts rethink the likelihood of QE for Europe. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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A 30-Year-Old Song Will Likely Be This Year's Biggest Selling Christmas Single | ||
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In 1984, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" sold 3.7 million copies in the UK, at the time making it the biggest selling single in the UK Singles Chart history. The song, written to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, also became a Christmas No. 1 that year, and stayed in that slot for five weeks straight. Thirty years later, the famous single has been re-recorded to help in the fight against Ebola in West Africa. It's again expected a holiday No. 1, raising millions for those affected by the deadly virus. A video of the cover song premiered on Britain's X Factor on Sunday night and the single was released Monday morning. Chancellor George Osborne said the single will be exempt from VAT tax so that all the money goes to charity, Sky News reports. The original version was co-written by Bob Gelfof and Midge Ure, who formed Band Aid, a charity song group featuring other mostly British and Irish musicians, including Sting, Paul Young, and singers from groups like Duran Duran and U2. That version raised £8 million for famine relief. For the new song, you'll hear newcomers like Ellie Goulding, One Direction, Rita Ora, and Clean Bandit. Some of the lyrics have been tweaked from the 1984 version to bring awareness to the Ebola crisis. For example, Bono's famous line, "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you," is now "Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you," again sung by the U2 frontman. Here are the lyrics from the new song: It's Christmas time, and there's no need to be afraid At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy Throw your arms around the world At Christmas time But say a prayer, pray for the other ones At Christmas time, it's hard but while you're having fun There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear Where a kiss of love can kill you, and there's death in every tear And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa The only hope they'll have is being alive Where to comfort is to fear Where to touch is to be scared How can they know it's Christmas time at all Here's to you Raise a glass to everyone And here's to them And all their years to come Let them know it's Christmas time after all Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time again Feel the world, let them know it's Christmas time again Heal the world, let them know it's Christmas time again And here's the original, recorded in 1984. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Xiaomi's Hugo Barra Is Building A Huge New Company In India's 'Silicon Valley' | ||
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Xiaomi's Hugo Barra always seems to have a plan. His latest is building an entirely new brand in India — a country he believes is having a "tech renaissance". In an interview with Quartz, Barra says the company's Indian subsidiary, Mi, is vital to his move to make Xiaomi an e-commerce giant and has announced exciting plans for the operation. The former Google executive explains he doesn't want to simply sell there but wants Mi to become a part of India. Barra says Mi could soon begin manufacturing there — through partners — essentially building a separate e-commerce business. It uses Foxconn in China. "We are here for the long run, and we want to brand ourselves into the fabric of this country," he tells Quartz. He adds that the company will like start writing software in India too, and mentions plans to soon release the new Mi4 smartphone and the RedMi Note in its market. He also hints at bringing its TV to the country. India, Barra says, is his biggest focus outside of China — where Xiaomi is the third biggest e-commerce business. It's also the top phone company, selling more smartphones in its domestic market than Samsung and Apple. When Xiaomi's Mi brand first sold in India, expected sales figures of its smartphones were "a few thousand", Barra remarks, but ended up exceeding 20,000. Now they're selling at around 100,000 per week. In October, a plane full of its products was flown into India and having set up an office in Bangalore, he says the city "feels like Silicon Valley". "I think India is right in the middle of a tech renaissance," he explains to Quartz. And notes: "Where our office is in Bangalore, we are right next to InMobi and a bunch of other exciting companies. "Bangalore feels like Silicon Valley in many ways already. India today has the same number of Internet users as China had, say, in 2007-08". Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Lib Dems Are About To Showcase Everything That's Wrong With The UK Voting System | ||
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Yet the party that has pushed most vociferously for a change in Britain's "first-past-the-post" voting system than any other also looks set to be its biggest beneficiary. Even with a much diminished share of the vote, they could still hold the balance of power. Over the past two years a clear picture has begun to emerge over more than 1,000 political polls. While Labour have maintained a lead over the Conservatives it has been gradually eroding. Those losses may previously have lead to gains for the UK's longstanding third party — the Lib Dems — but not any more it seems.
Based on share of the national vote the third party at next year's election looks set to be Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party (UKIP), which surged to levels of popularity not enjoyed by the Lib Dems since 2010. Meanwhile the latter's support has fallen into single digits, a calamitous fall from the 23% the party won at the last General Election. However, under the first-past-the-post system a party's share of the national vote doesn't necessarily translate into a similar share of seats in parliament. Here's what the polls current suggest about the projected number of seats in parliament (a government needs over 325 seats for a majority):
So based on this metric UKIP's surge in the polls may translate to as little as 4 parliamentary seats while the UK's third biggest party by seats could be the Scottish National Party (SNP), the same party that lead the charge to pull Scotland out of the country in September's independence referendum. To compound the irony, it could achieve this feat by winning only 3.2% of the national vote. The Lib Dems, meanwhile, would become the fourth-largest party despite a projected loss of as many as 36 of the seats it won four years ago, and a sharp drop in its share of the national vote (although it's still expected to be around three times larger than the SNP's share). If the current forecasts prove relatively accurate, what is abundantly clear is that for even a minority government to be formed a deal will have to be done with either the Lib Dems and/or the SNP. This will give both significant bargaining power — perhaps even more so than after the 2010 elections where the Conservatives won almost 50 seats more than Labour. This time both will be in a strong position to woo smaller parties. At the very least this is likely to mean a return to coalition government with the Lib Dems holding a number of powerful cabinet rolls. It seems, at least in the UK, losing almost half of your voters these days is not such a disaster after all. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Barring a sudden reversal of fortune over the next six months, the Liberal Democrats are going to lose big in the General Election next May.
ELON MUSK: Robots Could Start Killing Us All Within Five Years | ||
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Elon Musk has been ranting about killer robots again. Musk posted a comment on futurology site Edge.org, warning readers that developments in AI could bring about robots that may autonomously decide that it is sensible to start killing humans. "The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe," Musk said. Aware that internet commenters may mock him for his outlandish predictions, Musk defended his views, saying "This is not a case of crying wolf about something I don't understand." But minutes after he posted the comment, it was deleted. The billionaire entrepreneur has made a habit of making apocalyptic comments about killer robots in recent interviews. During a talk at a recent Vanity Fair conference, Musk warned the audience about killer robots. He suggested that advanced artificial intelligence could cause robots to delete humans like spam: If its [function] is just something like getting rid of e-mail spam and it determines the best way of getting rid of spam is getting rid of humans ... The interviewer went on to ask Musk whether humanity could use his SpaceX ships to escape killer robots if they took over Earth, but things don't look promising. No — more likely than not that if there’s some ... apocalypse scenario, it may follow people from Earth. Here's Musk's deleted comment from Edge.org: The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I'm not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast-it is growing at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most. This is not a case of crying wolf about something I don't understand. I am not alone in thinking we should be worried. The leading AI companies have taken great steps to ensure safety. The recognise the danger, but believe that they can shape and control the digital superintelligences and prevent bad ones from escaping into the Internet. That remains to be seen... Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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