“YOU cannot serve both God and money,” admonishes the Bible. But the church has always tried. In the Middle Ages monasteries were what would now be termed social enterprises. They would produce bread, books or other goods. A Franciscan monk is credited with codifying double-entry book-keeping. These days the Catholic church and related institutions control […]
Read more
QIN SHIHUANG was the emperor who first unified China, through bloody conquest more than two millennia ago. Known for starting the Great Wall and burying scholars alive, he has a new claim to fame: the central bank has drawn on his construction of a national road system to help explain its new monetary system. In […]
Read more
BEING tough on China was a constant theme of President Donald Trump’s election campaign. On August 14th he had another chance to wield his presidential pen to show that he is making good on his promises—in this case of a “zero-tolerance policy on intellectual-property theft and forced technology transfer”. With the cameras rolling, he formally […]
Read more
THE Innovation, a 147-metre ship docked in Rotterdam, looks like a cross between an oil rig and a robot from a “Transformers” film. Her crane has been loading on giant pipes throughout the night. Soon the ship will travel to sea, where an automated hammer will drive the pipes into the ocean floor to support […]
Read moreBitcoin climbed above $4,500 to a record high Thursday, giving it a market valuation larger than that of Netflix. The digital currency has a market value of about $74 billion, up $30 billion in August and topping Netflix’s $72.7 billion market capitalization. Bitcoin climbed about 2 percent to a record high of $4,522.13 Thursday, according […]
Read moreWith stocks hovering around record highs, investors have been on the watch for signs that enthusiasm is getting out of hand. However, the source of real market bubbles could be in some less obvious places. Two areas stand out: initial coin offerings for cryptocurrencies, which are getting plenty of attention due to their meteoric price […]
Read moreThe number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to near a six-month low last week, pointing to a further tightening in the labor market that could encourage the Federal Reserve to lay out a plan to start unwinding its massive bond portfolio. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted […]
Read moreThe “Fast Money” traders shared their first moves for the market open. Tim Seymour and Dan Nathan were a buyers of Disney. Brian Kelly was a buyer of silver. Guy Adami as a buyer of Cisco. Trader disclosure: On August 16, 2017, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC’s […]
Read moreThe markets would crash if top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn resigns, Yale School of Management’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld told CNBC on Thursday. “I don’t want to be an alarmist, but there is a lot of faith that he is going to help carry through the tax reform that people are looking for,” Sonnenfeld said […]
Read moreThere is new evidence that raising the minimum wage pushes business owners to replace low-skilled workers with automation. And it shows that old, young, female and black low-skilled workers face the highest levels of unemployment after a minimum wage increase. Economists Grace Lordan of the London School of Economics and David Neumark of UC Irvine […]
Read more