Apple has come under pressure to tighten its new privacy rules ahead of its annual developers’ conference on Monday, after experts warned that thousands of apps were continuing to collect data from users who had opted out of tracking. The new rules, which came into effect in April as part of the iPhone’s iOS 14.5 software
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The writer is author of ‘Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America’ Like most central banks, the US Federal Reserve has been forced to ask why more than a decade of ultra-loose monetary policy has had such lacklustre economic results. The answer is that bad data lead to bad policy. The
What Are the Risks and Rewards of Investing in Startups? Investing in startup companies is a very risky business, but it can be very rewarding if and when the investments do pay off. The majority of new companies or products simply do not make it, so the risk of losing one’s entire investment is a real
Welcome back. One day I will stop writing about inflation, but today is not that day. Perhaps inflation is just the name I give to all my economic anxieties now? If you have other, better fears to share, send them along: Robert.Armstrong@ft.com. Also, I’m taking tomorrow off. See you Wednesday. The sin of wages Last
Uber’s ride-hailing business returned to pre-pandemic levels in the UK in mid-May, as the easing of lockdown restrictions spurred users to get back on the road faster than the company expected. Wider geographic coverage beyond big cities such as London and an embrace of new forms of transport, including traditional taxis, helped fuel a sharp
Robinhood IPO Details Robinhood Markets Inc., is an online brokerage company with a stock trading and investing app aimed at younger retail investors. The company, an early adopter of zero-commission trades, filed for a confidential initial public offering (IPO) in March 23, 2021. A confidential IPO allows a company to submit an initial draft of
Germany’s Christian Democrats won a decisive victory in elections in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, in a huge boost for their leader Armin Laschet and his bid to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in September. The CDU was able to hold off a strong challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which
The UK population has the highest confidence in Covid-19 vaccines, while Japan and South Korea have the lowest, according to a report based on data from an international survey of 15 countries. The survey, conducted between March and May, showed the most common reasons for vaccine hesitancy were concerns about side effects and fears over
A home is probably the largest purchase you’ll ever make in your lifetime. It requires a lot of time and discipline. But it’s a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. After all, it costs a lot of money for anyone—even those who work full-time. It can be even tougher for someone who may be paying
The company’s radar site in Costa Rica. LeoLabs LeoLabs, a private venture that tracks objects and debris in low Earth orbit through a network of radars around the world, raised $65 million in capital in a new fundraising round, the company announced on Tuesday. “It’s a great endorsement of our success to date and where
Joe Biden’s first overseas trip as US president this week will include a meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle on Sunday, an encounter with the 95-year-old monarch that is certain to be the focus of American media attention. But Biden will first spend three days at a boutique Cornish hotel in the less formal
As the American baseball great Yogi Berra once put it, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it!” We are at one now in the 21st century digital economy. Liberal democracies everywhere are playing regulatory whack-a-mole with platform monopolies, trying to enforce new privacy, tax, and antitrust rules. All the while, the
Financial institutions like banks and insurance companies provide their clients with expertise and advice to help them on their path to a sound financial future. But where does a financial institution go when it needs advice itself? That’s where a financial institutions group can come into the picture. But what exactly is a FIG and
In this article AMC Closed signs are seen on an AMC Theatre during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New York City, April 29, 2020. Brendan McDermid | Reuters Investment firm Mudrick Capital has exited both its debt and equity positions in AMC Entertainment, sources tell CNBC’s David Faber, as the theater chain’s
Markus Villig started Bolt, the Tallinn based ride-hailing company in 2013 when he was 19. Seven years later, his company is worth €1.7bn. It has not been a smooth ride. Villig launched the app on a €5,000 budget and kept going when investors were telling him to give up, as Uber was raising billions of
Thailand will launch its Covid-19 immunisation programme on Monday, focused mostly on the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab produced at Siam Bioscience, a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn that has never previously produced a vaccine. The rollout is a high-stakes one for both Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government, which faces growing anger from the public and business over delays
A hostile takeover happens when one company (called the acquiring company or “acquirer”) sets its sights on buying another company (called the target company or “target”) despite objections from the target company’s board of directors. A hostile takeover is the opposite of a friendly takeover, in which both parties to the transaction are agreeable and
Aleksandr Sumarokov / EyeEm | EyeEm | Getty Images Some people believe the Reddit gang bidding up meme stocks like AMC won’t lead to ruin for themselves and that the movement is a positive thing for investing overall. They are claiming once again that “this time is different.” In 37 years, I have heard that
Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to sell its baby formula business in China to the private equity firm Primavera, as it seeks to bring an end to its struggle with a division that has weighed on its growth for years. The deal values the unit at $2.2bn. The UK-based consumer goods company expects to receive about
A consortium of private equity groups, including Blackstone and Carlyle, is close to acquiring medical supply group Medline for about $34bn, including debt, in what would be the largest buyout of the year, said people briefed on the matter. The group of financial investors are expected to announce a deal soon, said a person with
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are giving mutual funds a run for investors’ money, and one reason is that ETFs can get around the tax hit that individual investors in mutual funds can encounter. Mutual fund investors pay capital gains tax on assets sold by their funds, with occasionally wrenching consequences. During the financial crisis, for example, many mutual funds were
It was almost 6.45pm on Saturday, February 1 2020, when Dr Anthony Fauci fired off the email which would pitch him into possibly the biggest controversy of his time as one of America’s most prominent public scientists. “Thanks Kristian. Talk soon on the call,” he wrote. While the response was innocuous, the context was explosive.
The market conditions and technology in the mania over current meme stock AMC Entertainment are vastly different from day trading during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, online brokerage pioneer and former options trader Tom Sosnoff told CNBC on Friday. “There’s no comparison between the day traders of 1999-2000, and that first transition into
The G7 advanced economies have struck what they have termed a “historic agreement” on taxing multinationals in a bid to create unstoppable momentum for a global deal. A communique issued on Saturday showed that the US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Canada had found enough compromise both to stop companies shifting profits to low
Productivity measures the efficiency of a company’s production process. It is calculated by dividing the outputs produced by a company by the inputs used in its production process. Common inputs are labor hours, capital and natural resources, while outputs are generally measured in sales or the number of goods and services produced. Productivity can be
Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management. Adam Jeffery | CNBC Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said he expects to close his SPAC deal to buy 10% of Universal Music Group for around $4 billion later this month. Ackman’s blank-check company Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (PSTH) is likely to finish the transaction by June 22,
Sir Anthony Seldon, 67, has written and edited more than 40 books on contemporary history, including biographies of John Major, Tony Blair and David Cameron. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham until 2020 and was knighted in 2014 for services to education and modern political history. What was your childhood or earliest ambition?To
Indian airline tycoon Ajay Singh had little experience in healthcare but last November, as the country was being pummelled by coronavirus, he suddenly branched out into Covid-19 testing and later genomic sequencing. Known for his close connections with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister — he is credited with coining the 2014 election slogan “This time,
Choosing whether to lease a new vehicle instead of buying it largely comes down to priorities. For some drivers, leasing or buying is purely a matter of dollars and cents. For others, it’s more about forming an emotional connection to the car. Before choosing which road to go down, it’s important to understand the key
When the implosion of Archegos Capital blew a hole worth more than $10bn out of a clutch of banks, one line in the biography of founder Bill Hwang stood out: Tiger Management. Prior to the private investment firm’s collapse in March, Hwang was an obscure figure better known for his guilty plea to wire fraud