Posts

Fed keeps rates ultra-low

Image
The Federal Reserve expects to keep rates ultra-low through at least 2023 to help the economy. The Fed also pledged to keep buying $120 billion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities each month until the economy has made "substantial progress". "The ongoing public health crisis will continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term," the Fed said after its latest policy meeting last Wednesday, deciding to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0-0.25 percent . The U.S. central bank slashed interest rates to near zero earlier this year in an effort to support markets amid the pandemic shock. The Fed reiterated that the economy is going to rebound at a healthy pace next year as viral vaccines become widely distributed. But the next three to six months will likely be painful for the unemployed and small businesses as pandemic cases spike,

Nicole Junkermann, Paul Desmarais III and football stars

Image
Nicole Junkermann is a business leader , entrepreneur and investor. Born in Düsseldorf on April 27, 1980 , she is among  a new group of well-connected, successful entrepreneurs who believe that digital innovation and experimental technology will create breakthroughs in areas from medicine to education , and from retailing to premium content consumption. Founder of  NJF Holdings , which includes NJF Capital, NJF Private Equity, NJF Real Estate and The JJ Collection, she is focused primarily on the crossover between the media and technology sectors. Nicole Junkermann holdings and activities Junkermann began her business career as a co-founder of football gaming portal Winamax. Following its sale in 2001, she invested in newly-founded Infront Sports and Media, a sports media rights agency. Three of her early investments, Songza, Dollar Shave Club and RelatelQ, were acquired by Google,  Unilever  and Salesforce, respectively. Nicole Junkermann’s holdings and activities have inc

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia opens to tourists

Image
Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists interested in visiting the kingdom for more than religious reasons. The Middle Eastern kingdom announced a new e-visa program on Friday that will allow people from 49 nations to enter the country for tourism, for stays as long as three months. Visas were previously restricted to business travelers and Muslim pilgrims who are given special visas to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. As part of the move, it decreed that visitors need not wear all-covering black robes but should dress modestly. Alcohol remains banned. And there is more: in its bid to attract holidaymakers, Saudi Arabia is allowing foreign men and women to rent hotel rooms together without proving they are related. Women, including Saudis, are also permitted to rent hotel rooms by themselves, in a break with previous regulations. The moves appear to pave the way for unaccompanied women to travel more easily and for unmarried foreign visit

Doubts on Saudi Arabia ability to supply crude oil

Image
Maybe the Saudi Arabia refineries situation is worse than expected, a week after attacks. Saudi state oil firm Aramco has told Japanese refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy about a possible change in shipment, raising concern about the kingdom’s ability to supply crude oil, the Nikkei Asian Review reported. Aramco did not specify a reason for the change in oil grade supplied to Japan’s biggest refiner from light to heavy and medium starting October, Nikkei said, citing JXTG officials. JXTG officials suspect that Aramco is taking more time than expected to fix its desulfurization facility, which is necessary to produce light-grade crude used in the production of gasoline and light gas oil, the newspaper said. At least three supertankers that loaded crude in Saudi Arabia this week for China and India had their crude grades switched from light to heavy oil while more buyers in Asia have been asked to delay shipments and switch grades in September and October, Re

US: EPA to cut back on animal testing

Image
Let's celebrate the good news! The Environmental Protection Agency says it will aggressively reduce the use of animals in toxicity testing , with a goal of eliminating all routine safety tests on mammals by 2035. Chemicals such as pesticides typically get tested for safety on animals like mice and rats. Researchers have long been trying to instead increase the use of alternative safety tests that rely on lab-grown cells or computer modeling. The EPA's administer, Andrew Wheeler, has now set some specific deadlines to try to speed up that transition. In a signed memo made public Tuesday, he's directed the agency to reduce all requests for, and funding of, studies with live mammals by 30 percent by 2025. He says he wants the agency to essentially eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035, with the use of live mammals only allowed after that with special permission. "I really do think that with the lead time that we have in this — 16 years before we

Bugatti Chiron breaks through 300mph barrier

Image
Bugatti is back on top in terms of speed. When the $3 million Bugatti Chiron launched a few years ago, we all marveled at how slow it was. With an electronically limited top speed of 261 mph, it didn’t seem capable of matching its predecessor the Veyron Super Sport, which hit a Guinness-certified 267.8 mph record in 2013. But now, Bugatti is back on top. The automaker confirmed today that a speed run on Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany led to an official 304.773 mph speed last month. The news was broken in an exclusive by Top Gear, which said the run happened on August 2 with driver Andy Wallace at the wheel. The speed was certified by the TÜV, Germany’s Technical Inspection Association, and that means it’s vastly outpaced runs from SSC, Koenigsegg and other go-fast companies. A standard Chiron is a speed monster , with its quad-turbocharged W16 putting out 1,479 horsepower. But this record car has had some work done, according to Top Gear. The folks at Dallara, who

Hong Kong protests and lasers

Image
Since early June, an estimated 1 million people have taken to the streets of Hong Kong to protest a bill that would allow extraditions to China. To avoid identification, many of the Hong Kong protesters cover their faces. But according to a Washington Post story, some have also been shining high-powered lasers directly at surveillance cameras — a high-tech protest strategy intended to confuse facial recognition systems. Hong Kong protestors are on another level. Here they’re using lasers to avoid facial recognition cameras. A cyber war against Chinese artificial intelligence. Mainland Takeover The use of these lasers gives photos of the protests a surreal, science-fiction vibe — but what’s happening in Hong Kong right now is a chilling reality that could have a longterm impact. While the bill at the center of the protests is currently on hold, if it passed in the future, it would give Hong Kong the ability to transfer these lasers gives photos of the protests a surreal, science-f