Markets | Ideals

Bill To Outlaw Trade In Dog Meat Passed By The Parliament Of South Korea

South Korea's parliament passed a bill on Tuesday to ban the consumption and sale of dog meat, outlawing the contentious centuries-old practice amid increased support for animal welfare. ...

The Two Priciest Cities In The World Are Singapore And Zurich

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has announced that Singapore and Zurich were tied for the most expensive cities in the world this year, followed by Geneva, New York, and Hong Kong....

Pocket wallets vs. smartphones: Can we replace cash with digital currencies?

The more than a decade-long history of cryptocurrency has clearly demonstrated that the world is keen on the new form of money. The crypto frenzy has even prompted leading central banks to work on...

Houthi Control of Yemen’s Red Sea Coast Pressures Gulf States

AI Spending Faces a Return Test as Growth Expectations Rise

AI Safety Warnings Expose Risks Behind the Investment Boom

Oil-Driven Inflation Pushes US Treasury Yields Higher, Tightening Financial Conditions

EU Canada Associate Membership Idea Tests Limits of Strategic Partnership

Energy Shock Pushes Central Banks Toward a Difficult Tightening Cycle

Markets

Energy Shock Pushes Central Banks Toward a Difficult Tightening Cycle

The latest rise in global energy prices is forcing major central banks to reconsider how quickly they can ease monetary policy, with several now preparing for tighter conditions even as economic growth remains vulnerable. The problem is particularly difficult because the inflationary pressure is...

EU Canada Associate Membership Idea Tests Limits of Strategic Partnership

The European Union's suggestion that Canada could eventually become an "associate member" has opened an unusual debate about how closely a non-European country could work with the bloc without becoming a full member. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen raised the possibility as...

Oil-Driven Inflation Pushes US Treasury Yields Higher, Tightening Financial Conditions

Oil prices and US Treasury yields moving almost in tandem may appear to be a technical development confined to commodity and bond markets, but the connection has much broader consequences. Expensive oil raises the cost of energy for households and businesses, while rising Treasury yields increase...

AI Spending Faces a Return Test as Growth Expectations Rise

The latest anxiety over artificial intelligence investment is less about whether the technology will continue advancing and more about whether spending can maintain its extraordinary pace. Years of aggressive investment have created a powerful chain linking AI developers, cloud companies,...

Houthi Control of Yemen’s Red Sea Coast Pressures Gulf States

The rapid Houthi advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast has transformed a long-running conflict into a wider strategic problem for Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours. By gaining positions near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and threatening an alternative route for Saudi oil exports, the Iran-aligned group...

AI Safety Warnings Expose Risks Behind the Investment Boom

The sharp fall in artificial intelligence stocks after leading technology executives called for a slower pace of development has exposed a financial vulnerability beneath the industry's extraordinary expansion. The immediate concern is not that artificial intelligence development will suddenly...

European Bans on West Bank Settlement Goods Deepen Israel’s Rift With Allies

Israel’s decision to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem marks a sharp escalation in an already deteriorating relationship with Britain, but the immediate dispute is rooted in a broader change in how several Western governments are approaching Israel’s settlement policy. Britain, France...

AI Volatility Exposes Limits Of Traditional Market Labels

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence stocks is forcing investors to reconsider one of Wall Street's most familiar measures of market stress: the 20% decline commonly used to define a bear market. The problem is not that the threshold has suddenly become meaningless. It is that increasingly...

EU Pressure Forces Google to Rethink Search Spam Enforcement

Google is changing how it enforces one of its search spam policies across Europe after European Union regulators raised concerns that the rules could unfairly penalise publishers that use third-party commercial content. The change is significant not because Google is abandoning its fight against...

China Uses South Africa to Expand Its Next Auto Market

Chinese automakers are moving deeper into South Africa's vehicle market, using electric vehicles, hybrids and pickup trucks to build on a rapid increase in their presence and challenge established manufacturers on several fronts at once. The latest launches at the WesBank Festival of Motoring in...

Repeated Bleaching Leaves Coral Reefs With Too Little Recovery Time

Coral reefs are facing a problem more serious than any single bleaching event: the time available for recovery is shrinking. A new assessment of more than four decades of observations from nearly 37,000 reef sites across 120 countries and territories indicates that major bleaching events are now...

US-Venezuela Oil Deal Creates Long-Term Energy Partnership

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez says a new energy agreement with the United States will remain in force for 25 years, making the arrangement far more significant than a short-term effort to restore oil production. The agreement is intended to rebuild Venezuela's damaged petroleum...