By Reuters Staff
(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are their own.)
Small toy figures stand on representations of virtual currency in front of the Facebook logo in this illustration picture, June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
WASHINGTON (Reuters Breakingviews) - Concise insights on global finance. -
PAY THE PIPER. Facebook has faced the music with its digital-currency project. The initiative originally known as Libra drew an outcry by global regulators worried that the $858 billion social network could threaten financial stability and draw illicit activity. To appease them, it said here on Wednesday it will set up shop in the United States instead of Switzerland.
BreakingviewsCapital Calls: Carlyleâs political assets
Reuters
2 minute read
Glenn Youngkin, the co-CEO of Carlyle, attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Concise insights on global finance. -
REVOLVING DOOR. Carlyleâs (CG.O) political forays are coming full circle. The D.C.-based private equity firm is known for its high-profile Washington hires. Former co-Chief Executive Glenn Youngkin went in the other direction, securing the Virginia Republican gubernatorial nomination on Monday.
The private equity firmâs connections helped open doors, including in defense deals. Back in the 2000s, it hired former President George H.W. Bush and ex-Treasury Secretary/Secretary of State James Baker as advisers. Former British Prime Minister John Major was European chairman.
Can Amazon repeat an eye-popping year of growth? The Week Staff
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Amazon s pandemic-fueled boom shows no sign of slowing, said Dan Gallagher at
The Wall Street Journal. With the pandemic easing, a short-term question has been whether online shoppers would curb their clicks and return to brick-and-mortar stores after a year of panic-buying everything from toilet paper to office supplies through Amazon. The answer so far is a resounding no. Amazon s revenue jumped 44 percent year over year in the past three months, to $108 billion, and its e-commerce related business â consisting of online stores, third-party, and subscription segments â grew at an even faster clip, 49 percent. Despite aggressive investment, adding roughly 400,000 workers, about the total number of employees at Home Depot, the company s profits tripled to $8.1 billion.
Arm Holdings takeover: has Nvidia had its chips?
The takeover of Britain’s semiconductor group Arm Holdings by its US rival Nvidia could be running into the sand, says Matthew Partridge.
22 Apr 2021
The $40bn acquisition of British semiconductor manufacturer Arm Holdings by America’s Nvidia has been left hanging in the balance, says Amy Thomson on Bloomberg. The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, says the government may intervene to prevent the tie-up. Dowden has ordered the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is already looking at the impact on competition, to investigate the national security aspects of the deal too.
He notes that the semiconductors are not only “fundamental” to a “wide range of technologies”, including those in defence and national security, but also “underpin the UK’s critical national infrastructure”. Nvidia’s ownership could bring Arm under the “control of powerful US national security laws” that could one day be “used
BreakingviewsCapital Calls: U.S. currency report
Reuters
3 minutes read
A Taiwan dollar note is seen in this illustration photo May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
Concise insights on global finance in the Covid-19 era.
BACK TO NORMAL. The semiannual U.S. currency report is no longer a political football. The Treasury Department on Friday added Taiwan to a list of countries found to be intervening in foreign exchange markets, joining Vietnam and Switzerland. None were deemed currency manipulators and China avoided the spotlight. The American government is again playing it by the book.
Itâs a change from the former Donald Trump administration, which used the report as a way to punish China for faltering trade talks by labeling it a currency manipulator read more . The designation is based on a countryâs U.S. trade surplus, its current account surplus and a record of one-sided intervention in foreign currency markets. Treasury rem