FOR YEARS Venezuela’s socialist regime has seemed on the verge of collapse. It has so mismanaged the economy that GDP has dropped by nearly half since 2013. Inflation last year was thought to be more than 1m per cent. This, plus shortages of food, medicine, running water and electricity, has prompted some 3m Venezuelans, a…
The rise of video games has turned Fortnite into a social phenomenon, made e-sports a rival to the NFL for viewers, and grown button-mashing into a bigger money-maker than Hollywood. Now one veteran analyst is calling for the first industry downturn in a quarter century. Video game revenue is headed for the first decline since…
A bitter stalemate between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats is expected to hit a new low Thursday, as the Senate prepares to vote on two dueling bills to end the government shutdown. Both appear destined to fail. The votes come after the Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer brokered a Tuesday agreement to…
WHEN AMERICA took a protectionist turn two years ago, it provoked dark warnings about the miseries of the 1930s. Today those ominous predictions look misplaced. Yes, China is slowing. And, yes, Western firms exposed to China, such as Apple, have been clobbered. But in 2018 global growth was decent, unemployment fell and profits rose. In…
“Green Book” is a road movie set in 1962, long before Apple or Google Maps or Waze, but as it makes its way from New York to Alabama and back, you might nonetheless imagine a little GPS voice in your ear telling you what’s up ahead. There is virtually no milestone in this tale of…
Apple has hired an executive from Samsung SDI, the battery making affiliate of Samsung Electronics, to help lead its own battery work. Soonho Ahn joined (aapl) Apple in December as global head of battery developments, after working as a senior vice president at Samsung SDI since 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. At Samsung SDI,…
Kevin Hassett, the chair of President Donald Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, offered a frank assessment of the cost of the ongoing government shutdown, warning that the closure could result in a mess for the US economy. Hassett told CNN in an interview on Wednesday that US economic growth could be zero for the first…
IT BEGAN AS a joke: the Twitter hashtag #euroboom tacked on to news of any sign, no matter how faint, of a euro-area recovery. By 2017, when French, German and even Spanish GDP grew by more than 2%, it seemed to describe a real phenomenon. Alas, all too quickly #euroboom has turned to #eurogloom. GDP…
Joe stalks Beck while also trying to woo her. He steals her phone, and even though she gets a new one, the old device is still synced to the cloud, so Joe can still read all her texts. He stands outside her window and assesses her other suitors, namely the hilariously loathsome Benji (Lou Taylor…
The Swiss ski resort of Davos is about to become a refuge for politicians and executives seeking respite from a 2019 that’s mere weeks old and already proving turbulent—China slowing, Brexit unraveling, the U.S. government shuttering. For those seeking the familiar, this week’s annual World Economic Forum will feature the usual itinerary of glittering Champagne…
