06-11-2016, 10:56 PM
There's another banking crisis brewing in Europe - and it all has to do with Swiss franc-denominated mortgages. Back in 2006 to 2008, the majority of mortgages that were issued by banks in Poland were denominated in the Swiss franc. And most of the outstanding stock of Swiss franc mortgages was issued in that period. This was a popular thing to do because borrowers thought that the Polish zloty would continue to strengthen against the Swiss franc. At the time, the Polish currency had appreciated by about 30% against its Swiss counterpart. But then things reversed course in 2009.
Polish mortgages banking crisis Swiss franc - Business Insider
Yet the belief that the board’s most important role is to oversee the corporation’s top executives -- “monitor” them, as the academic jargon has it -- remains entrenched. It informs most journalistic accounts of corporate debacles, and most research into the attributes that make boards effective. It is also behind the big push over the past quarter century to get more outside directors onto boards, and to separate the jobs of chairman and chief executive officer. So here’s a subversive suggestion. Maybe boards are never going to be any good at keeping executives from betraying shareholders, messing up corporations and breaking laws. We should just accept that, stop beating boards up for it and move on.
Boards Will Never Be Any Good at Policing Executives - Bloomberg View
A computer that uses the quirks of quantum physics to work on data should be capable of things far beyond any machine in use today. Governments and large tech companies have spent huge sums trying to prove out that idea. Yet quantum computers have sometimes seemed like one of those technologies that are always 20 years away. Recently some leading research groups have come to think they can see a path to shortening that time considerably. Yesterday Google and researchers from the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, published results that could lead to a shortcut to the long-awaited first conclusive demonstration of the power of quantum computing.
Google Reports Progress on a Shortcut to Quantum Supremacy
Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, has slammed the door on Britain retaining access to the single market if it votes to the leave the European Union. In an interview in a Brexit-themed issue of German weekly Der Spiegel, the influential veteran politician ruled out the possibility of the UK following a Swiss or Norwegian model where it could enjoy the benefits of the single market without being an EU member. “That won’t work,” Schäuble told Der Spiegel. “It would require the country to abide by the rules of a club from which it currently wants to withdraw.
No single market access for UK after Brexit, Wolfgang Schäuble says | Politics | The Guardian
Technological diffusion can be constrained on both the demand and supply sides of the economy. Take the demand side first. In rich economies, consumers spend the bulk of their income on services such as health, education, transportation, housing, and retail goods. Technological innovation has had comparatively little impact to date in many of these sectors.