1) Google fined $21 million in India over competition abuse
Google has been fined $21 million by Indian competition authorities for abusing its market dominance, as global regulators continue to crack down on the US tech giant’s handling of online search queries. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Feb 8, 2018:
Statista.com May 18, 2017
2) China fines Alibaba and Tencent over payments systems
China tech groups Alibaba and Tencent have been caught up in Beijing’s war on capital flight, with both facing fines for breaches of cross-border foreign exchange payments. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Feb 9, 2018.
See also: Facebook loses Belgian privacy case, faces fine of up to $125 million | Reuters.com
3) Investing
- What's REALLY Going On?--ZeroHedge.com: "... A more robust explanation is the Fed is tightening two ways: The first by hiking [interest rates], the second by letting assets on the balance sheet roll off. Both measures have a tendency to push up long-term interest rates. This is another explanation for the long-end rising. Despite conventional wisdom, inflation and wages have little to do with it ..."
- Businesses Will Power Right Through Higher Interest Rates, Says Blackstone’s CEO | CNBC.com via YouTube.com (video)
- Shorting the Eurozone: The world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater, has added another $9 billion worth of shorts against European public companies, totaling $22 billion overall. Source: ZeroHedge.com
- Barclay's: Another Big British Bank Lands in Deep Trouble | WolfStreet.com: ".... The bank now boasts one of the longest rap sheets of any bank in Europe, which — given the pedigree of the local competition, including Deutsche Bank, HSBC, RBS, UBS, BNP and Credit Suisse — is no mean feat."
- China: S&P Global Ratings says China to see first bond default by a local government financing vehicle in 2018 | South China Morning Post | scmp.com: S&P also expects the number of defaults in the world’s second-biggest economy to increase as companies fall victim to tightening liquidity.
- IEA Warns Of New Oil Glut | ZeroHedge.com
- Cryptocurrency Regulation Boosts Markets | SeekingAlpha.com: "Cryptocurrencies are recovering as regulation starts to be viewed as an accolade rather than a burden."
- "Russians Did Not Alter The Outcome Of The Elections": Highlights From Rosenstein's Press Conference | ZeroHedge,com Feb 16, 2018 Deputy AG Rosenstein: "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the [Russians'] conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."--see https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download
- Poll: GOP gains on generic ballot, Trump approval ticks upward | POLITICO.com Feb 14, 2018: "Republicans have erased the Democratic advantage on the generic congressional ballot in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll."
4) ICYMI Tech News:
- Elon Musk's Broadband-From-Space Plan Clears Crucial U.S. Hurdle | Bloomberg.com: "FCC chief Pai backs SpaceX new method of internet service - SpaceX had requested authority to deploy 4,425 satellites."
- Study Backs Up Creeping Feeling That Facebook Is Just for Old People Now | gizmodo.com
- Google is replacing Facebook’s traffic to publishers | Recode.net: "more publishers have been signing up for the Google publishing format launched in 2015 known as Accelerated Mobile Pages. AMP hosts publishers’ content directly on Google’s servers so it loads faster for mobile users"
- Singapore May Start Taxing Amazon and Lazada | Bloomberg.com: "Most economists expect new e-commerce tax in 2018 budget Southeast Asia online retail may be worth $65 billion by 2021."
- Washington and Silicon Valley Are At War Over Chinese Tech | NewRepublic.com: "after years of cooperation, Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley are, increasingly, at odds"
- A Chinese Company Has Conquered a Piece of America | Bloomberg.com
- Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Can’t Beat Washington, So He’s Joining It | Bloomberg.com: "In the past five years, Amazon increased lobbying spending by more than 400 percent."
- Germany's Lame Duck: Scenarios for a Merkel exit: “It is clear to everyone that the chancellor is going into a last term.”--Merkel defends painful coalition concessions, denies authority waning: Merkel and her party were damaged in the September 2017 election, a backlash vote led by voters angered by her decision in 2015 to welcome more than a million immigrants.
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
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