Technology Could Change Trend of Global Trade
Two of the biggest forces influencing global economic activity over the past three decades — globalization and automation — have had polar-opposite effects on workers in emerging markets. The former pushed multinationals to move production to countries with cheaper labor costs than advanced economies, while the latter effectively substitutes capital for labor in the production process. In a note to clients, analysts at the Goldman...
Mercedes ‘Robots’ Can’t Keep Up
Mercedes-Benz offers the S-Class sedan with a growing array of options such as carbon-fiber trim, heated and cooled cupholders and four types of caps for the tire valves, and the carmaker’s robots can’t keep up. With customization key to wooing modern consumers, the flexibility and dexterity of human workers is reclaiming space on Mercedes’ assembly lines. That bucks a trend that has given machines the upper hand since legendary U.S....
Russia and Saudis Fix Oil Output
Saudi Arabia and Russian oil ministers agreed to freeze — but not cut — crude oil output at near-record January levels, a highly unusual pact between the world’s leading OPEC and non-OPEC petroleum producers. Qatari and Venezuelan oil ministers also joined the agreement in a meeting Tuesday in Doha, but the accord did not include Iran, which is seeking to ramp up oil output after the lifting of sanctions related to its nuclear...
Energy Agency: Oil Prices to Fall Further
Oil prices may fall further as the world remains “massively oversupplied,” before markets tighten in 2016 when output growth outside OPEC grinds to a halt, according to the International Energy Agency. There will be no overall production growth outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next year for the first time since 2008, according to the IEA. Growth in U.S. shale oil supplies will stagnate to the middle of 2016...
The Business of Agriculture: If Consumers Demand Local Meat, More Local Producers Will Supply It
At a farmers market last summer, I overheard a woman standing in line to buy some chicken say to her companion, “Wow, this is expensive. If we had more competition around here, we’d get better prices.” I almost blurted out that I thought she had it exactly backward, that it’s not the lack of farmers that is keeping prices high but rather it’s the lack of high prices that’s keeping farmers away. The problem, in other words, isn’t on...
