Whether or not San Francisco Fed President John Williams is right about US inflation and employment being about as close to the central bank’s targets as investors have seen – as he told CNBC two days ago – is irrelevant: The central bank is going to raise interest rates two more times this year no matter what happens to consumer prices, says Credit Suisse Chief Investment Officer for Switzerland Burkhard Varnholt....
Read More »How Does the Blockchain Transform Central Banking?
The blockchain technology opens up new possibilities for financial market participants. It allows to get rid of middle men and thus, to save cost, speed up clearing and settlement (possibly lowering capital requirements), protect privacy, avoid operational risks and improve the bargaining position of customers. Internet based technologies have rendered it cheap to collect information and to network. This lies at the foundation of business models in the “sharing economy.” It also lets...
Read More »What Can Entrepreneurs Learn from Didi Chuxing’s Success?
Didi Chuxing is the most successful ride-sharing company in China and recently got a vote of confidence in the form of a $1 billion investment from Apple. Hear what Didi’s Vice President of Strategy Stephen Zhu had to say at the Credit Suisse 2016 Asian Investment Conference about the state of Chinese entrepreneurship, the uniqueness of the sharing economy in China, and the biggest challenges faced by Chinese startups.
Read More »Sharing Is the New Buying
It’s not that the sharing economy itself is a new idea. Monasteries loaned books to the public in the Middle Ages, farmers have shared tools and labor for centuries, and the first known car rental service popped up in 1904. What is new is how quickly an extremely varied set of companies built around sharing, renting, collaborating, and accessing items on-demand are growing, thanks in large part to the proliferation of smartphones. There are 44 privately held sharing-oriented businesses that...
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