7 June 2018
Question: According to USA Today, what are 5 tips to keep Alexa from peering into your life?
Investors shed Eurozone debt as bloc’s economy bolsters case for ending QE – Pg. 1
- European markets took a fresh hit after top policymakers delivered confident remarks on the Eurozone economy, bolstering expectations that the ECB will halt its bond-buying programme this year
- Many in the markets expect government debt yields to continue to gyrate in the coming weeks,…
- The ECB is likely to end quantitative easing as planned in December despite the increased uncertainly in Italy, but investors will be watching data on Italian business and consumer confidence, in particular, for many signs of weakness
India lifts interest rate to curb price pressures – Pg. 4
- The Reserve Bank of India raised its benchmark interest rate yesterday for the first time in four and a half years, citing growing inflationary pressures stemming from rising oil prices and global financial turmoil
- The central bank’s monetary policy committee voted unanimously to raise its benchmark repo rate by 25bps to 6.25%, saying “inflation has hardened sharply” and been persistently sticky in the last six months
- The rupee has depreciated by 3% in the same period, making it one of Asia’s worst performing currencies
Millennial moment – Pg. 7
- …millennials as the 73m Americans aged between 22 and 37, who will next year overtake boomers in number
- The coming of age of the world’s 2bn millennials is not only a generational shift: it is one of ethnicity and nationality. Forty three percent of US millennials are non-white, and millennials in Asia vastly outnumber those in Europe and the US. Despite China’s former one-child policy, it has 400m millennials, more than five times the US figures (and more than the entire US population) while Morgan Stanley estimates that India’s 410m millennials will spend $330bn annually by 2020
- Millennials have reached what the bank calls “the most important age range for economic activity”, when households are formed, babies are born and money is spent not just on going out but on settling down
- …it is placing immense strain on institutions that once thrived on mass marketing through television advertising
- In the US and Europe, many millennials are disenchanted with their lot as they attain maturity
- They are highly educated: 39% of British 25 to 39-year-olds are graduates, compared with 23% of those between 55 and 64. But their sophistication and ambition is not matched by security
- This is largely an accident of history. Older millennials entered the workforce in the mid-2000s, and many lost jobs after the 2008 crisis. They were also caught by rapid inflation in house prices as interest rates fell and remained low. The milestones of leaving home, getting a job, marrying and having children have been delayed – 45% of 18 to 34-year-old Americans had done all four in 1975, but only 24% had in 2015
- …2014 study…only 19% of millennials believed that others could be trusted, compared with 40% of boomers and 31% of the generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980
- Millennial faith in institutions is also low (Prof Note: As is mine…hence, “Do the hustle!”)
Answer: (1) Change your wake word. You’re not married to Alexa; (2) Say no to contacts; (3) Turn it off; (4) No voice purchases; (5) Don’t drop in