China Launches Investigation Into FedEx, Xinhua Reports - Bloomberg

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China Launches Investigation Into FedEx, Xinhua Reports  Bloomberg

China is launching an investigation into FedEx Corp. for the wrongful delivery of packages, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday. The U.S. express delivery company violated relevant Chinese laws and industry regulations by failing to send packages to correct addresses, the report said. That seriously harmed the legitimate rights and interests of its customers, and the relevant authorities decided to initiate an investigation, according to the report. Earlier this week, FedEx apologized for delivery errors on Huawei Technologies Co. packages following reports that parcels we...

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/china-launches-investigation-into-fedex-xinhua

2019-06-01 11:42:34Z
CAIiEKHGrdDRBFJrw7URsyg09gkqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow4uzwCjCF3bsCMIrOrwM

China Launches Investigation Into FedEx, Xinhua Reports - Bloomberg

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China Launches Investigation Into FedEx, Xinhua Reports  Bloomberg

China is launching an investigation into FedEx Corp. for the wrongful delivery of packages, Xinhua reported. The U.S. express delivery company violated relevant laws and regulations of the industry in China by failing to send packages to correct addresses, the report said. That seriously harmed the legitimate rights and interests of its customers. The relevant authorities decided to initiate an investigation, the report said. Earlier this week, FedEx apologized for delivery errors on Huawei Technologies Co. packages following reports that parcels were returned to senders. Huawei had said it...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/china-launches-investigation-into-fedex-xinhua

2019-06-01 11:11:03Z
CAIiEKHGrdDRBFJrw7URsyg09gkqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow4uzwCjCF3bsCMIrOrwM

Buffett’s Charity Auction Breaks Record With $4.57 Million Bid - Bloomberg

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1. Buffett’s Charity Auction Breaks Record With $4.57 Million Bid  Bloomberg
2. How to Have Lunch With Warren Buffett  The Wall Street Journal
3. Warren Buffett: His Best Investing Strategies, Stocks, and Advice  Motley Fool
4. From software to soft serve, Bill Gates joins Warren Buffett in dishing up ice cream at Dairy Queen  GeekWire
5. Warren Buffett's Charity Auction Bidding Surges Past $4 Million Level  Bloomberg
6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/buffett-s-charity-auction-breaks-record-with-4-57-million-bid

2019-06-01 10:20:17Z
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Justice Dept. Explores Google Antitrust Case - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is exploring whether to open a case against Google for potential antitrust violations, putting renewed scrutiny on the company amid a growing chorus of criticism about the power of Big Tech, three people with knowledge of the deliberations said Friday.

An investigation into how Google arranges search results could revive a case closed in 2013 by another government agency, the Federal Trade Commission. The five F.T.C. commissioners voted unanimously at the time against bringing charges against the company. Google agreed to make some changes to search practices tied to advertising.

But this year, with a new antitrust task force announced in February, the trade commission renewed its interest in Google. In recent weeks, the commission referred complaints about the company to the Justice Department, which also oversees antitrust regulations, according to two people familiar with the actions. The commission has also told companies and others with complaints against Google to take them to the Justice Department.

The task force had been looking into Google’s advertising practices and influence in the online advertising industry, according to two of the people. One of the people said the agency was also looking into its search practices. Most of Google’s revenue comes from advertisements tied to its search results.

A Justice Department spokesman, Jeremy Edwards, declined to comment, as did representatives for Google and the F.T.C.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on the Justice Department’s potential inquiry into Google.

If the Justice Department opens a formal investigation, it will be its first major antitrust case against a big tech company during the Trump administration. Google, Facebook and Amazon have come under intense bipartisan criticism, and calls to break up the firms have become a talking point in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Political leaders and consumer advocacy groups have criticized American regulators for inaction against tech companies. Google, Amazon and Facebook have faced stiff penalties from a variety of European regulators for antitrust and privacy issues. This year, European regulators fined Google 1.5 billion euros for antitrust violations in the online advertising market, the third antitrust move against the company by European officials in three years.

American regulators have been investigating Facebook’s privacy practices, and the outcome is widely seen as a test of the nation’s ability to police how giant tech firms handle user data. The F.T.C. is negotiating a settlement with Facebook that expected to be as much as $5 billion for failing to protect its users’ data from being used for political profiling by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm that had worked for President Trump’s presidential campaign.

There has been a wave of new antitrust scrutiny into tech companies in Washington, including a Senate hearing in May on digital advertising that featured accusations that Google engaged in anticompetitive practices.

The call to regulate and scrutinize Big Tech has also become a consistent campaign promise among Democratic presidential candidates, even longtime friends of Silicon Valley such as Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts brought her “Break Up Big Tech” slogan to a billboard in San Francisco this week.

“Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society and our democracy,” Ms. Warren wrote in a blog post on Medium this year.

When the F.T.C. announced the antitrust task force, the agency’s chairman, Joseph J. Simons, said it had been created because technology companies presented new challenges to decades-long regulation of antitrust. Companies like Google and Facebook offer free services and can argue that alternative search and social networks are a click away for consumers. That can complicate arguments that the services harm consumers or stifle competition.

The task force has started to steer complaints about Google to the Justice Department’s antitrust division. The department and the F.T.C. regularly negotiate over who has jurisdiction over antitrust cases, including investigations into competition violations and the review of mergers.

While some of the complaints against Google are years old, there has been a surge of new ones in recent months as concerns over Silicon Valley’s influence and power have grown, according to one of the people with knowledge of deliberations.

Stephen Kaufer, the chief executive of TripAdvisor, a company that has complained about Google’s practices in the past, said he welcomed the new scrutiny on the tech giant.

“TripAdvisor remains concerned about Google’s practices in the U.S., the E.U. and throughout the world,” he said in a statement, referring to the European Union. “For the good of consumers and competition on the internet, we welcome any renewed interest by U.S. regulators into Google’s anticompetitive behavior.”

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/business/google-antitrust-justice-department.html

2019-06-01 04:03:30Z
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China's retaliatory tariffs hit U.S. goods amid trade standoff - The Globe and Mail

First-quarter stall masks underlying strength in Canada's economy - BNNBloomberg.ca

Canada’s economy stalled for a second straight quarter, but the weak overall performance was driven by falling exports and masked strong gains in household spending and investment that suggest the nation’s expansion is poised to pick up speed.

The economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, for an annualized pace of 0.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday from Ottawa. That’s little changed from a 0.1 per cent quarterly (0.3 per cent annualized) reading in the final three months of 2018. Output was dragged lower by the biggest drop in exports in a year and a half.

Yet outside of the trade sector the report was strong, with both consumption and business spending making big comebacks. Non-residential investment jumped 13.5 per cent on an annualized basis, the biggest gain since 2010, while spending by households rose at the fastest pace in almost two years. The quarter also ended with a bang, with gross domestic product jumping 0.5 per cent in March, the biggest gain in 10 months.

The data support the Bank of Canada narrative on underlying strength in the economy despite the recent soft patch and that the slowdown will be temporary, with growth set to accelerate in coming months. The final reading for the first quarter was in line with the central bank’s forecasts, though it came in below economist expectations for annualized growth of 0.7 per cent.

“For Canadian growth, today was a case of out with the bad news, in with the good news,” Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said in a note to investors.

The Canadian dollar pared loses after the report, but remained down 0.2 per cent to $1.3534 per U.S. dollar at 8:49 a.m. in Toronto trading.

The Bank of Canada forecast growth will accelerate to an annualized 1.3 per cent in the second quarter, and pick up further in the second half of this year, before accelerating back to above 2 per cent growth by 2020.

At the very least, the numbers suggest that heightened uncertainty -- everything from the impact of higher interest rates to potential trade wars and oil-sector woes -- has begun to fade.

There are signs consumers are still spending even amid concerns over bloated debt loads --helped by easing rates on loans, strong job gains, stabilizing housing markets and improving financial markets.

Household spending was up an annualized 3.5 per cent in the quarter, after growing at the slowest pace in almost four years at the end of last year. Business investment was even stronger, after falling for three straight quarters. As a result, domestic demand posted its first gain --3.4 per cent annualized -- for the first time in three quarters.

“When you’re looking at the various components, it’s actually very good results,” Benoit Durocher, senior economist at Desjardins Financial Group in Montreal, said by phone. “You have a rebound in domestic demand which is quite good.”

Canada’s trade sector continues to be a major drag. The decline in the first quarter followed largely flat gains in the previous six months. But even here, trade data reported earlier this month suggested March was much better for exporters -- boding well for the second quarter.

In fact, industry specific data released Friday suggest much of the weakness in the first quarter was confined to energy -- because of curtailed oil production in Alberta -- and construction. The mining and oil and gas sector was down 4.1 per cent in the first quarter, the largest drop since 2016. Construction recorded a 0.5 percent drop in the three-month period. Sixteen of 20 industries saw higher production.

Other Details

A build-up in inventories was another major contributor to growth, contributing 0.7 percentage points to the change in GDP. The Bank of Canada has cautioned the increase in stockpiles could dampen production in coming months Rising oil prices during the quarter helped generate a much larger gain in real gross national income, which was up 0.9 per cent in the three month period. Housing investment remained soft, dropping 1.6 per cent. One reason for the discrepancy between the gain in domestic demand and GDP is that many of the goods purchased were imported. Import volumes rose 1.9 per cent in the first quarter.

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May 31, 2019 at 09:03PM

$1.20 raise in B.C. minimum wage takes effect June 1 - CityNews Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Labour groups are welcoming a $1.20 increase to the minimum wage that kicks in on June 1.

The raise will bring B.C.’s $12.65 minimum wage up to $13.85, but not everyone is convinced it goes far enough. The increase will help our province’s lowest paid workers, says Laird Cronk, President of the BC Federation of Labour, but they’ll still be on poverty-level wages.

“It’s still not a living wage. Unfortunately in B.C. the minimum wage is really a poverty wage, but this a trend in the right direction, one of four increases that the Fair Wages Commission has recommended the government over a four year predictable period,” he says. “We need a broader dialogue around how we bridge the gap between minimum wage, which is really a poverty-level wage, and a living wage, where you can meet the necessities of life.”

This is the second of four annual increases that will take place on June 1 of each year, and while he doesn’t think it goes far enough, Cronk says it does help the local economy.

“Folks that have a little bit of an increase in their pocket on this increase and others, they’re not going with offshore investments, they’re not going with tax havens, they’re spending that money in their community so it’s actually good for the economy.”

Ian Tostenson with the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association has concerns about the increase in his industry.

“They don’t make enough profits, restaurants, to sort of absorb that, so you’ve got to either cut costs or you have got increase your prices. And we have seen price increases happen when the last increase came through.”

Tostenson says it could lead to reductions in hiring, with workers expected to do more.

“A restaurant could say to their server instead of you having a section of five tables, we now want you to have a section and manage seven tables. So you could see a slight reduction in hiring or more use of staff in more productive ways.”

He says his members will have tough choices to make.

“We have a restaurant group that has five restaurants and this increase in minimum wage as of June 1 is going to cost their five restaurants about $140,000 on top of the $50,000 they’re already paying with the health tax.”

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May 31, 2019 at 11:17PM