133/2018 • 14 June, 2018
The trust economy on display at vibrant MoneyConf
Big tech has its critics. Yet at MoneyConf, a major financial technology conference , the operative word is "trust," not a term always associated with the corporate world. Arthur Sullivan reports from Dublin. "Trust me, Iʼm a fintech founder and CEO." It might not quite have the same ring to it as the old line about doctors,but nonetheless that sentiment was discernible at MoneyConf. Right from the start of the day in Dublin when Paddy Cosgrave — CEO of Web Summit, the organizing body behind the event — asked all attendees to turn around and start talking to the strangers around them, trust was the operative word. In many ways, this weekʼs vibrant event reflects the rapid growth that the industry loosely known as "fintech" — that nascent coalition of financial services and tech — has made in a few short years. The growing credence being lent to cryptocurrencies, the increasingly detailed plans being made in mainstream business circles around blockchain technology and machine learning and the growing strength of a wave of innovative fintech companies working in areas from banking to secure payments has given the area considerable heft. Hence the reason why this is the first topic to be given its own individual conference spin-off by the Web Summit people. Yet perhaps conscious of the scandals that have bedevilled tech giants such as Facebook and Google in recent times, and naturally of the perfidious forces behind the 2007 financial crisis, the elites of the fintech world are preaching a creed of faith as they look to muscle in further on the traditional financial market.
Can plastic recycling solve the fast-fashion problem? Fashion firms are tapping into growing public outrage at plastic pollution by offering snazzy garments made from old water bottles and other waste. But will it catch on — and can it make a difference? Old fishing nets, plastic bottles and threadbare tires are generally consigned to the landfill, or end up in our oceans. But one ecominded fashion firm is turning that waste into jackets, sneakers and flipflops in a rainbow of hues. "Plastic pollution is a huge topic right now — also within the industry," Carolina Álvarez-Ossorio, spokeswoman for Ecoalf, said speaking in the Spanish companyʼs new Berlin store. 4
Tesla slashes 3,000 jobs in costcutting endeavor US electric carmaker Tesla has announced it will cut about 9 percent of its global workforce to enhance profitability. CEO Elon Musk insisted that Model 3 production would not be affected by the move. Chief Executive Elon Musk said Tuesday his company was cutting some 9 percent of jobs across the company. Teslaʼs latest annual filing last December showed it had 37,543 full-time employees. He added the move was meant to help bring down costswithout endangering the critical ramp-up of Teslaʼs Model 3 sedan production. Musk noted the
Germans worried about never-ending emissionscheating scandal German politicians and business leaders are increasingly worried about the long-term impact of the domestic carmakersʼ emissions-cheating scam. Dieselgate doesnʼt look like itʼs going to die down anytime soon. A growing number of German policymakers and representatives of business organizations fear the countryʼs ongoing Dieselgate scandal will have a lasting negative impact on Germany as a business location."The emissions-cheating scandal and the ensuing or looming bans of diesel cars in some cities are creating a lot of uncertainty among German businesses," the president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Eric Schweitzer, told the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday. Schweitzer said it would be wrong to believe that the scandal had only hit carmakers. "The drop in the value of diesels has also affected many small and mediumsized companies across the nation," he pointed out, with many firms not being able to use their fleets during recalls and necessary software updates.
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Time to scrap the G7 The messy quarrel over the G7 communique serves nobody. So why not scrap these summits altogether? After all, the four-decadeold event is an anachronistic format anyway, says Felix Steiner. Germanyʼs Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron should take matters into their own hands and scrap G7 summits. And who could object to that? These annual gatherings, bringing together leaders of the worldʼs biggest economies, are a Franco-German invention. Germanyʼs former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and French President Valery Giscard dʼEstaing established the summit in the 1970s – so why would their elected successors not be entitled to disband the club? Doing away with the huge summit would not be a great loss for humanity. After all, what was originally conceived in 1975 as a gathering for casual and confidential talks on economic matters has transformed into an annual mega event. Today, summits are held in out of the way locations for fear of protesters, while the 1,000 journalists in attendance interpret leadersʼ every gesture and facial expression live on the air.
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cuts were part of a simplification scheme promised last month and affecting the carmakerʼs management structure. "As part of the need to reduce costs and become profitable, we have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9 percent of our colleagues," Musk said in an email to staff.
Toyota invests record sum in ridehailing firm Grab
Toyota has announced it is pumping $1 billion into Grab, the leading ride-share company in Southeast Asia. Initially cautious about ridesharing, Japanʼs top automaker is now aggressively playing catch-up. Toyota said on Wednesday it was investing $1 billion (€850 million) in Asian ride-sharing company Grab, with the Japanese carmaker looking to expand beyond its core business and get a foot in the door of the mobility services sector. Initially, the maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models had not shown much interest in ridesharing,but has been trying to catch up in recent years. Its $1 billion deal with Grab is the biggest single investment by a carmaker in a ride-sharing service so far. In a statement, Toyota said the deal was "aimed at achieving connectivity for Grabʼs rental car fleet across Southeast Asia and at rolling out various connected services throughout the region that utilize vehicle data" stored by the carmaker.