European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet on Friday warned that banks risk becoming addicted to cheap cash provided by central banks in their efforts to get them lending again.
Although it was “too early to say the crisis is over,” it was time to unwind some of the measures that propped up the banking system during the financial crisis, Trichet said in a speech at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt.
“Emergency treatment and strong medicines are sometimes necessary. But, if their use is prolonged, they can lead to dependence and even addiction,” he said.
“Eventually, the administration of painkillers must be stopped if patients are to get back on their own two feet,” he said, also warning that the ECB would have to take away its support “promptly and unequivocally” if it posed an inflation risk.
He said the ECB would soon start withdrawing some of its “extraordinary measures” to ensure they do not cause higher inflation.
The central bank is expected to provide details on how its stimulus will be scaled back at its meeting on Dec. 3. Policymakers are meeting on Thursday for discussions ahead of the decision.
Responding to criticism against over-regulation as financial markets start recovering, Bundesbank President Axel Weber said regulators must press ahead with reform to “make the system more resilient.”
The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has sparked calls for a radical overhaul of banking supervision.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained