AUSTRALIA
Swan blames tax for deficit
Treasurer Wayne Swan yesterday admitted that it was politically “very uncomfortable” to fail to return the budget to surplus as forecast, but blamed unprecedented shortfalls in government revenue. Swan, who will deliver his sixth annual budget tomorrow, said a year ago that the national accounts should come out of deficit this financial year. However, a fall in tax revenues has forced him to delay the surplus. Swan first announced the backdown on the budget surplus in December last year and has since confirmed revenue writedowns of at least A$17 billion (US$17 billion) for the financial year.
BANKING
JPMorgan CEO mulls exit
JPMorgan Chase & Co chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said he may consider leaving the bank, where he has held the top post since 2005, if shareholders vote to split his duties, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Shareholders will vote later this month at an annual meeting in Tampa, Florida, on a non-binding proposal to separate the chairman and chief executive roles after a more than US$6 billion trading loss last year raised questions about risk oversight. The results of the vote will be announced on May 21, but it remains unclear what the board will do if the proposal passes.
EUROPEAN UNION
Berlin wants more reform
Germany wants further reforms and savings in crisis-hit eurozone states, according to a report prepared by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and obtained by Der Spiegel magazine in which Berlin evaluates progress made under strengthened EU budget rules. In yesterday’s edition, Der Spiegel cited the report as saying that there was “further room for labor market liberalization” in Italy, while further reforms to overcome rigid labor laws in Greece and Spain were “essential.” The report also said that to improve its finances, France had increased its revenue intake, but also needed to cut spending.
MEDIA
‘Bild’ downsizing reported
Up to 200 jobs could be slashed at top German tabloid Bild, as its publishing group seeks to make about 20 million euros (US$26 million) in savings, Der Spiegel magazine reported yesterday. Citing “several informed sources,” the news weekly said publishers Axel Springer were looking to cut between 170 and 200 jobs at Bild, the most widely read daily newspaper in Europe. Der Spiegel said that Axel Springer had set aside 50 million euros for “structural changes” and there would be redundancies at the group. Employees at the Bild daily, the paper’s Web site and Berlin local tabloid B.Z. would be transferred to a subsidiary, Bild Digital, the report said.
TECHNOLOGY
Fight for Dell intensifies
A battle for US computer giant Dell Inc heated up on Friday as corporate raider Carl Icahn and other investors made a new offer and called a planned buyout led by company founder Michael Dell a “giveaway.” The investor group, which holds about 13 percent of Dell shares, said in a regulatory filing it would urge shareholders to reject the private equity buyout and opt instead for its “superior” recapitalization plan, keeping the company public. Icahn has allied with Southeastern Asset Management to block plans announced this year by Michael Dell and investment fund Silver Lake Partners to take the company private in a US$24.4 billion buyout.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
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