1 Apple stumble brings Dow down (San Francisco
Chronicle) A stumble by Apple set off the worst rout in the stock market since
July on Thursday. Apple dropped nearly 4 percent following its announcement
late Wednesday that it had pulled a software update which prevented users from
making phone calls. Other technology stocks also slumped.
By the close of trading, all 30 big companies in the
Dow Jones industrial average and the 10 industries in the Standard & Poor's
500 index lost ground. Most investors said the drop wasn't a sign of worry
because the forces behind the market's long rally remain in place. It was only
a week ago that the S&P 500 touched a record high, and strong runs are
usually followed by short breaks. The index has lost 2 percent this week but is
still up 6 percent for the year.
Two economic reports out Thursday were little help.
Claims for unemployment benefits crept up last week. But the less volatile
four-week average fell. A separate report said businesses orders for equipment
plunged last month, mainly a result of falling orders for commercial aircraft.
Apple, which closed at a record high of $103.30 on
Sept. 2, sank $3.88 to $97.87 in heavy trading. It was the second-biggest drop
in the S&P 500 index. In addition to the software glitch, some users of the
new iPhone complained that the phone could be bent easily. The price of oil
fell slightly on ample global supplies despite U.S. airstrikes against oil
facilities controlled by the Islamic State group in Syria.
2 Climate issue has warm streets, cold summit
(Khaleej Times) The United Nations Climate Summit 2014, held on September 23,
can be considered as a study in two contrasts. On the one hand was the People’s
Climate March - an enormous gathering of concerned citizens in New York which
may have seen a combined total of some 400,000 people. The marchers delivered
one message in many creative ways. That message was: we citizens can and will
rid the planet of fossil fuels and nuclear power.
On the other hand was the Climate Summit. This, said the UN, would serve as a public
platform for leaders at the highest level. The gathering would “catalyse
ambitious action on the ground to reduce emissions and strengthen climate
resilience and mobilise political will for an ambitious global agreement by
2015 that limits the world to a less than 2-degree Celsius rise in global
temperature”.
Did it succeed? No and yes. UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon summed up the Summit as “a great day, a historic day. Ban said that the
Summit “delivered” because the many leaders attending “reaffirmed determination
to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius by cutting
emissions”.
Such announcements underline the contrast between
the desire on the street and the cold comfort of summit announcements (now in
their 22nd year). The UN tip-toed around the large global and regional
corporations whose business practices have deepened environmental and
socio-economic emergencies all over the world, and which are responsible for
worsening the vulnerabilities of populations exposed to the risk of climate
change. Instead of such expensive jamborees the UN should emulate the example
of the marchers and encourage small, local and meaningful action.
3 Branson and unlimited time off: Too good to be
true (The Guardian) When Richard Branson announces that Virgin employees can
take as much holiday as they want, on the face of it, it appears attractive and
generous but is in fact about as liberating for the employee as, say,
hot-desking. It is just one more way of chaining the workers to their desks by
intimating that if they go for a coffee someone will take their seat. Or their
job.
Mr Branson scarcely troubled to disguise the
flimsiness of his offer. The decision whether to take holiday, he said, would
reflect an employee’s confidence that they were on top of their jobs, in
complete control of all their projects, and that their absence would do no harm
to the company – or their career. It is a souped-up version of turning off
office emails, itself something all sensible employers should insist on, but
which most employees fear would be seen as a possibly lethal breach of
commitment.
The idea of untracked holiday is taken from Netflix,
the company that has revolutionised video streaming. In a recent Harvard
Business Review, Patty McCord, its human resources manager, gave the game away
when she explained that it was the logical extension of the always-on work
culture of a tech startup. No surprise that the policy is not available to
Netflix employees in its call centres, any more than Mr Branson was proposing
it for his air crews or train staff.
It is fashionable to argue that rights at work can
be an unnecessary obstacle to efficiency, an impediment in an age of
non-hierarchical company structures where creativity and initiative are valued
more highly than suits, ties and punctuality. Rubbish.
Netflix draws the analogy that the company has no
dress policy but no one turns up naked. Not having an official code doesn’t
mean there isn’t one. By failing to spell it out, the management underlines the
arbitrary nature of its power. Clear rules can protect the weak. Without mutual
confidence, ultimately underwritten in law, there can be no mutual trust.
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