Readings & Viewings: March 9, 2018

Welcome to this week's Readings & Viewings, a collection of news, analysis and other interesting snippets we've spotted from around the world during the latest week for your reading pleasure.

Has Trump been gazumped over his plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports? Some may say he's even been thumped (behind the scenes, of course), although all was on public display during the week when his most senior economic advisers, Gary Cohn, resigned in protest after the US President delivered more policy on the fly.

Canada and Mexico will be exempted from the US tariffs on steel and aluminium, and Australia could also be carved out from the legislation that Goldman Sachs has estimated could cost Ford and General Motors $US1 billion extra a year. But, as we know, White House policy can change at any time.  Canada seems to have another sticky problem with imports and exports on its hands already though. 

S&P Global just coughed up over half a billion in cash and stock for Kensho, a startup that uses machine learning to do complex analysis for traders and financial institutions.

Genetic modification giant Monsanto has seeded an artificial intelligence startup that claims it makes the drug discovery process more efficient. 

Everyone is making big bets on AI lately, none the more than Saudi Arabia though. The country's sovereign wealth fund has invested a tidy $US461 million in a technology that hasn't yet been proven. It's a Magic Leap, especially for a country so big on traditional commodities.

The trend towards downsizing may finally be taking its toll on Lego. Earlier this week, the company reported its first simultaneous decline in profit and sales since 2004. Lego took the crown of the king of brands in 2015, when it charged ahead of Ferrari, but if things keep heading south it might have to relinquish that title. 

An e-waste recycling pioneer might be headed for jail for trying to make computers last longer. Apparently, one can be too obsessed with recycling, and get a little carried away.

If the environment is out, terror is in. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has dropped a report bomb this week, listing the world's biggest money managers as chief among a selection of companies “financing terror”.

And an MIT study has concluded Uber isn't really financing, well, anyone. The researchers claimed Uber drivers make less than $4 an hour on average. Uber's comeback?

Being known as one of the good guys in Silicon Valley, not rocking the boat like Uber's former CEO, MIT is listening to Dara and has said it will revisit the study.

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has nabbed a former LinkedIn executive. The young gun did more than 40 deals at LinkedIn during her tenure; Coinbase is yet to do one. That looks set to change quite quickly, just like crypto prices. For those who are interested, here's the full rundown on Coinbase.

Could banking be the next frontier for Amazon?

A look inside how a venture negotiation goes down.

Restaurant review sites could become relics of time's past, if Google's sale of Zagat is anything to go off. We wonder if full-scale platforms like Facebook have anything to do with it.

The food and hospitality industry has taken the cake for most notorious with underpaying. The UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy named and shamed the worst offenders this week. 

Is $US2.6 billion too much to ask for? Activist shareholders in Telsa Inc. say plans to award founder and CEO Elon Musk such an amount, payable in shares, is a bonus too far - and they will oppose the proposed motion at a special meeting later this month.

Warren Buffett might like to treat himself with a trip to Japan soon to try out this new beverage. Japan is actually where the business started more than a century ago. Let's hope for Buffett's sake he doesn't get caught up in “noodle harassment” if he decides to check it out.

Brush up on the two mental shifts of highly successfully people, like the one above.

How's this for a selfie? A researcher with the Australian Antarctic Division caught some curious Emporer Penguins on camera this week.

International Women's Day this week attracted significant attention around the world, including in Australia when the ABC replaced all its male presenters with females for the day. But fast-food outlets McDonald's and KFC went a step further, by totally changing their branding. Take a look at Maccas handled the day, and how KFC gave "The Colonel" the chop.

And for a weekend adrenaline rush, read up on the guy who makes a living jumping into volcanoes. 

Enjoy your weekend.