Latest news with #euro
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Indian-origin Berkeley graduate claims he fooled investors. He has no product, no pitch
Indian-origin UC Berkeley graduate says he fooled investors by just dropping Stanford's name. Bhavye Khetan, an Indian-origin UC Berkeley graduate claimed on his social media that he fooled investors by dropping fancy words and big names of universities and got responses from them, while he has no product, no pitch and no deck. He just created a fake creator profile, Khetan claimed and his post went viral. His LinkedIn profile claimed that he studied a Bachelor's degree at Berkeley, while his work experience includes a position in New Delhi. He also called himself the founder of a card that apparently combines multiple credit cards. Khetan claimed that he made a fake founder persona who studied Computer Science at Stanford, worked at Palantir. He said he sent cold emails to 34 VCs and 27 among them replied. Four asked for a call, the Indian-origin graduate wrote, concluding that the game is rigged in ways most people don't understand. — bhavye_khetan (@bhavye_khetan) Social media users slammed him for shaming the investors and pointed out that taking meetings is not a big deal as venture capitalists take thousands of meetings a year and Stanford and Palantir are good names. "Yeah, and Americans don't even realize how degree of how much easier it is for them to secure funding or even just a client compared to euro/indian/asian folks," one wrote. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Buy Brass Idols - Handmade Brass Statues for Home & Gifting Luxeartisanship Buy Now Undo "This is stupid. You lied. Stanford is meaningful. Palantir is meaningful. AI is meaningful. The only person acting inappropriately is you," another wrote, "I don't think it's rigged, if you lie of course they will take your call but I think you won't get past that when they figure out you are lying pretty quickly," a third user wrote. The viral post comes amid a major H-1B row with US tech workers claiming that companies are downsizing to accommodate the hirings from foreign countries whom they pay less.
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Lagarde's master plan to vanquish the dollar
Despite the tough talk about slapping 50pc tariffs on the EU, Donald Trump has given Brussels a golden opportunity. After years of disappointment, false hope and crises, the euro could at last wrest international dominance away from the dollar to become a – and possibly the – global reserve currency of choice. Or so Christine Lagarde hopes. The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) set out her master plan last week to at long last fulfil the dream of leading the financial world. 'Moments of change can also be moments of opportunity. The ongoing changes create the opening for a 'global euro moment',' she said in a speech in Berlin, in which she retold the story of the pound losing its dominance a century ago amid the rise of the US dollar. 'This is a prime opportunity for Europe to take greater control of its own destiny.' The opportunity to which she refers is the rise of Trump and the shattering of the old order. The dollar has been the default currency for global trade for decades, with contracts, assets and deals all priced and conducted in the greenback. But the US president's decision to slap tariffs on allies and foes alike has shaken faith in this way of working. 'Multilateral cooperation is being replaced by zero-sum thinking and bilateral power plays. Openness is giving way to protectionism,' Lagarde said. 'There is even uncertainty about the cornerstone of the system: the dominant role of the US dollar.' Controlling Europe's destiny Dean Turner, economist at UBS, says the dollar's share of foreign currency reserves has been falling for years, and recent events should push more funds into euros 'at the margins'. This is already happening: the single currency has risen by 9pc against the dollar since Trump took office. The dollar slid again on Monday as China accused the US of violating the deal struck between the world's two largest economies in Switzerland last month. The latest spat highlighted international fears over America's position and sent the greenback down 0.7pc against the euro. It left the single currency trading at more than $1.14, close to its highest level for more than three years. 'Given the high degree of policy uncertainty, investors will continue to reassess their dollar exposure, and that is going to benefit currencies like the euro,' Turner says. 'The euro is the most liquid alternative to the dollar.' Traditionally, the US benefits from what is known as an 'exorbitant privilege' in financial markets. Seen as the safest haven by investors, any time the going gets tough, global cash flows into America. It helps the government finance its vast deficits, and funds businesses and households too. Lagarde wants a slice of the action. A bigger role for the euro would lower borrowing costs, boost Europe's economies, insulate the Continent from volatile financial markets and 'protect Europe from sanctions or other coercive measures', as she put it. The ECB chief said: 'It would allow Europe to better control its own destiny.' Making it happen is easier said than done. While Trump has reviled many global investors, that is not enough on its own to push cash into Europe. The bloc needs to become more appealing too. Lagarde's prescription for turning this short-term gain into long-term dominance includes the eurozone taking the lead in geopolitics – both in global trade and in military terms – and developing deeper capital markets to give investors more to invest in. More political unity, which breeds stability, is also required. Distant dreams None of these goals are straightforward. Take the idea of stepping up to the plate militarily. Europe has certainly been prompted into promising to spend more on defence by the war in Ukraine. Friedrich Merz, Germany's new chancellor, has pledged to spend as much as 5pc of German GDP on defence, with as much as €1 trillion (£840bn) of infrastructure and military spending on the way in the coming years. Yet a defence spending spree does not by itself create a new military superpower, says Michael Every, global strategist at Rabobank. 'Just saying you are going to spend a lot of money on the military doesn't give you a military – it takes decades of investment to build one up,' he says, noting that Europe also relies on imported energy and other critical resources, which leaves it vulnerable. A shift in mindset is also required. America's status was also built on its willingness to act as the world's policeman, not just a capability to defend its own borders, says Bilal Hafeez, chief executive at MacroHive. 'Defence helped the dollar become a reserve currency. The US provided military support for foreign countries – they underwrote Japan's defence, and as a result the Japanese bought Treasuries and got into the dollar system,' he says. 'Is Europe willing to provide military support for non-European countries?' The other planks of Lagarde's master plan also seem distant dreams. An extra trillion euros of German borrowing means an extra trillion euros of high-quality assets for global investors to buy, which is appealing. But the commitment also draws attention to the weakness of eurozone capital markets. While the US has a vast, deep market for its $36 trillion (£27 trillion) national debt, the eurozone is split into member states with different levels of borrowing and risks. Few jointly issued bonds exist in Europe, so it is not a direct alternative to the big, liquid American market. Changing that would require German taxpayers to underwrite French, Italian or Greek debt. They are understandably reluctant. Uncomfortable consequences It is not even obvious that becoming the world's reserve currency would be beneficial for all of the eurozone. 'There are consequences to being the world's reserve currency,' says Turner. 'It would put a premium on the euro, that means the euro goes up against other currencies. 'When you're an economy that is still heavily dependent on exports, that is going to make life quite challenging for some members of the eurozone. 'Part of the success of the German export model over the last 20-odd years has been the fact it has had a relatively cheap currency through a significant period of that.' That is part of the reason Trump is unhappy with the status quo. 'America is walking away from that traditional role because it comes with higher asset prices, which means greater socioeconomic polarisation, and deindustrialisation via higher trade deficits,' says Every. 'Tell me how a net-exporting European economy is going to benefit by switching to be a net importer? It won't. To make consumers out of Germans rather than car producers is not something which anyone in Germany wants to do.' Lagarde sees a chance for a 'global euro moment'. But to realise her vision, she has to convince a lot of people in the eurozone to do a lot of work first – and that's before she even has a shot at convincing the rest of the world.
Reuters
17 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
ECB faces surging euro conundrum
LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - While the European Central Bank keeps cutting interest rates, the euro keeps rising, as a transatlantic capital reversal upends relative rate shifts and threatens to force the ECB into further easing. The ECB is widely expected to lower its main borrowing rate on Thursday to 2%, half what it was at its peak a year ago and less than half the Federal Reserve equivalent. It's also back to what the central bank broadly considers a 'neutral' level, meaning it neither spurs nor reins in the economy. Real, or inflation-adjusted, ECB rates will be back to zero for the first time in almost two years. What's remarkable is that after eight consecutive ECB cuts and with the prospect of zero or even negative real rates ahead, the euro has surged more than 10% against the dollar in just four months and 5% against a trade-weighted currency basket of the euro zone's major trading partners. That nominal effective euro index is now at record highs, with the 'real' version at its strongest level in more than 10 years. The currency has surged even though there has been no net change in the gap between two-year government bond yields on either side of the Atlantic - usually a reliable indicator of shifts in the euro/dollar exchange rate. The culprits behind this trend are pretty clear: Donald Trump's tariff wars, fears of capital flight from dollar assets due to a host of concerns about U.S. policies and institutions, and Germany's historic fiscal boost that has transformed the continent's outlook. But if even a fraction of the trillions of dollars of European investment capital in the United States is indeed coming back home as many suspect, the ECB has a curious conundrum ahead. How does it handle both the disinflationary effects of such a rapid currency rise alongside the domestic demand it could catalyse? Lower rates with the prospect of further easing ahead are clearly having little impact on the euro. Most ECB watchers expect one or two more cuts after Thursday while money markets have a 'terminal rate' around 1.75%, the low end of the ECB's estimated range of 'neutral'. Indeed, if much of the capital repatriation from overweight U.S. holdings is in equity investments, then lower ECB rates may even accelerate the outflows from the U.S. by lifting growth prospects for cheaper stocks in Europe. The prospect of higher German and pan-European borrowing should sustain longer-term fixed income returns as well, expanding the pool of 'safe' investments. The ECB could revert to protesting about 'excessive' euro gains, although the impact might be limited unless it is prepared to back its words with action, and there is a risk it could backfire for the reasons just mentioned. If anything, the ECB appears to be encouraging the investment shift and the euro's role as a reserve currency - in part to help with the bloc's massive capital needs in retooling its military, digital and energy sectors. In a pointed speech in Berlin last week, ECB chief Christine Lagarde insisted there was an opening for a "global euro moment", where the single currency becomes a viable alternative to the dollar, earning the region immense benefits if governments can strengthen the bloc's financial and security architecture. The scenario may be seen as a nice problem to have, but there will be more than a little disquiet among the region's big exporting nations about a soaring exchange rate in the middle of a trade war. ECB hawks and doves will also have to thrash out whether continued easing to offset disinflationary currency risks only stokes domestic inflation over the longer term - not least with a fiscal lift coming down the road into next year. What seems clear is that the ECB's new economic forecasts due for release on Thursday will have taken into account the 7% euro/dollar gain and near 10% drop in global oil prices since its last set of projections in early March. Morgan Stanley economists reckon that even if the central bank tweaks its core inflation forecasts higher, the new outlook could well show headline inflation undershooting its 2% target from mid-2025 to early 2027 - even while nudging up 2025's GDP growth view. In truth, any forecasts at this point are fingers in the wind with few central banks or major investors having a clue where U.S. tariffs or retaliatory trade war actions will end up. But while global trade and investment nerves abound, the ECB may be relatively powerless to cap the euro. Whether that argues for stasis or even more easing is the big headache it faces. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Markets Await Comment from ECB's Lagarde on Euro's Reserve Currency Role This Week
The euro rose to a six-week high against the dollar and MUFG said any comments by Christine Lagarde on the euro in the context of its future reserve currency status would be watched closely at Thursday's meeting.
Zawya
20 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
ECB faces surging euro conundrum: Mike Dolan
LONDON - While the European Central Bank keeps cutting interest rates, the euro keeps rising, as a transatlantic capital reversal upends relative rate shifts and threatens to force the ECB into further easing. The ECB is widely expected to lower its main borrowing rate on Thursday to 2%, half what it was at its peak a year ago and less than half the Federal Reserve equivalent. It's also back to what the central bank broadly considers a 'neutral' level, meaning it neither spurs nor reins in the economy. Real, or inflation-adjusted, ECB rates will be back to zero for the first time in almost two years. What's remarkable is that after eight consecutive ECB cuts and with the prospect of zero or even negative real rates ahead, the euro has surged more than 10% against the dollar in just four months and 5% against a trade-weighted currency basket of the euro zone's major trading partners. That nominal effective euro index is now at record highs, with the 'real' version at its strongest level in more than 10 years. The currency has surged even though there has been no net change in the gap between two-year government bond yields on either side of the Atlantic - usually a reliable indicator of shifts in the euro/dollar exchange rate. The culprits behind this trend are pretty clear: Donald Trump's tariff wars, fears of capital flight from dollar assets due to a host of concerns about U.S. policies and institutions, and Germany's historic fiscal boost that has transformed the continent's outlook. But if even a fraction of the trillions of dollars of European investment capital in the United States is indeed coming back home as many suspect, the ECB has a curious conundrum ahead. How does it handle both the disinflationary effects of such a rapid currency rise alongside the domestic demand it could catalyse? Lower rates with the prospect of further easing ahead are clearly having little impact on the euro. Most ECB watchers expect one or two more cuts after Thursday while money markets have a 'terminal rate' around 1.75%, the low end of the ECB's estimated range of 'neutral'. Indeed, if much of the capital repatriation from overweight U.S. holdings is in equity investments, then lower ECB rates may even accelerate the outflows from the U.S. by lifting growth prospects for cheaper stocks in Europe. The prospect of higher German and pan-European borrowing should sustain longer-term fixed income returns as well, expanding the pool of 'safe' investments. 'GLOBAL EURO MOMENT' The ECB could revert to protesting about 'excessive' euro gains, although the impact might be limited unless it is prepared to back its words with action, and there is a risk it could backfire for the reasons just mentioned. If anything, the ECB appears to be encouraging the investment shift and the euro's role as a reserve currency - in part to help with the bloc's massive capital needs in retooling its military, digital and energy sectors. In a pointed speech in Berlin last week, ECB chief Christine Lagarde insisted there was an opening for a "global euro moment", where the single currency becomes a viable alternative to the dollar, earning the region immense benefits if governments can strengthen the bloc's financial and security architecture. The scenario may be seen as a nice problem to have, but there will be more than a little disquiet among the region's big exporting nations about a soaring exchange rate in the middle of a trade war. ECB hawks and doves will also have to thrash out whether continued easing to offset disinflationary currency risks only stokes domestic inflation over the longer term - not least with a fiscal lift coming down the road into next year. What seems clear is that the ECB's new economic forecasts due for release on Thursday will have taken into account the 7% euro/dollar gain and near 10% drop in global oil prices since its last set of projections in early March. Morgan Stanley economists reckon that even if the central bank tweaks its core inflation forecasts higher, the new outlook could well show headline inflation undershooting its 2% target from mid-2025 to early 2027 - even while nudging up 2025's GDP growth view. In truth, any forecasts at this point are fingers in the wind with few central banks or major investors having a clue where U.S. tariffs or retaliatory trade war actions will end up. But while global trade and investment nerves abound, the ECB may be relatively powerless to cap the euro. Whether that argues for stasis or even more easing is the big headache it faces. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters (by Mike Dolan; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
