第一篇阅读 Airlines seem to have dodged a wider ban on electronic devices. The fear that business travellers on tran satlantic flights might have to stop working on spreadsheets and read a good book instead had been palpable.In recent weeks, agents at America's Department of Homeland Security had been hinting to the media that a ban on large electronic devices in the cabins of flights between Europe and America was likely.After a meeting on May 17th in Brussels, between American and EU officials, however, reports suggest that threat has been averted.Airlines will be rejoicing if so.America had been expected to announce that all electronic gadgets larger than a smartphone, such as tablets and laptops, would henceforth have to be put in hold luggage.The Trump administration (along with Britain) had already imposed similar restrictions on flights from some Middle Eastern countries in March.It seemed security officials had got wind of a specific terrorist threat, possibly involving Islamic State (IS) , and perhaps similar to an attack perpetrated on a Somalian jet in 2016.Then, a terrorist blew a hole in the side of an airliner using a small bomb concealed in a laptop placed against the cabin wall. (The terrorist got his timing wrong, detonated too early, and was sucked to his doom; no one else was seriously hurt. )The reason for the apparent change of mind was unclear as The Economist went to press.Airlines had complained that alternative security options, such as enhanced screening of passengers and their carry-on luggage, had not been fully explored.They also warned of the dangers of storing more lithium batteries in the hold.Such batteries, which are used in most electronic devices, have on occasion combusted and brought down commercial aircraft, including a UPS cargo plane in 2010.A controversy over whether Donald Trump gave classified information about the risk of IS using laptops against aircraft to Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, last week, may also have had an impact on the debate, and helped airlines to avoid a wider ban for now.They have good reason to worry about the possibility.The transatlantic market is hugely important on both sides of the pond.Around 31m people flew from Europe to America last year, reckons IATA, an airline industry group.Business travellers, who rely on staying productive while in the air, would have been the most reluctant to fly laptop-free.In any case, executives are often forbidden to put company computers in the hold for fear of theft or loss of sensitive information.Business- and first-class seats account for only 13% of transatlantic passengers but provide half the revenue.Following the ban in the Middle East, Emirates, a Dubai-based carrier, cut flights to America by a fifth (flyers were also put off by a strong dollar and worries about potential immigration difficulties).If executives could not work on planes, it might cost the industries they work for around $655m in lost productivity, calculates IATA, based on an assumption that half of business-class passengers will lose five hours' working time per flight.Research from Oxford Economics, a forecasting outfit, found that in Britain a 1% increase in business travel is associated with a ￡400m ($518m) boost to trade.John Kelly, America's homeland-security secretary, had suggestions for business executives and families on how to cope with a laptop ban: read a book or magazine or, heaven forfend, talk to the kids.Such tactics may not now be needed. 第三篇阅读 “A SEA of sameness.” A veteran of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Ben Wood of CCS Insight, a consultancy, was not expecting much from the mobile industry’s main trade show this week in Barcelona. As one product launch followed another, it was easy to lose track. Whether it was LG, Huawei or Wiko, they all showed off yet more black rectangles with slightly varying specifications. Another reminder of the smartphone business’s maturity was that the most talked-about new device was the Nokia 3310 feature phone (pictured), an updated version of a phone first made 17 years ago. With limited internet connectivity, it appeals partly as a “digital detox”, said Arto Nummela, chief executive of HMD Global, a Finnish startup with ex-Nokia executives which licenses the brand. The mobile industry is far from done in terms of genuinely new products. But the action has moved to parts of the business that do not lend themselves to splashy events and massive crowds (the tent erected by Huawei, a Chinese maker of all sorts of telecoms gear, to launch its new P10 smartphone was huge, but hundreds were still left waiting outside). Most innovation in the next ten years will happen in the telecoms network rather than in devices, predicts John Delaney of IDC, a market-research firm. For now the industry is gearing up for the next generation of wireless technology, “5G”. In time for MWC the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, agreed on the specifications for 5G: speeds must be up to 20 gigabits per second, enough to download a movie in a few blinks of an eye. At the show, makers of networking gear, such as Samsung, announced products for the first 5G networks. These are expected to launch in 2018, mostly in South Korea and in Japan, where the new wireless technology is expected to be shown off during the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. Much still needs to be invented to make 5G a reality. Mobile carriers will, for instance, have to rejig their networks to make them more like a “computing cloud”. The idea is that network operators, just like providers of computing power, should be able to cook up new telecoms services within seconds. One technique is called “slicing”, meaning phone networks can be divided up to serve different purposes, such as providing superfast connectivity for self-driving cars or reliably hooking up connected devices as part of the Internet of Things. Mobile innovation is not doomed to be hidden in the network. But you will have to look more closely to spot it. In Barcelona fingerprint readers appeared in smartphones costing less than $$100. If these move to even cheaper devices, it would be a boon to people in developing countries who could easily authenticate themselves online. Another development was that 360-degree cameras are becoming smaller and cheaper. The matchbox-sized Giroptic iO, which attaches to a smartphone, costs $260. Expect another dimension of selfies, which some already call “surroundies”, and, inevitably, new sorts of selfie sticks. 1.paraphrase: showed off yet more black rectangles with slightly varying specifications. 1.如何理解Mobile innovation is not doomed to be hidden in the network. 第四篇阅读 IN MAY 2013 Gloria James borrowed $200 from Loan Till Payday, a lender near her home in Wilmington, Delaware. Rather than take out a one- or two-month loan for a $100 fee, as she had done several times before, she was offered a one-year loan that would set her back $1,620 in interest, equivalent to an annual rate of 838%. Ms James, a housekeeper making $12 an hour, agreed to the high-interest loan but quickly fell behind on her payments. After filing a lawsuit in federal court, a Delaware judge ruled that the loan in question was not only illegal but “unconscionable”. Her story is remarkably common. Americans who live pay cheque to pay cheque have few places to turn when they are in financial distress. Many rely on high-interest payday loans to stay afloat. But government efforts to crack down on the $40bn industry may be having an effect. Roughly 2.5m American households, about one in 50, use payday loans each year, according to government statistics. The typical loan is $350, lasts two weeks, and costs $15 for each $100 borrowed. Although payday loans are marketed as a source of short-term cash to be used in financial emergencies, they are often used to meet chronic budget shortfalls—in 2015 more borrowers in California took out ten payday loans than took out one. Critics say the industry dupes its vulnerable customers into paying high fees and interest rates. And yet surveys show its customers are mostly satisfied, because payday loans are easy and convenient. Regulation of payday lending in America has historically been the responsibility of states. Over a dozen use interest-rate caps to, in effect, ban payday loans. But lenders can get around these laws by registering as “credit service organisations”, relocating to other states, or even working with Native American tribes to claim sovereign immunity. At the federal level, Congress passed the Military Lending Act in 2006, capping loan rates to service members at 36%. More recently, the Department of Justice launched “Operation Choke Point”, an effort to press banks into severing ties with businesses at risk of money-laundering, payday lenders among them. But the real crackdown on payday lending could come if the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), a watchdog, implements new regulations on high-interest loans. The rules include underwriting standards and other restrictions designed to keep borrowers out of debt; the CFPB estimates that they could reduce payday-loan volumes by more than 80%. The threat of regulation may already have had an effect. The Centre for Financial Services Innovation, a non-profit group, reckons that payday-loan volumes have fallen by 18% since 2014; revenues have dropped by 30%. During the first nine months of 2016, lenders shut more than 500 stores and total employment in the industry fell by 3,600, or 3.5%. To avoid the new rules, lenders are shifting away from lump-sum payday loans toward instalment loans, which give borrowers more time to get back on their feet. It would be premature to celebrate the demise of payday lenders. The Trump administration is likely to block the CFPB’s new regulations. And even if the rules are pushed through, consumers may not be better off. Academic research on payday-lending regulation is mixed, with some studies showing benefits, others showing costs, and still others finding no consumer-welfare effects at all. A forthcoming paper by two economists at West Point concludes that the Military Lending Act yielded “no significant benefits to service members”. 1.不记得了 2.lump-sum payday loans ，instalment loans 解释一下这两个词 3.还有怎么理解这句话consumers may not be better off.
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发表于 2017-12-14 14:05:59
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