The Japanese Bank Kuroda and the Japanese Prime Minister Kishida held talks, and the yen once bounced more than 1%

The Bank of Japan (BoJ, BOJ) President Kuroda Haruhiko held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the morning of the 30th. The market speculated that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan may cooperate to deal with the recent sharp depreciation trend of the yen, which caused the yen to rise today, and once bounced more than 1 % (i.e. the dollar fell more than 1% against the yen at one point).

As of 13:05 on the 30th, Taipei time, the dollar against the yen depreciated (that is, the yen rebounded) 0.84% ​​to 121.83, and earlier fell to 121.28, a decline of 1.3%.

According to Japanese media reports, Bank of Japan President Haruhiko Kuroda visited the Prime Minister’s residence on the morning of the 30th and held talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The Kuroda and Kishida talks are expected to include not only financial market movements such as the recent sharp depreciation of the yen and rising interest rates, but also an exchange of views on matters such as Russia’s deployment of troops to Ukraine and the rising uncertainty in the global economy.

The President of the Bank of Japan and the Prime Minister of Japan will hold regular talks at the Prime Minister’s official residence, with the last meeting taking place on November 4, 2021.

Because of Kuroda and Kishida’s talks, the market speculated that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan may cooperate to deal with the current sharp depreciation trend of the yen, which also pushed up the yen exchange rate today.

Japanese Finance Minister Makoto Kanda held talks in the Ministry of Finance on March 29 with Andy Baukol, Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department. After the meeting, Masato Kanda told the press corps that “the exchange rate stability is very important, and we do not want drastic changes.” The U.S. dollar rose above the so-called “125” level of the Kuroda line of defense against the yen on March 28, hitting a new high in six years and seven months.

Regarding the possibility of intervening in the exchange rate, Kanda said, “The exchange rate is determined by the market. We will conduct close communication with monetary authorities such as the United States and make appropriate responses.”

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The big resignation is not a short-lived phenomenon of the epidemic, Harvard: The new reality employers will face

Last year, 47 million people in the United States voluntarily resigned and set a record. Many people called it a “big resignation”. They believed that this was a unique sequela after the epidemic. However, according to an analysis by Harvard Business Review, the big resignation did not appear in the air, but existed before the epidemic. The trend, the force behind Americans leaving their jobs, will survive the pandemic.

There is now a shortage of labor everywhere in the United States, and some business establishments have been forced to reduce operating hours. However, the analysis believes that if it is extended to more than ten years, the resignation now is not a short-term turbulence caused by the epidemic. The resignation rate has been rising in the past few years. In the U.S., with stimulus checks and uncertainty waning, people are starting to quit their jobs, and simply put, many would probably quit in 2020 if there wasn’t a pandemic.

The article analyzes five factors behind the big resignation: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffle, and reluctance. The epidemic is just a combination of the five to produce all the changes in the labor market. One of the important factors is the early retirement of older workers, who may have wanted to retire in the first place, just as the stock market surged and residential property values ​​rose, giving them more confidence to act. The pattern of older workers leaving is very different from the last financial crisis. During the 2007-2009 Great Recession, the labor force participation rate over the age of 55 increased by 1%, and fell by 1.9% during the current outbreak.

As for the relocation, there were not as many as expected. The report pointed out that while the article on high-skilled knowledge workers abandoning expensive areas for scenic spots is appealing, the fact that relocation is not the reason for the big resignation. Overall liquidity in 2021 is the lowest in more than 70 years of records. Since the 1980s, relocation rates have been steadily declining, and the pandemic has not reversed the trend.

The third point is to rethink the meaning of work. Deaths and serious illness from the pandemic have made people reconsider their priorities in life, with women more affected than men, and younger people more severely than older adults. Especially in white-collar industries such as consulting and finance, grassroots personnel experience severe job burnout. Due to heavy business during the epidemic, grassroots personnel have not received training or growth rewards, or benefited from customer interaction, which has changed young people’s tolerance for such work.

Instead of quitting the workforce, many reshuffle. In industries with the highest turnover rates, employers responded by sharply raising wages to attract workers, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. For example, in 2021, McDonald’s will increase its hourly wages by 10%, and also improve benefits such as emergency childcare, paid leave and tuition reimbursement. As a result, the number of employees will be successfully expanded in 2021, and the staffing at the end of the year will be higher than that at the beginning of the year. Walmart also announced that it will pay 100% of college tuition and books for employees over five years, hoping to attract employees and increase employee retention rates. The reluctance of many employees to return to the office after the epidemic is also one of the reasons for the mass resignation.

The Quartz analysis pointed out that the fact that so many people have resigned is the result of a systematic failure to pay attention to workers in the United States. The article accuses the United States of long-term emphasis on business-friendly policies and shareholder-centricity, becoming the most demanding country for labor in advanced economies, lacking paid leave, not supporting childcare, and lacking support during the epidemic, not to mention the federal minimum wage for more than ten years. Did not go up. Harvard Review believes that resigning now is just a continuation of the pre-pandemic trend, a reality that American employers may have to contend with in the next few years.

Worrying about Beijing’s rectification and shrinking wealth

The Beijing authorities are heavily controlling the technology industry, and they call out “common prosperity”. China’s richest people are afraid that their property will not be guaranteed, and many people quietly move their funds to Singapore.

CNBC reported on the 29th that after the anti-extradition protests broke out in Hong Kong in 2019, Chinese tycoons began to look for places outside Hong Kong to store their wealth. With a large Chinese-speaking population and no wealth tax, Singapore has become the new favorite of the wealthy in China. Last year, Beijing abruptly overhauled its technology and education industries and advocated common prosperity, leading to a surge in capital flight.

Singapore-based business owners help wealthy Chinese people move their assets to Singapore using the family office model. Iris Xu, founder of accounting and corporate services provider Jenga, said that in the past 12 months, the number of inquiries about setting up family offices in Singapore has tripled, with clients mostly from wealthy Chinese or Chinese immigrants.

Xu has 50 clients who have opened a family office in Xingguo, each with assets starting at at least $10 million. Family offices are privately held companies that assist wealthy families with investment and wealth management matters. Xu said Chinese customers believe there are endless opportunities to make money in their hometown, but they are not sure if their money is safe in China.

Xu revealed that China’s restrictions on international travel due to the epidemic also made local rich people more interested in immigrating to Singapore through family offices. Star State Global Investor Program, spend 2.5 million stars (about 1.8 million US dollars) investment, you can apply for permanent residency.

The biggest hack in DeFi history: $625 million in cryptocurrency stolen from blockchain company Ronin

Ronin is the underlying blockchain of the popular NFT game Axie Infinity. Ronin and “Axie Infinity” operator Sky Mavis announced on the morning of March 29 that they were hacked and looted about $625 million (173,600 ether and 25.5 million). USDC). This figure surpasses the $611 million stolen from DeFi protocol Poly Network in August 2021.

The cause of the incident on the 29th was that a user was unable to withdraw 5,000 ether, but the attack occurred on the 23rd. The hacker used the hacked private key to forge fake withdrawals. The blog article stated that other key verification nodes were also attacked.

Cryptocurrency holders often operate in more than one blockchain ecosystem, so developers build cross-chain bridges that allow users to send cryptocurrencies from one chain to another. In this case, the Ronin bridge connects Axie Infinity to other blockchains such as Ethereum. Using this bridge, players can deposit Ethereum or USDC into Ronin and buy NFTs or in-game currency, then sell in-game assets and withdraw funds.

Analysts at Blockchain Intelligence Group say that the stolen funds are moving. Nearly $17 million of ethereum funds have been transferred to exchanges such as FTX and Huobi to date. Ronin said that platform users have lost access to funds and is working with government agencies to ensure criminals are brought to justice. He also discussed with Axie Infinity on how to keep user funds safe and partnered with blockchain tracker Chainalysis to track stolen funds , most of the stolen funds are still hacking digital wallets.

Ronin is the developer of Singapore-based game studio Sky Mavis and the owner of Axie Infinity.

According to Sky Mavis, Ronin was attacked in part because he took shortcuts in November to alleviate the “huge user load” of “Axie Infinity”. The game exploded in popularity in January last year, and was very popular with Filipino and other Southeast Asian players, and even made money from it. The system was discontinued last December, but permission permissions were never revoked.

In addition to attacking four of Sky Mavis’ own nodes, the hackers also used these nodes to access a node managed by Axie DAO. After compromising five of the nine validator nodes, hackers can compromise the security of any transaction and withdraw any funds. Sky Mavis said it will increase the number of trading nodes to eight, and will reopen Ronin “at a later date” once it is determined that no more funds are available.

“As we have seen, Ronin is not immune to cyber-attacks, and this attack reinforces the importance of prioritizing security, remaining vigilant, and mitigating all threats,” the statement said. Deploy the most sophisticated security measures and processes to prevent future attacks.”

Arm accelerates transfer of stake in Chinese joint venture, continues IPO plans

The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Arm is planning to transfer its stake in the Chinese joint venture to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under Japan’s SoftBank Group to accelerate Arm’s initial public offering (IPO).

Since Arm holds a 47.3% stake in the Chinese joint venture, if the share transfer is successful, the Chinese joint venture and Arm headquarters will maintain a license rather than a shareholding relationship. Arm will also continue to receive licensing revenue from the Chinese joint venture without reviewing its financials.

Arm declined to comment at this time. Japan’s SoftBank Group also did not respond to the report.

Reuters previously reported that SoftBank Group plans to cooperate with foreign investment Goldman Sachs, with Goldman Sachs serving as the lead underwriter for the Arm IPO. The market valuation of the Arm IPO market may be as high as $60 billion, and Arm plans to list on the US stock market Nasdaq by March 2023.

The latest research report of TrendForce, a market research and research organization, shows that in recent years, enterprises’ demand for digital transformation such as artificial intelligence and high-performance computing has accelerated, which has led to an increase in the proportion of cloud adoption. By 2025, the penetration rate of ARM-based data center servers will reach 22%.

Ukrainian drones have performed well, and Taiwan experts believe that the transition from peace to war is a trend in the future

During the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukraine has repeatedly used military and civilian-grade UAVs to make significant military achievements. Taiwan experts and scholars believe that UAVs will be the key to building air superiority for small countries in the future. There are currently more than 10,000 civilian UAVs operating in Taiwan. people, future conflicts can play an important role.

A new think tank, the Taiwan Taoist Strategy Association, established last year, today held a seminar on “Russian-Ukrainian War Inspiration for Taiwan’s New National Defense” to discuss the use of drones in conflicts across the Taiwan Strait.

Luo Zhengfang, founder of Jingwei Technology, pointed out that many people think that Russia should be able to take Ukraine quickly, but they did not expect Ukraine to survive without air superiority. Therefore, “UAVs are the air superiority of small countries.” The world shows how small countries can use asymmetrical combat power to completely change the pattern of warfare.

Compared with military drones, which take a long time to train, commercial models can be used in about a week, and Taiwan currently has about 10,000 qualified drone operators. If a war breaks out in Taihai, will civilian drones be able to play a role in the battlefield immediately?

Zhou Yonghong, chairman of the Taichung City Drone Pilots Professional Association, pointed out, “Taiwan’s civilian drone pilots usually perform aerial photography, surveying, and other businesses. There is a group of skilled pilots to assist in the fight.”

Although domestic UAV-related regulations are not yet complete, in addition to the problems of wartime integration, the battlefield environment in the Taiwan Strait is quite different from the ground war between Russia and Ukraine. The battle for air and sea supremacy in naval battles and missile attacks will be the main goals, so there are not many opportunities for drones to be useful in the early days.

Unless the national army’s anti-ship wave mission fails in the middle and late stages of the war, allowing the PLA to land successfully and enter residential areas and towns to fight, a large number of domestic drone pilots can be converted into auxiliary roles of the national army, so the relevant units still have to introduce a bill for this situation. , Incorporate commercial drone teams into the defense system, and conduct large-scale exercises such as Hanguang or Wan’an to accumulate military-civilian cooperative combat experience and cultivate the ability to convert between peace and war.

ARRW hypersonic missile progress is not ideal, the US military will not consider purchasing next year

The AGM-183A hypersonic missile developed by the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin failed three test launches last year. More testing means the missile has a very low chance of entering service next year.

The AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) is a hypersonic missile jointly developed by the U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin in 2018. It adopts a gliding projectile design.

The ARRW is expected to have a range of 1,600 kilometers, a maximum speed of more than Mach 20 per hour, and can be mounted on bombers and fighter-bombers such as the B-1B, B-52H and F-15E.

However, unlike the Common Glide Body (C-HGB) jointly developed by the Army and Navy, the ARRW body was directly tested in combination with the launcher during development. C-HGB is a more robust separation of the glide body from the propellant rocket. Therefore, the technical challenges facing ARRW are relatively complex.

Because of the failure of three test launches in May, July and December last year, the plan to purchase the first 12 ARRWs at $161 million this year cannot be implemented. Therefore, in next year’s budget, the US Air Force only allocates 46.6 million US dollars are used for R&D expenses.

Although Deputy Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones pointed out in response to the media interview that the Air Force will continue with the ARRW and the Scramjet-based Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile) two programs, but the Air Force Secretary Kendall (Frank Kendall) has recently expressed doubts about the ARRW program.

Compared with the relatively smooth development of the Army and Navy C-HGB program, the Air Force ARRW is bound to have a successful test launch this year in order to avoid the entire weapons program from being aborted.

East Antarctica’s first ice shelf collapses

East Antarctica experienced record-breaking heat last week, and new satellite images show an ice shelf the size of Rome has collapsed completely at the same time.

East Antarctica experienced an abnormally high temperature last week. The scientific research station Convoy monitored the temperature in the area to soar to minus 11.8 °C on March 18, which was more than 40 °C higher than the average temperature in the past March. A stream of heat from an atmospheric river is trapped over the Antarctic continent.

Meanwhile, satellite imagery showed the complete collapse of the 1,200-square-kilometer Conger Ice shelf around March 15.

Since the satellites were put into observation in the 1970s, the Kanger Ice Shelf has gradually disintegrated, gradually shrinking into an ice belt 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide, one end is connected to the Antarctic continental ice sheet, and the other end is connected to the waters of the Antarctic Ocean. It was connected to Bowman Island until it finally collapsed in March of this year.

The Conger Ice Shelf is small compared to the Larsen B Ice Shelf (3,250 square kilometers) that collapsed more than a decade ago, but ice shelf collapses typically occur in the fast-moving West Antarctica, and East Antarctica is often considered a Larger and more difficult to move stable ice, so it is surprising that the collapse of the Conger Ice Shelf has been observed for the first time since January 2020.

Scientists said that the Conger Ice Shelf is not an important support gateway for the upper ice layer, and it is impossible to say what caused the collapse of the Kanger Ice Shelf, and it will not have a significant impact on the world. The impact of sea level rise can be measured in tens of meters.

Sony takes on Microsoft head-on, launches new PlayStation Plus in June

The global game industry is moving towards the trend of “Cloud Gaming”. Players can play well-known masterpieces immediately without spending time downloading games through cross-platform devices such as computers and home game consoles. Recently, the game giant Sony announced that it will launch a new “PlayStation Plus” game subscription service in June to face Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass.

CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported that Sony will launch a new PlayStation Plus in June this year, integrating the existing cloud game service “PlayStation Now” into the online multiplayer service “PlayStation Plus”, first landing in the United States, Europe and Japan and other markets , provides 3 membership levels, the monthly fee is divided into 9.99 US dollars, 14.99 US dollars, 17.99 US dollars, the game library contains hundreds of games, players can choose a suitable plan according to their needs.

Industry insiders believe that this move is mainly for Sony to take on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. Launched in 2017, Xbox Game Pass lets players play online multiplayer games and access hundreds of games on consoles through the cloud. According to Microsoft’s January release, Xbox Game Pass currently has 25 million subscribers.

In order to develop its own game subscription service Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft has invested heavily. In January this year, it announced the acquisition of the US game giant Activision Blizzard for US$68.7 billion in cash, which became Microsoft’s largest acquisition in history. Market attention.

Despite a shortage of parts and hampered logistics, Sony’s PlayStation 5 has far outsold its rivals. According to Sony’s earnings report, the PlayStation 5 has sold a total of 17.3 million units worldwide by the end of 2021 since it went on sale at the end of 2020. Microsoft has not released actual Xbox sales, but market research firm Niko Partners estimates that two new Xbox consoles, launched in the same month as the PlayStation 5, will sell 12 million units globally by the end of 2021.

However, according to Ampere Analysis, Microsoft leads the cloud gaming service subscriber base, with a 60% market share in North America and Europe, while Sony’s market share is only 7%. Cloud gaming services account for only 4% of global gaming spending.

Foreign media previously reported that cloud streaming games have completely subverted the game industry, because cloud games are calculated in data centers, and players can play games with high hardware requirements without buying expensive computer equipment. And Microsoft has the powerful advantages of its own Azure cloud platform, so it has an advantage in the field of cloud gaming.

Another semiconductor equipment giant warns, ASMI: lack of chips may affect the whole year

As the world’s largest chip makers scramble to expand capacity, semiconductor equipment companies have warned that delivery times for key machines could be delayed by a shortage of chips.

The Nikkei Asian Review reported on the 30th that Benjamin Loh, CEO of ASM International, a Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer and material supplier, said in an interview that the impact of chip shortages may continue throughout this year.

ASMI develops and manufactures equipment mainly for front-end wafer processing, serving world-class semiconductor manufacturers located in Taiwan, the United States, South Korea and China.

The ASMI product supply chain does observe wafer shortages, Loh said. The equipment that ASMI supplies to the semiconductor market has a lead time of 4 to 6 months, but it is now “a lot longer”.

He said that for major customers such as TSMC, Intel Corp., and Samsung Electronics who have announced production expansion, ASML should be able to meet their needs this year, but if customers make plans or unexpected requirements, it will be difficult. will become higher. Loh admitted that he had never seen such severe supply chain restrictions since entering the semiconductor industry.

Loh pointed out that “simple chips” (also known as mature process chips) are the most in short supply. For example, microcontroller chips are not only used in washing machines and cars, but also in ASMI equipment. Everyone needs the same source of supply. However, capacity for many mature processes will not come online until next year.