By Harriet Taylor
<div id="attachment_115670" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115670" class="wp-image-115670 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-1.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Darius Monsef with his family on their farm in Hawaii.</div>
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Darius Monsef moved from San Francisco to Hawaii — with a pit stop in Los Angeles — and his employer Zapier wants other employees to follow suit.
Start-up Zapier, which sells software that integrates with apps from Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others to automate repetitive tasks, <a class="inline_asset" title="https://zapier.com/blog/move-away-from-sf-get-remote-job/" href="https://zapier.com/blog/move-away-from-sf-get-remote-job/" target="_self">is offering $10,000</a> to help relocate new hires outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
The 85-person company, in which all employees work remotely, has received over a thousand applications since launching its &#8220;De-Location Package&#8221; March 17, said CEO Wade Foster. That&#8217;s an increase of about 33% over normal.
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<div id="attachment_115672" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115672" class="size-full wp-image-115672" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-2.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Zapier CEO Wade Foster</div>
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Even he was surprised.
&#8220;I thought it would be popular, I just didn&#8217;t think it would be as popular as it has been,&#8221; Foster said.
While Foster lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company has unusual flexibility in hiring because it has no offices, and instead hands out portable Mifi devices to allow workers to work from anywhere. This allows the company to hire the very best talent from around the world, while saving as much as $2 million a year on pricey Silicon Valley office rental costs. It also helps with employee retention, said Foster.
&#8220;People are able to work where their families are, where their lifestyle suits them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That ingrains a lot of loyalty towards an organization that allows them to kind of live that type of lifestyle that they deserve or that they want.&#8221;
And that increasingly means a lifestyle outside of the tech hotbed of Silicon Valley. Even though Zapier pays &#8220;competitive salaries,&#8221; high housing costs have made the Bay Area &#8220;unsustainable&#8221; for many people, said Foster.
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<h4 class="subtitle">Working from a ranch in Hawaii</h4>
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Foster recruited Monsef — a fellow alum of the Y Combinator start-up incubator — to be Zapier&#8217;s head of growth six months ago. 
&#8220;Although the timing was not an exact match for a &#8216;De-Location Package,&#8217; I was on my own in the Bay Area, doing all of the Bay Area startup grind stuff, and made the decision to move home to raise my family somewhere else,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;I found a company that did not default to stigmatizing people that don&#8217;t work in an office.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_115675" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115675" class="size-full wp-image-115675" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-3.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Monsef on his farm in Waimea on Hawaii&#8217;s Big Island</div>
For Monsef, home was Waimea, HI — a small rural town on Hawaii&#8217;s Big Island with more cows than people — which he likens to &#8220;Middle America,&#8221; but on the most isolated island chain in the world. Zapier was the perfect fit, he said, allowing him to pursue an exciting career while creating the lifestyle he wants with his wife Kaili, who&#8217;s pregnant with their third child, and two children, Waialea and Spencer.
In between Zoom video conference calls and Slack messaging with colleagues — spread across 22 U.S. states and 13 countries — Monsef is building his dream home.
&#8220;The goal for us is to live on a modern homestead. I like the idea of being fully self-sustained,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re fully off-grid for solar, we will be for water, I want to grow the majority of our own food.&#8221;
The ranch sits 2,800 feet above sea level on 43 acres of land among flowing green hills in the shadow of snow capped mountains. Hawaii offers far more than the stereotypical beach shots people associate with it, he said.
<div id="attachment_115677" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115677" class="size-full wp-image-115677" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-4.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Darius Monsef&#8217;s family on their ranch in Waimea, HI</div>
He has four cows, some sheep arriving next week, is building raised garden beds and spends his early mornings, evenings and weekends chipping away at his many projects, including building — and mending — hundreds of feet of fencing.
&#8220;Cattle and other animals just like to push on fence, so even when you are finished with the fence you have to constantly go check the fence,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But I actually really enjoy that work — I have spent decades having really nice computer hands and just doing something with my hands and being offline is a really nice balance for me right now.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_115682" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115682" class="size-full wp-image-115682" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-5.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Monsef on his farm in Waimea on Hawaii&#8217;s Big Island</div>
<h4 class="subtitle">Tips on managing a team of remote workers</h4>
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So how has Zapier managed to keep a team of 85 workers from all around the world on the same page?
The hardest part about managing a team of remote workers is working across different time zones, he said. This means being organized enough to ensure people have the resources and direction they need to work independently so they aren&#8217;t waiting around for him to wake up, he said.
&#8220;You just have to be a little bit more on top of your planning and scheduling,&#8221; he said.
The best remote workers are energetic self-starters who are also empathetic, and so less likely to misinterpret emails or messages and assume the worst, said Monsef.
&#8220;Sometimes context and tone doesn&#8217;t come through in text, so somebody that defaults to assuming good intentions from others makes it easier to understand where people are coming from and to not misinterpret text,&#8221; he said.
Twice a year Zapier flies all its employees to a central location for a week-long retreat where employees get to know one another.
&#8220;That gets a lot of face time and kind of builds a lot of that camaraderie that you get from a local office,&#8221; said Foster.
<div id="attachment_115684" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115684" class="size-full wp-image-115684" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-6.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Zapier team</div>
Zapier also pairs up employees for weekly &#8220;buddy chats&#8221; — the remote worker version of a water-cooler conversation — which have no set agenda and bring together teammates across the organization, said Foster.
&#8220;A lot of times people just talk about hobbies, families, whatever that kind of suits their interests,&#8221; he said.
There is one way in which Zapier sticks to traditional geographic norms. While the interview process is done remotely, all new hires are flown out to San Francisco once they start. There they meet the founders, their manager and a teammate, and get to know the company culture, said Foster.
&#8220;We call it Airb-n-onboarding because we often rent an Airbnb,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It provides a little bit more of a comfort level that first time you pop into Slack. These people aren&#8217;t total strangers, instead you&#8217;ve met a handful of them.&#8221;
Foster would not disclose the company&#8217;s financials since it is privately held, but said it has been profitable since 2014 and is growing. The company has been largely boot-strapped, though it did raise $1.3 million in seed funding from Bessemer Ventures and Y Combinator in 2012.
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This tech worker is living the dream in Hawaii, and his company is paying others $10K to follow

Some of the world&#8217;s biggest economies won&#8217;t attend high-level negotiations aimed at banning nuclear weapons — an indicator that global denuclearization remains a distant dream.
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The United Nations (UN) kicks off a five-day conference in New York on Monday to discuss such a ban in what many political commentators have called a milestone event. But visibly absent will be Security Council members <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/united-states/" target="_self">U.S</a>., <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/united-kingdom/" target="_self">U.K.</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/canada/" target="_self">Canada</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/france/" target="_self">France</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/russia/" target="_self">Russia</a>, and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/china/" target="_self">China</a>, who don&#8217;t believe in the prohibition of weapons. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/australia/" target="_self">Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/germany/" target="_self">Germany</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/japan/" target="_self">Japan</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/norway/" target="_self">Norway</a>, and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/south-korea/" target="_self">South Korea</a> also don&#8217;t support the measure. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/north-korea/" target="_self">North Korea</a>, which recently defended its right to nuclear arms following a series of <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/reports-of-north-korea-launched-missile.html" target="_self">recent ballistic missile launches</a>, will also be absconding from this week&#8217;s discussions.
Excluding Pyongyang, the decision to shun talks drew international criticism as it clashed with each government&#8217;s obligations to a non-proliferation treaty that&#8217;s been in force since 1970. Known as the NPT, the agreement is focused on curbing the spread of nukes with complete disarmament as its end goal.
<blockquote>&#8220;Given the dangers arising from a lack of cooperation on nuclear security issues and the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/23/trump-to-putin-lets-have-a-nuclear-arms-race.html" target="_self">potential emergence of a new arms race</a> between the nuclear powers, principled and engaged leadership from nuclear-weapon states is sorely needed,&#8221; said UNA-UK, a London based nonprofit that conducts independent analysis on the UN, in a recent statement.</blockquote>
Washington believes an outright weapons ban would be &#8220;fundamentally at odds with NATO&#8217;s basic policies on nuclear deterrence,&#8221; as it outlined in an October letter to NATO members. Deterrence, or the threat of nuclear retaliation to avert enemy attack, has been a staple of international security policy since the Cold War.
Instead, a gradual reduction of nuclear forces remains the only path to eventual disarmament, the U.S. stipulates.
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<h4 class="subtitle">Underlying reasons</h4>
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Global hesitation to ban nukes stems from a multitude of factors.
Historically, Western countries have been at the forefront of the nuclear disarmament initiative but currently, many governments prefer to enjoy the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, John Park, director of the Korea Working Group at the Belfer Center, Harvard University, told CNBC on Monday.
Washington, whose <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/07/why-modernizing-us-nuclear-arsenal-may-find-more-bipartisan-support.html" target="_self">nuclear arsenal of 6800 warheads</a> is second to Russia&#8217;s 7000, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has long guaranteed to defend its non-nuclear allies, which include Japan and South Korea.
While this runs directly counter to denuclearization efforts, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/11/us-says-might-not-shoot-down-north-korean-icbm-eying-intel.html" target="_self">expectations for Pyongyang to launch an inter-continental ballistic missile</a> has made the world increasingly reliant on the American umbrella, Park explained.
As a result, Park believes denuclearization is an increasingly remote option, warning that global priority will shift to non-proliferation by default.
Internal bickering among NPT signatories is another issue.
&#8220;The broad decision of nuclear-weapon states not to engage with this disarmament movement is a symptom of deteriorating relations between the nuclear haves and have nots,&#8221; said UNA-UK.
According to the NPT, non-nuclear signatories are prohibited from developing nuclear weapons while nuclear-armed countries committed to a process of disarmament.
&#8220;But with little visible appetite for disarmament from nuclear-weapon states, this bargain is increasingly called into question,&#8221; warned UNA-UK. Dissatisfaction with the slow pace of disarmament have thus resulted in tension between states, it added.
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Denuclearization a pipe dream? UN holds talks to ban nukes, but major powers don’t show up

President Donald Trump&#8217;s and House Speaker Paul Ryan&#8217;s decision to pull the Republican health care bill hours before Friday&#8217;s vote won&#8217;t cause irreparable damage to the bull market, according to Raymond James.
However, don&#8217;t get too comfortable.
The firm&#8217;s chief investment officer, Jeffrey Saut, is warning investors that stocks are in a danger zone — one that&#8217;s big enough to wipe out a chunk of gains from the so-called &#8220;Trump Rally.&#8221; He believes stocks will come under pressure Monday, as investors take the health care setback as a sign that Trump&#8217;s business friendly agenda is seeing serious cracks.
&#8220;You already have technical damage in the market. It was pretty evident last Tuesday,&#8221; said Saut in reaction to the news. &#8220;The [S&amp;P 500 Index] has been trapped in a trading range since mid-February.&#8221;
The worst case scenario would be a five to ten percent pullback from these levels, according to Saut.
In a Friday research note, he wrote that Raymond James remains &#8220;in cautionary mode given our models, and the fact that the SKEW indicators suggest that &#8216;smart money&#8217; is hedging for a significant downside move from here.&#8221;
Saut published that note hours before the health care bill suffered what Ryan called a &#8216;failure,&#8217; one that helped push major averages to their biggest weekly losses of the year.
Yet Saut, who acknowledges being erroneously cautious since early February, reiterates that the long-term model remains positive, and he&#8217;s been a bull since March 2009.
&#8220;Secular bull markets tend to last 14, 15, 16 years. We&#8217;re eight years into this one. It suggests there are years left to run,&#8221; said Saut on CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Futures Now&#8221; last week.
&#8220;I would also note that we have transitioned in our opinion from an interest rate secular bull market where interest rates come down and price earnings multiples expand to an earnings driven secular bull market.&#8221;
He believes technology, financials and energy stocks are the best places for investors right now, and getting too defensive would be a mistake.
Author:
<div class="reporter-info"><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/stephanie-landsman/">Stephanie Landsman 
</a>Producer, CNBC’s &#8220;Fast Money&#8221;</div>
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A stock market drop is coming, but don’t blame Trump’s health care bill setback: Raymond James

When they meet in Kuwait Sunday, a handful of OPEC and other oil producers are expected to put a happy face on their production agreement, and they should point to the potential for extending the deal in May.
That should help support <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/oil-bounces-off-november-lows-but-bloated-us-stockpiles-pressure-market.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/oil-bounces-off-november-lows-but-bloated-us-stockpiles-pressure-market.html" target="_self">oil prices</a>, after the recent 10 percent plunge since investors began to doubt the deal earlier this month. The international benchmark Brent crude temporarily fell below the psychological $50 level this week.
Representatives of the five monitoring countries this weekend are expected to review where producers stand on compliance with the six-month agreement to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the market. As president of OPEC, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saudi-arabia/" target="_self">Saudi</a> Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih is expected to attend, along with representatives from the five members of the monitoring committee — Kuwait, Algeria, Venezuela, and non-OPEC nations Russia and Oman.
&#8220;Without the production cut agreement, I think you could basically target the low-to-mid $30s. I&#8217;m of the mind they extend it,&#8221; said Gene Marcial, manager market research at Tradition Energy. &#8220;The Saudis need the revenues from higher oil prices. They know that prices at $30 to $35 is trouble for them.&#8221;
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Oil could collapse into the $30s if OPEC doesn’t keep its act together

British police have searched six addresses and made seven arrests in raids as part of an investigation into <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/22/shots-reported-fired-outside-uk-parliament-building-in-lockdown-parliamentary-official.html" target="_self">Wednesday&#8217;s attack on the Houses of Parliament</a> which left four people dead and 40 injured, London&#8217;s Metropolitan Police has announced.
News of the police action, including one address in Birmingham, follows on from Wednesday when a suspected terrorist plowed a car into pedestrians on London&#8217;s Westminster Bridge and then fatally stabbed a police officer before being shot.
Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said at a press conference Wednesday night that the dead attacker was believed to be the only suspect, but declined to comment on the assailant&#8217;s identity. The police&#8217;s working assumption is that the attacker was inspired by international Islamist terrorism.
Londoners can expect to see heavier police presence, both armed and unarmed, throughout the city for the next few days, Rowley said.
Speaking Thursday morning, U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that Parliament is currently reviewing Parliament&#8217;s already stringent security measures.
Wednesday&#8217;s attack unfolded around 2.40 p.m. local time when the assailant drove a grey Hyundai i40 along a pavement on Westminster Bridge, before running to Parliament. There he was confronted by a police, including unarmed PC Keith Palmer, who later died from stab wounds.
Tobias Ellwood, a member of Parliament who was at the scene at the time, was praised for his efforts to provide mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Palmer. The other victims are yet to be named.
Addressing the country outside 10 Downing Street Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the attack and applauded the heroism demonstrated by the police.
<blockquote>&#8220;The terrorist chose to strike at the heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy and freedom of speech,&#8221; she said.
&#8220;But let me make it clear today, as I have had cause to do before, any attempt to defeat those values through violence and terror is doomed to failure.&#8221;</blockquote>
Londoners and tourists will wake up on Thursday and go about their lives as normal, May said.
The city&#8217;s mayor, Sadiq Khan, echoed the prime ministers remarks, saying &#8220;Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.&#8221;
The attack is the worst London has seen since 2005, when the capital was hit by a series of suicide bomb attacks on public transport during rush hour on July 7.
The city has been on &#8220;severe&#8221; alert since 2014, which indicates that an attack is &#8220;highly likely&#8221;, in response to conflicts in Iraq and Syria. This was an increase from a previous level of &#8220;substantial&#8221;, which implies a strong possibility of an attack.
Parliament is to hold a minute&#8217;s silence at 10 a.m. London time on Thursday to commemorate the victims of the attack.
Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of suicide attacks which took place in Brussels&#8217; Zaventem Airport. Memorial services were held around the country to remember the 32 people killed and 320 injured by the attack.

UK police make seven arrests in raids linked to investigation into attack on Parliament

Uganda says it has asked China for a $500 million loan to help build almost 600 km (360 miles) of roads in the country&#8217;s oil-rich west, amid criticism over heavy borrowing that has ballooned the country&#8217;s debt.
Uganda has discovered an estimated 6.5 billion barrels of crude reserves on its Albertine rift basin along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
However, lack of infrastructure, such as roads and an export pipeline, as well as disagreements between the government and international oil companies over taxes, have repeatedly delayed production.
The Uganda National Roads Authority needs the money to build 580 kilometres of roads around the area, said Mark Ssali, head of public and corporate affairs at the state-run UNRA.
&#8220;There have been some contacts with Exim Bank (of China) for the loan,&#8221; he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. &#8220;But we are currently procuring a Chinese contractor, which is a precondition for any concrete talks with Exim.&#8221;
Uganda wants to start oil production in 2020, when a pipeline through neighbouring Tanzania is set for completion.
China has extended large lines of credit to Uganda in recent years, mostly for infrastructure, including power plants, roads and an airport refurbishment. Officials have also said they are seeking $2.3 billion to build a standard gauge railway.
Government critics and the opposition say the appetite for Chinese credit risks dragging the country back into the deep indebtedness of the mid-2000s.
&#8220;Given the accelerated borrowing and misuse of loans, we&#8217;re likely to go back into debt distress,&#8221; said Julius Kapwepwe, director of programs at Uganda Debt Network, a think tank that tracks Uganda&#8217;s public debt. &#8220;We might start begging for debt forgiveness again.&#8221;
According to Central Bank of Uganda data, the country&#8217;s total external debt stood at $10.3 billion in May last year, compared with $3.8 billion in the financial year ended June 2013.
(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Maasho)
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Uganda says seeking $500 mn loan from China for roads

South Africa has suspended some meat imports from Brazil citing a scandal in the South American country&#8217;s meat processing industry, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said on Wednesday.
Police in Brazil have launched raids to investigate alleged bribes paid to conceal unsanitary conditions in Brazil&#8217;s meatpacking facilities.
China and Canada also suspended some meat imports from Brazil on Wednesday.
(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by Joe Brock)
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South Africa suspends some meat imports from Brazil

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/">Karen Gilchrist</a>
<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/" target="_self">Elon Musk</a> has hit back at claims that President <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_self">Donald Trump&#8217;s</a> new NASA bill will be good for his space exploration business, saying it does nothing to get SpaceX&#8217;s mission to Mars off the ground.
The serial entrepreneur took to Twitter Tuesday to respond to Kara Swisher, co-founder of technology news website Recode, who said the president&#8217;s decision to grant NASA $19.5 billion in funding would leave Musk &#8220;smiling.&#8221;
&#8220;I am not,&#8221; wrote Musk, chief executive of SpaceX. &#8220;This bill changes almost nothing about what NASA is doing. Existing programs stay in place and there is no added funding for Mars.
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I am not. This bill changes almost nothing about what NASA is doing. Existing programs stay in place and there is no added funding for Mars.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/844360665900838912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Perhaps there will be some future bill that makes a difference for Mars, but this is not it,&#8221; Musk added in a later Tweet.
The S.442 funding bill, signed by President Trump Tuesday, is the first of its kind to pass through Congress in six years and will help facilitate NASA&#8217;s deep space exploration projects and promote private-public partnerships and job creation, the White House said.
This includes &#8220;achieving human exploration of Mars and beyond,&#8221; the bill noted.
However, Musk claims the new funding will not provide a boost to his aims of making commercial travel to Mars a reality for the public.
His space transportation company SpaceX is currently working in collaboration with NASA under a $1.6 billion contract, which has so far flown 10 cargo missions to the International Space Station.
Its ultimate goal is to enable space travel to, and colonization of, Mars.
Musk met with President Trump in December alongside a host of technology leaders, including Apple&#8217;s <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/tim-cook/" target="_self">Tim Cook</a> and Amazon&#8217;s <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/jeff-bezos/" target="_self">Jeff Bezos</a>, to discuss the technology industry under his then upcoming presidency.

Elon Musk slams Donald Trump’s NASA bill saying it does nothing to help mission to Mars

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/" rel="author">Karen Gilchrist</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/_karengilchrist">@_karengilchrist</a>
Forget buying that new car, opt for a scarf and gloves and head to Norway if you want to achieve true happiness, a new report suggests.
Renowned for its good public services, political stability and enviable gene pool, Norway can now also claim pole position as the happiest country on earth, having risen in the ranks to surpass Denmark and claim first place in this year&#8217;s World Happiness Report.
The study, which measures social factors alongside economic data, points to the limitations of financial factors in achieving happiness. Therefore, Norway vaulted ahead despite its economy being hit by the plummeting oil price, meanwhile happiness in the U.S. continues to wain despite incomes increasing.
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&#8220;This report gives evidence that happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations. It&#8217;s time to build social trust and healthy lives, not guns or walls. Let&#8217;s hold our leaders to this fact,&#8221; said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which produced the report in association with the United Nations.
Norway sped ahead from fourth place last year to steal the top spot in the annual rankings, which combine economic, health and polling data on approximately 3,000 respondents in each of more than 150 countries. It is joined in the top five by fellow Nordic states Denmark, Iceland, Finland and central Europe&#8217;s Switzerland, which averaged a comparable happiness level of 7.5 out of 10.
The Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden were also placed in the top 10.
The U.S.&#8217;s happiness has slipped over the past year, however, the report suggests. Despite rising wages, overall happiness has fallen from 13th position globally to 14th, pointing to a need for a more comprehensive approach from government, the report suggests.
&#8220;The predominant political discourse in the United States is aimed at raising economic growth, with the goal of restoring the &#8216;American dream&#8217; and the happiness that is supposed to accompany it. But the data show conclusively that this is the wrong approach,&#8221; said Sachs, in a section of the report entitled &#8220;Restoring American Happiness&#8221;.
Income per person has increased roughly three times since 1960, but measured happiness has not risen – indeed, it has dipped over the past decade from 7.5 out of 10, to 6.8 out of 10.
&#8220;The United States can and should raise happiness by addressing America&#8217;s multi-faceted social crisis— rising inequality, corruption, isolation, and distrust—rather than focusing exclusively or even mainly on economic growth, especially since the concrete proposals along these lines would exacerbate rather than ameliorate the deepening social crisis.&#8221;
The comments follow a recent speech by Helen Clark, head of the UN Development Program (UNDP), in which she spoke out against the &#8220;tyranny of GDP (gross domestic product)&#8221;, arguing that quality of growth is more important.
The U.S. ranked just ahead of Ireland, which took 15th place, and was followed by Germany in 16th, the U.K. in 19th and France in 31st.
However, economic factors remain a certain contributor to achieving social cohesion and overall happiness, the report finds. The ten bottom spots were taken by some of the world&#8217;s poorest countries, with happiness levels averaging approximately 3 out of ten.
These included Yemen, South Sudan, Liberia, Guinea, Togo, Rwanda, Syria, Tanzania, Burundi and Central African Republic.

Here’s why Norway is ranked the world’s happiest country

Jeff Jones, the president of Uber, is quitting the car-hailing company after less than a year. The move by the No. 2 exec, said sources, is directly related to the multiple controversies there, including explosive charges of sexism and sexual harassment.
Uber confirmed the departure and will be sending a statement.
Jones also confirmed the departure with a blistering assessment of the company. &#8220;It is now clear, however, that the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber, and I can no longer continue as president of the ride sharing business,&#8221; he said in a statement to Recode.
Jones, said sources, determined that this was not the situation he signed on for, especially after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced a search for a new COO to help him right the very troubled ship.
That was not the reason for Jones&#8217; departure, sources said, even though it meant that Kalanick was bringing in a new exec who could outrank him. Instead, these sources said, Jones determined that the situation at the company was more problematic than he realized.
Jones was certainly touted by Kalanick as a big hire when he arrived at Uber last fall from Target, where he was its well-regarded CMO. His job, among others, was to remake the company&#8217;s tainted image. He also was president of its main ride-sharing business.
Kalanick and Jones met just a year ago at the TED conference in Vancouver and there was much excitement that the company was attracting top-level corporate execs.
Jones replaced board member Ryan Graves, who started at the company as CEO but relinquished that role to Travis Kalanick in 2010, as president. Graves now heads up the company&#8217;s delivery business, UberEverything. The transition was pitched as a necessary move as the ride-hail company continued to scale.
&#8220;Over the last six months, Ryan and I have become increasingly convinced that our rapidly growing marketing efforts needed to be far more integrated with our city operations,&#8221; Kalanick <a class="inline_asset" href="https://newsroom.uber.com/jeff-jones/" target="_self">wrote</a> in a post announcing Jones&#8217; hire.
Jones spent much of the beginning of his tenure as the president of ride-sharing driving for Uber and meeting with drivers, after which he sent drivers an email about what he learned and what the company intends to do.
&#8220;It&#8217;s clear that there&#8217;s much we can be doing better. Listening is where we get our best ideas, because they come from you, the people using Uber every day &#8221; he wrote.
But in February, Jones&#8217; second public attempt to reach drivers went awry when drivers began flooding Jones&#8217; Facebook page with angry comments and complaints during a question and answer session.
Jones&#8217; decision to leave Uber likely won&#8217;t surprise people who worked with him at Target. &#8220;Jeff does not like conflict,&#8221; a source previously told Recode.
The situation at the company has deteriorated since then, obviously, after a blog post by a former female engineer chronicled a deeply dysfunctional management led by Kalanick that favored what board member Arianna Huffington called &#8220;brilliant jerks.&#8221;
Jerks indeed, as what has happened since then has made clear. Since the post, the company has fired its engineering head after revelations of a serious sexual harassment investigation at his previous employer, saw its head of product leave after questionable sexual behavior was uncovered at a company event and has initiated an investigation into the entire situation with a former Attorney General of the United States at the lead.
In addition, the now persistently apologetic Kalanick announced the search for a COO to help him do a better job.
—By Kara Swisher and Johana Bhuiyan, <a class="inline_asset" href="http://recode.net/" target="_self" data-nodeid="101305756">Recode.net</a>.
CNBC&#8217;s parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Recode&#8217;s parent Vox, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement.

Uber president Jeff Jones is quitting as management turmoil at the ride-hailing company deepens

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<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/geoff-cutmore/" rel="author">Geoff Cutmore</a><a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB"> | </a><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/" rel="author">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a>
<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a> and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a>&#8216;s runaway success in capturing large stakes in the digital advertising market comes with responsibilities and they need to do more when curating how advertisements are placed on their platforms, according to <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/WPP-GB" target="_self" data-gdsid="36873" data-inline-quote-symbol="WPP-GB">WPP Group</a> CEO Martin Sorrell.
Sorrell, whose company owns ad agencies such as the Grey Group and Ogilvy &amp; Mather, was speaking to CNBC at the sidelines of the China Development Forum, where he said the two tech giants have to exert more control over ad placements on behalf of brands, and take more responsibility for it.
&#8220;They&#8217;ve always maintained they were sort of digital engineers standing there with their digital spanners, trying to tighten the nuts on their digital pipes and not being responsible for the content that was going through the pipes,&#8221; said Sorrell.
A key criticism leveled against both Facebook and Google is that the companies are not doing enough to arrest fake news on their platforms.
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&#8220;They can&#8217;t just say look we&#8217;re a technology company, we have nothing to do with the content that is appearing on our digital pages,&#8221; Sorrell said. He added that, as far as placing advertisements was concerned, they have to be held to the same standards as traditional media organizations.
Another concern is that sometimes advertisements are automatically placed alongside objectionable and inappropriate content within those platforms that brands do not have control over.
&#8220;The big issue for Google and Facebook is whether they are going to have human editing at this point &#8230; of course they have the profitability. They have the margins to enable them to do it. And this is going to be the big issue — how far are they prepared to go?&#8221; Sorrell said, adding they needed to go &#8220;significantly far&#8221; to arrest these concerns.
A failure to address such issues could see Facebook and Google potentially take hits on ad revenue if brands stop advertising on their platforms. For example, French advertising firm <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/HAV-FR" target="_self" data-gdsid="16865" data-inline-quote-symbol="HAV-FR">Havas</a> recently pulled all its ad spend from Google and its video platform, YouTube.
The Guardian <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/17/google-pledges-more-control-for-brands-over-ad-placement" href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/17/google-pledges-more-control-for-brands-over-ad-placement" target="_self">reported</a> that Havas took the step after talks with Google broke down because the tech giant couldn&#8217;t provide specific reassurances, policy and guarantees over the filtering and classification of video or display content.
Havas&#8217; decision came after the UK government joined organizations including the Guardian, BBC and Transport for London in pulling advertising from Google and YouTube, the Guardian report said.
Sorrell said blanket withdrawals from advertisers across these digital platforms will not solve the problem. Instead, he urged for greater cooperation with the tech giants.
&#8220;I think the most constructive way of doing it is getting Google and Facebook to understand the problem, which I think they do, and to get them to step up to control it just like any other media right now would in a traditional sense,&#8221; he said.

Facebook, Google need to ‘step up’ control of their platforms, says WPP’s Martin Sorrell

It&#8217;s often said that good things come to those who wait — but a bloated $4.5 trillion balance sheet might be a notable exception to that rule.
With the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/43752521" target="_self">Federal Reserve</a> facing a Herculean conundrum in unwinding its crisis-era monetary policy — and a <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/yellen-outlook-irrelevant-because-trump-will-reshape-fed-mark-grant.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/yellen-outlook-irrelevant-because-trump-will-reshape-fed-mark-grant.html" target="_self">likely leadership transition on the horizon</a> — <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GS" target="_self" data-gdsid="19203" data-inline-quote-symbol="GS">Goldman Sachs</a> suggested on Saturday the central bank could move early to reduce the vast sums of government and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/44178108" target="_self">mortgage-backed securities</a> (MBS) it holds on its books.
In a research note to clients, the bank pointed to the likelihood that <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/" target="_self">President Donald Trump</a>may &#8220;reshape the leadership&#8221; of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed&#8217;s powerful policy-making body, as the terms of Fed Chair <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/janet-yellen/" target="_self">Janet Yellen</a> and Vice Chair Stanley Fischer expire in early 2018.
&#8220;This could be important for balance sheet policy because many Republican-leaning economists have criticized quantitative easing (QE) and have expressed a preference for rapid balance sheet rundown, perhaps even through asset sales,&#8221; wrote Daan Struyven, a Goldman economist.
If the new appointments—especially the new chair—are thought to favor aggressive balance sheet normalization, perhaps even including asset sales, and if all decisions are left up to the incoming team, financial markets might experience heightened uncertainty during the transition.&#8221;
Goldman suggested there was a &#8220;strong &#8216;risk management&#8217; case for an announcement of very gradual balance sheet runoff later this year,&#8221; because of the political risk associated with new leadership at the Fed.
&#8220;Our forecast is that the discussion around reinvestment continues for most of this year and the plan is formally announced in December 2017,&#8221; Struyven said. &#8220;At that meeting, we expect the committee to hold the funds rate steady after hiking in both June and September. We expect the quarterly hikes to resume in March 2018.&#8221;
The economist harked back to 2013&#8217;s &#8220;taper tantrum,&#8221; in which markets reacted the Fed&#8217;s suggestions of tighter monetary policy by sending bond yields surging and stocks reeling — albeit temporarily.
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A potential fire sale of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities by the Fed &#8220;could have significantly more adverse effects on financial conditions than gradual runoff, and the mere risk of such an outcome might set up another &#8216;taper tantrum,&#8217; &#8221; Struyven added.
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<h4 class="subtitle">&#8216;The uncertainty is substantial&#8217;</h4>
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As the central bank begins a campaign to tighten benchmark interest rates — making a quarter-point hike just last week — it&#8217;s renewed a debate over how to unwind the Fed&#8217;s massive bond buying program.
Some market observers have long argued that the Fed has distorted financial conditions with QE, and the central bank faces a huge task trying to pare down its bloated balance sheet.
&#8220;The bigger the Fed&#8217;s credit footprint, the more it interferes with the efficient employment and pricing of credit,&#8221; wrote George Selgin, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, in a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.cato.org/blog/shrinking-feds-balance-sheet" href="https://www.cato.org/blog/shrinking-feds-balance-sheet" target="_self">blog post last month</a>.
&#8220;By directing a large share of savings to purchases of longer-term MBS and Treasury securities, for example, the Fed has artificially raised both the prices of those securities, and the importance of the housing market and the federal government relative to the rest of the U.S. economy,&#8221; Selgin wrote. &#8220;It has also dramatically increased its portfolio&#8217;s duration gap and, by so doing, the risk that it will suffer losses should it sell assets before they mature.&#8221;
On Friday, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, the lone dissenter against the U.S. central bank&#8217;s decision last week to raise interest rates, the U.S. economy is still falling short on employment and inflation.
Kashkari, an alumnus of both Goldman Sachs and the U.S. Treasury who oversaw the government&#8217;s Temporary Asset Relief Program (TARP) during the financial crisis, believes the Fed should wait on raising interest rates until it publishes a detailed plan for how and when it will reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet.
Goldman set forth two scenarios under which the Fed could begin trimming its balance sheet. Under an &#8220;early start, passive runoff&#8221; scenario, the bank said the Fed &#8220;gradually tapers reinvestment in December 2017 over 10 months but does not sell assets.&#8221;
Conversely, under a &#8220;late start, active sales&#8221; scenario, Goldman said the Fed could cease reinvesting in bonds in July 2018 &#8220;without tapering and actively sells $40bn of assets per month.&#8221;
Under the latter, the Fed could shrink its balance sheet by about $250 billion per quarter starting in the second half of next year, &#8220;with similar contributions from maturing assets and active sales,&#8221; the bank added.
However, neither scenario is without its risks, Goldman&#8217;s economist wrote: &#8220;While our baseline estimate suggests relatively little tightening from balance sheet rundown, the uncertainty is substantial. The 2013 &#8216;taper tantrum&#8217; also provides a reminder that the impact of balance sheet policy on financial conditions is uncertain and could be larger than our baseline estimate.&#8221;
&#8211;Reuters contributed to this article.
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How a possible Yellen departure could spark a fire under the Fed to cut its $4.5 trillion balance sheet

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<a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/billionaire-warren-buffett-discusses-the-book-that-changed-his-life.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/02/billionaire-warren-buffett-discusses-the-book-that-changed-his-life.html" target="_self">Warren Buffett&#8217;s</a> enormous wealth is only matched by his <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2015/10/04/not-for-investors-only-top-10-nuggets-of-buffett-wisdom-for-life-success/#5ec784b83971" target="_blank">incredibly valuable wisdom</a>. So when the Oracle of Omaha says he has a simple rule to improve your life financially and personally, you should pay attention.
In a lecture to USC Business School students, Warren Buffett&#8217;s right-hand man, Charlie Munger, <a class="inline_asset" href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/a-lesson-on-worldly-wisdom/" target="_blank">revealed a strategy</a> that Buffett has used time and again to build success.
More from Elle Kaplan: 
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://medium.com/the-mission/these-writing-hacks-from-stephen-king-will-immediately-improve-your-success-c8456b192cd4#.atftmsqi0" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/these-writing-hacks-from-stephen-king-will-immediately-improve-your-success-c8456b192cd4#.atftmsqi0" target="_blank">How to Become an Insanely Good Writer, According to Stephen King 
</a><a class="inline_asset" title="https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-crush-your-goals-in-2017-according-to-harvard-psychologists-1e82beb80677#.bvdporw45" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-crush-your-goals-in-2017-according-to-harvard-psychologists-1e82beb80677#.bvdporw45" target="_blank">How to Crush Your Goals in 2017, According to Harvard Research 
</a><a class="inline_asset" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-create-a-brand-new-chapter-in-your-life-starting-today-8aabcb0d9007#.z93ruy32f" target="_blank">How to Create a Brand New Chapter in Your Life — Starting Today</a>
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Warren Buffet preaches that he could:
&#8220;Improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only 20 slots in it so that you had 20 punches — representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime.&#8221;
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Once you punched through the card, you couldn&#8217;t make any more investments at all
Buffett said that, &#8220;under those rules, you&#8217;d really think carefully about what you did and you&#8217;d be forced to load up on what you&#8217;d really thought about. So you&#8217;d do so much better.&#8221;
In a nutshell: We&#8217;re tempted to take advantage of every opportunity possible (especially when it comes to money), but our opportunities are actually incredibly finite. As I&#8217;ll explain, by narrowing down these opportunities beforehand, you can focus on the successful ones with your limited resources, instead of jumping at every opportunity that presents itself.
This &#8217;20-Slot-Rule&#8217; is a concept that doesn&#8217;t just speak to making smart investments, however. It also applies to all areas of life and business that require our decisions to be well informed and incredibly selective.
Without further ado, here are some simple tips for following Buffett&#8217;s &#8217;20-Slot Rule&#8217; to improve your life:
Use the rule to find your true motivation
Warren Buffett may be the savviest investor on earth, but even he knows there are certain tasks beyond his realm. In 2013, <a class="inline_asset" href="http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/22/warren-buffett-on-cell-phones-email-and-material-goods/" target="_blank">he told talk show host Piers Morgan</a> that he has sent exactly one email in his entire life, and the <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/" target="_blank">Berkshire Hathaway website</a> itself makes <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.myspace.com/" target="_blank">Myspace.com</a> look like the internet&#8217;s Mona Lisa.
Does the Oracle of Omaha have the intelligence that it would take to learn how to update the web page and turn it into something snazzier? Of course. Is it worth his time? Definitely not.
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<a class="" href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000589121" data-videoid="3000589121" data-videotype=""><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" title="Warren Buffett made $53,000 by age 17" src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2017/01/31/104251946-makeit_warren_buffett_first_jobs2_mezz.600x400.jpg?v=1485878732" alt="Warren Buffett made $53,000 by age 17 " width="600" height="400" /></a>
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If you have a finite amount of skills, goals, or business opportunities you can cash in on within your life, that means being incredibly choosy.
So focus on what you do best — your <a class="inline_asset" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/86-400-193e4866d62c#.lidql7lh8" target="_blank">Genius Zone</a>. If you don&#8217;t have that yet, spend some time figuring out what you bring to the table better than anyone else. It&#8217;s worth the investment to find what you do effortlessly and gravitate towards.
Use the rule to make yourself wealthier
<a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/warren-buffetts-breakfast-never-costs-more-than-317.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/30/warren-buffetts-breakfast-never-costs-more-than-317.html" target="_self">Unlike Buffett</a>, our wealth is relatively limited. But when you start thinking of your wealth in terms of &#8220;slots,&#8221; you can direct it towards what really matters and stretch it a lot further. For instance, is your excess budget being punched in the &#8220;$4 latte&#8221; slot every day, or towards a future business or investment account?
The truly wealthy, like <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/07/warren-buffett-and-sheryl-sandberg-agree-on-most-important-decision.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/07/warren-buffett-and-sheryl-sandberg-agree-on-most-important-decision.html" target="_self">Buffett</a>, got that way because they&#8217;re able to think about each dollar and investment carefully through a long-term lens. They know that investing in future endeavors is the ultimate luxury in life, and they&#8217;re able to see the long-term value of each dollar in their wallet (or purse).
You don&#8217;t have to <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/how-one-woman-saved-24000-in-one-year-by-not-buying-anything.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/how-one-woman-saved-24000-in-one-year-by-not-buying-anything.html" target="_self">live the frugal life of a monk</a>, but the next time you get a tax return or have some extra money because you just got a raise, carefully consider which &#8220;slot&#8221; to use.
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<div class="caption">Warren Buffett attends the &#8216;Becoming Warren Buffett&#8217; World Premiere at The Museum of Modern Art on January 19, 2017</div>
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Use the rule to become incredibly productive
Buffett&#8217;s rule refers to much more than our money — for instance, one of the most frequently used phrases in job listings is &#8220;multitask.&#8221; It&#8217;s something most of us (including yours truly) wind up doing during a hectic workday.
But it&#8217;s been <a class="inline_asset" href="http://news.stanford.edu/2009/08/24/multitask-research-study-082409/" target="_blank">scientifically</a> proven that doing a million things at once trains our brain to become easily distracted, and it even takes up to four times longer to process new information that way.
Instead, you should treat your task list like a punch card. Realize you can only take on X number of tasks every day, and think carefully about which ones you want to give your full, laser-focused attention to. By prioritizing, you&#8217;ll have intense focus on each project rather than sloppily attempting to tackle everything at once.
When you have a clear motivation, how you work and why you work will drastically transform, and — most importantly — you&#8217;ll feel happy and passionate about what you do.
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://medium.com/the-mission/why-warren-buffetts-20-slot-rule-will-make-you-insanely-successful-and-productive-252a3745a5bf#.6nvrnl5vp" href="https://medium.com/the-mission/why-warren-buffetts-20-slot-rule-will-make-you-insanely-successful-and-productive-252a3745a5bf#.6nvrnl5vp" target="_self">This piece originally appeared on Medium.</a>
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://twitter.com/ellekaplan" href="https://twitter.com/ellekaplan" target="_self">Elle Kaplan</a> is the Founder and CEO of <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.lexioncapital.com/" href="http://www.lexioncapital.com/" target="_blank">LexION Capital</a>, a fiduciary wealth management firm in New York City serving high-net-worth individuals. She is also the Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.lexionalpha.com/" href="http://www.lexionalpha.com/" target="_blank">LexION Alpha</a>, her systematic hedge fund that will soon be open to new investments. It is one of the only women-owned and -run hedge funds in the nation.
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Why Warren Buffett’s ‘20-Slot Rule’ will make you insanely successful and wealthy

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<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/" rel="author">Arjun Kharpal</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/ArjunKharpal">@ArjunKharpal</a>
Just under $2 billion has been wiped off the value of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BTC%3D-USS" target="_self" data-gdsid="76662810" data-inline-quote-symbol="BTC=-USS" rel="noopener">bitcoin</a> in under three days as a fight over the future of the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency wages on.
Bitcoin was trading at around $1,142.60 at time of publication, giving it a market cap of $18.53 billion, according to CoinDesk data. This is down from highs of $1,255.32 on Tuesday, which valued the total bitcoin pile at $20.36 billion.
Meanwhile, rival cryptocurrency ether is up over 84 percent from highs of $29.87 on Tuesday to trading at all-time highs of around $55 on Friday, according to Coinmarketcap.com. The market captilization shot from $2.68 billion to $4.95 billion. It is the only other cryptocurrency to be valued at over $1 billion.
<div id="inline_movable_ad"> Much of the inverse price movement stems from traders&#8217; worries over the future of bitcoin and the underpinning blockchain technology.</div>
What&#8217;s happened?
To understand the issue, it&#8217;s key to look at how bitcoin transactions are processed. Transactions by users are gathered into &#8220;blocks&#8221; which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin.
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But there&#8217;s a massive backlog of transactions in bitcoin that are waiting to happen. The number of outstanding transactions is up more than four times from just six months ago, according to data from bitcoin wallet Blockchain. This is bad for a system that has promised fast and cheaper transactions than the traditional financial system.
Because of this, a group called Bitcoin Unlimited has emerged. This faction is suggesting increasing the size of the block which would allow more transactions to be bunched together and processed. Major bitcoin industry players including Roger Ver have backed the plan. But some developers in the community suggest that increasing the block size could be unsafe.
What&#8217;s this about a fork?
The real concern is if Bitcoin Unlimited gains major support, it could have an impact on the underlying blockchain technology that supports bitcoin. Bitcoin Unlimited has about an 11 percent market share of all the &#8220;nodes&#8221; in existence. Nodes are the backbone of bitcoin&#8217;s infrastructure and refer to those mining the transactions as well as those tracking the movement of bitcoin to make sure it is all working correctly.
Nodes can run Blockchain Unlimited software which would signal their support for increasing the block size. If 50 percent of bitcoin miners adopted Bitcoin Unlimited, there would then be two major blockchains and a &#8220;fork&#8221; would be created made of Bitcoin Core, the current main software behind the infrastructure, and Bitcoin Unlimited.
Both blockchains would continue to run as long as there are nodes running them. But there would then be essentially two different coins – Bitcoin and Bitcoin Unlimited.
So why has the price fallen?
And this is why bitcoin has seen sharp declines in price, while other cryptocurrencies like ether have gained support.
&#8220;Bitcoin traders may have wanted to offset some of their exposure should a fork occur or the scaling deadlock continue, and ether seems to be the most promising alternative. Bitcoin-ether volumes have surged since and are currently rivaling bitcoin-fiat currency trading liquidity,&#8221; Aurélien Menant, founder and CEO of Gatecoin, a regulated blockchain assets exchange based in Hong Kong, told CNBC by email on Friday.
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Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/karen-gilchrist/" rel="author">Karen Gilchrist</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/_karengilchrist">@_karengilchrist</a>
Wearable technology is set for its most literal incarnation with a new partnership between Google and clothing line Levi&#8217;s.
From this fall, technology lovers will quite literally be able to wear their hearts on their sleeves, donning a new smart jacket which allows them to control their mobile device at the swipe of a cuff.
Users will be able to skip songs, use Google maps and make phone calls by brushing their sleeve.
The denim jacket, which will retail at $350, is the first of its kind and makes use of &#8216;Project Jacquard&#8217; technology, which has been under development by Google since 2015.
The technology combines thin, metallic alloys with natural and synthetic yarns to create touch-sensitive interactive fabrics.
<div id="attachment_106044" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-106044" class="size-full wp-image-106044" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/104342804-Commuter_with_Jacquard.530x298.jpg" alt="Google | Model shows touch sensor on Levi's Google jacket" width="530" height="298" />Google | Model shows touch sensor on Levi&#8217;s Google jacket</div>
These conductive yarns can then be connected to a tiny circuit, no larger than a button, creating data which can be wirelessly transmitted to mobile phones and other electronic devices.
The smart fibres are washable and the button circuit has a two-day battery life.
According to the Project Jacquard website, the technology can be incorporated into a variety of fabrics, suggesting further wearable technologies could be on the horizon should the smart jacket be well-received by consumers.
&#8220;Jacquard is a blank canvas for the fashion industry. Designers can use it as they would any fabric, adding new layers of functionality to their designs, without having to learn about electronics.
&#8220;Developers will be able to connect existing apps and services to Jacquard-enabled clothes and create new features specifically for the platform.&#8221;

Google and Levi’s $350 smart jacket lets you control your phone with your sleeve

Durban has lost the right to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) president Gideon Sam told Reuters on Monday.
&#8220;This is a huge disappointment for us and for the whole African continent. But without the necessary government guarantees, we couldn’t move on,&#8221; the Commonwealth Games Federation vice-president said by telephone.
&#8220;Everybody was very excited to see the Commonwealth Games staged in Durban, which was very well equipped to host the event, but once the economics started to play a role, it became difficult.
&#8220;We had hoped to make this a Games for all of Africa, and so this is a very sad day for the whole continent.&#8221;
(Reporting by Nick Said, writing by Alan Baldwin, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

“Huge disappointment” as Durban loses out on 2022 Commonwealth Games

By Hideyuki Sano
Asian shares rose on Monday, taking their cue from gains on Wall Street after strong U.S. job data, though the mood was cautious as oil prices plunged to 3 1/2-month lows on fresh worries of oversupply.
A confluence of major events this week including an expected interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, a potentially divisive election in the Netherlands and a Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers&#8217; meeting kept many investors on edge.
MSCI&#8217;s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9 percent, while Japan&#8217;s Nikkei edged 0.2 percent higher, led by gains in defensive shares.
European shares are expected to open down slightly, with spread-betters looking at falls of 0.1 percent in Germany&#8217;s DAX and EuroStoxx50.
Global stocks rose on Friday, with the MSCI&#8217;s index of 46 markets gaining 0.5 percent, snapping six straight days of losses after the robust U.S. jobs report.
Solid February U.S. jobs data also made it all but certain that the Federal Reserve will raise rates on Wednesday.
&#8220;The markets are focusing on when the Fed will raise rates next time or the pace of its rate hike, so the tone of Fed Chair Janet Yellen will be closely watched,&#8221; said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management.
U.S. interest rate futures are pricing in about a 50 percent chance of another rate hike in June. By the end of 2017, a total of nearly three hikes were fully priced in, including the likely move this week.
In a Reuters poll of primary dealers, 12 out of 23 saw a rate increase to 1.00-1.25 percent by the June 13-14 meeting, while 10 expected such a move by the Fed&#8217;s September meeting.
The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield slipped a tad on Friday, partly as markets had already expected robust payroll figures.
Still, it last stood at 2.574 percent, not far from its two-year high of 2.641 percent touched on Dec. 15.
U.S. junk bonds have also faltered, with iShares high yield corporate bond ETF last week posting its biggest weekly loss in more than a year.
Global bond prices also came under pressure following a report that some European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers had discussed the possibility of rate hikes before the end of its quantitative easing programme.
The 10-year German Bund yield rose to 0.496 percent on Friday, near its one-year high of 0.498 percent hit in January.
A break of those previous peaks in major bond yields could spark a fresh sell-off in global bond markets.
The talk of an ECB rate hike helped to lift the euro.
The single currency hit a one-month high of $1.0713 on Monday.
On the other hand, worries about the European project could resurface if Wednesday&#8217;s parliamentary election in the Netherlands will see the far-right gain more ground than expected.
Polls suggest the far-right ticket will double its vote and its results could affect investor perceptions&#8217; on coming elections in France and Germany this year.
The dollar slipped 0.2 percent to 114.54 yen from Friday&#8217;s seven-week high of 115.51 yen after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday that Japan will be high on the U.S. priority list for trade agreements.
Traders suspect Washington, keen to reduce its trade deficit, may put pressure on Japan not to cheapen the yen in upcoming bilateral economic talks.
&#8220;The G20 will be an important event for the dollar,&#8221; said Yoshinori Shigemi, Tokyo-based global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
&#8220;I had assumed, until last week, that the dollar would gain on a rise in U.S. rates. But if the G20 say something like they want to reduce trade imbalances, that could give rise to the speculation that they may not want a strong dollar,&#8221; he said.
G20 finance ministers and central bankers will meet in Germany on March 17-18, their first meeting attended by representatives of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
A draft communique circulated last week showed they may no longer explicitly reject protectionism or competitive currency devaluations.
Oil skidded to 3 1/2-month lows after posting biggest three-day loss in a year by Friday on worries that OPEC-led production cuts have not yet reduced a global glut of crude as U.S. drillers kept adding rigs.
U.S. crude futures dropped 0.8 percent to $48.10 per barrel, having shed about 11 percent so far this month.
Elsewhere, the Indian rupee jumped 0.5 percent in non-deliverable forwards trading to one-year highs, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s party won a landslide election victory in the important battleground state of Uttar Pradesh.
Indian shares and bonds are expected to benefit when local financial markets reopen on Tuesday after a market holiday on Monday.
(Editing by Kim Coghill and Richard Borsuk)

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International News

This tech worker is living the dream in Hawaii, and his company is paying others $10K to follow

Denuclearization a pipe dream? UN holds talks to ban nukes, but major powers don’t show up

A stock market drop is coming, but don’t blame Trump’s health care bill setback: Raymond James

Oil could collapse into the $30s if OPEC doesn’t keep its act together

UK police make seven arrests in raids linked to investigation into attack on Parliament

Uganda says seeking $500 mn loan from China for roads

South Africa suspends some meat imports from Brazil

Elon Musk slams Donald Trump’s NASA bill saying it does nothing to help mission to Mars

Here’s why Norway is ranked the world’s happiest country

Uber president Jeff Jones is quitting as management turmoil at the ride-hailing company deepens

Facebook, Google need to ‘step up’ control of their platforms, says WPP’s Martin Sorrell

How a possible Yellen departure could spark a fire under the Fed to cut its $4.5 trillion balance sheet

Why Warren Buffett’s ‘20-Slot Rule’ will make you insanely successful and wealthy

Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork

Google and Levi’s $350 smart jacket lets you control your phone with your sleeve

“Huge disappointment” as Durban loses out on 2022 Commonwealth Games

Asian shares rise but mood cautious ahead of an event-packed week

News Tips

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