James R. Hennessy

1 week ago | capitalbrief.com | James R. Hennessy

Overnight, Canva announced a significant upgrade to its Visual Suite platform — first launched in 2022 — including new spreadsheet and data visualisation tools, shared workspaces and heavier AI integrations. As Bronwen Clune reported, it’s all framed as a push to make the Sydney-based unicorn’s product the ultimate all-in-one design and communication platform for businesses operating at scale. Underneath the gloss, though, is a far more interesting business story.

2 weeks ago | capitalbrief.com | James R. Hennessy

Hedge fund crusader Bill Ackman, who backed Donald Trump with the zeal of a convert ahead of the 2024 US election, seems to be experiencing some buyer’s remorse. Taking to X this morning as US equity futures plunged, he urged the president to pause his extraordinary 'Liberation Day' tariff plan, lest the US — and possibly the world — careens inexorably toward a “self-induced, economic nuclear winter”. Get The Edition in your inboxSigned up to The EditionA must-read afternoon newsletter.

2 weeks ago | capitalbrief.com | James R. Hennessy

Today’s deep market seizures were a predictable outcome of Donald Trump’s radical tariff rollout, which has roiled the globe and tested the diplomatic infrastructure that has governed it for decades. Trump generally follows the classic pattern of charismatic strongman politics: instinct first, ideology later. His instinct, rightly or wrongly, is that America is being taken to the cleaners. Tariffs satisfy his primal urge to hit back at countries he thinks are cheating.

3 weeks ago | capitalbrief.com | James R. Hennessy

Like clockwork, a story seems to emerge every month or two that reignites public anxiety about the wrecking ball of artificial intelligence on jobs and labour. Over the past week it has undoubtedly been OpenAI’s powerful new image generation system built into ChatGPT.

1 month ago | capitalbrief.com | James R. Hennessy

Back in 2003, when the Howard government was negotiating the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement with the Bush administration, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) became a political hot potato. Despised by American pharma companies for decades for aggressively negotiating prices and refusing to pay a premium for brand-name drugs, the PBS had long been seen as a threat to their global pricing strategies. Get The Edition in your inboxSigned up to The EditionA must-read afternoon newsletter.