The Wall Street Journal - 21.08.2019

** WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 ~ VOL. CCLXXIV NO. 44 WSJ.com HHHH $4.

Trump

Weighs

Options

To Spur

Economy

2000 ’05 ’10 ’

15

20

25

30 million

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

July

Men29.07M

Women29.23M

Workers25yearsandup

withabachelor'sdegree

DJIA 25962.44g173.35 0.7% NASDAQ 7948.56g0.7% STOXX 600 371.30g0.7% 10-YR. TREAS. À14/32, yield 1.557% OIL $56.34À$0.13 GOLD $1,504.60À$4.20 EURO $1.1097 YEN 106.

Japan’s Digital Pop Stars Blur

Line Between Virtual and Reality

iii

‘VTubers’ act as live performers,

spokespeople and surrogate children

TOKYO—Ryosei Takehisa, 24

years old, doesn’t have any chil-

dren—unless you count an ani-

mated character with elfin ears

called Mikuriya Kuon.

In live appear-

ances on YouTube,

the kimono-clad

Kuon character,

voiced by an actor

hired by Mr. Take-

hisa, dispenses ad-

vice about the latest

videogames and

plays rock-paper-

scissors with her

fans.

The creator says he considers

Kuon his “real daughter” even

though she “resides within pix-

els.” While others may compete

for fame or page views, “for me,

I’m totally satisfied just with the

fact that she was born and is

continuing to live life in good

health,” says Mr. Takehisa.

Digital avatars with human

traits have long carved out a

role on social media, on Insta-

gram in particular. Japan, as it

often does, has

taken the idea and

run with it, with its

virtual characters

now estimated to

number more than

3,000.

Technology al-

lows Kuon and her

peerstohavemore

direct engagement

with fans—and sometimes a

family-like relationship with

their own creators. The charac-

ters, known as virtual YouTu-

bers or VTubers because many

PleaseturntopageA

BYSURYATAPABHATTACHARYA

ANDRIVERDAVIS

Mikuriya Kuon

WASHINGTON—President

Trump said he is considering

measures to bolster the econ-

omy, including a possible re-

duction in capital-gains taxes,

and continued to press the Fed-

eral Reserve to cut interest

ratesevenasheplayeddown

warning signs of a possible

slowdown.

“We’re looking at various tax

reductions,” Mr. Trump told re-

porters at the White House on

Tuesday. “But I’m looking at

that all the time anyway.” He

added: “We’re very far from a

recession.”

With stock and bond mar-

kets signaling in recent weeks

that a threat of a downturn

from overseas is spreading to

the U.S., Mr. Trump said his ad-

ministration was exploring low-

ering capital-gains taxes by in-

dexing gains to inflation, which

he suggested he could do

through regulatory action

rather than through Congress.

Such a move would likely face

immediate court challenges.

Navigating a possible eco-

nomic downturn would be a

particularly thorny issue for

Mr. Trump, who has made eco-

nomic growth under his tenure

a central selling point for his

2020 campaign.

Mr. Trump and his advisers

on Tuesday said any proposals

weren’t a direct response to

PleaseturntopageA

By Rebecca Ballhaus ,

Andrew Restuccia

and Richard Rubin

Italy’s Government Collapse

Sets Up a Power Struggle

ROME—Italy’s government

collapsed, triggering a power

struggle between the country’s

right-wing nationalists and ri-

val parties, along with deepen-

ing Europe's political upheaval

as the Continent struggles

with immigration and slowing

economic growth.

Prime Minister Giuseppe

Conte resigned on Tuesday af-

ter Matteo Salvini, a rising

force from Europe’s insurgent

far-right, withdrew his support

for the government. Mr. Salvini,

whose anti-immigrant League is

leading in public-opinion polls,

is pushing for snap elections.

Mr. Salvini’s opponents ma-

neuvered to avoid a fresh vote,

with some leaders of the anties-

tablishment 5 Star Movement,

which has been governing

alongside the League, saying

they were open to exploring a

deal with the center-left Demo-

cratic Party to form a coalition.

Such a deal could bring to-

gether Italy’s centrist former

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

and his longtime bête noire,

comedian Beppe Grillo, 5 Star’s

founder and guiding spirit.

European voters’ allegiances

have become increasingly vola-

tile amid eroding public confi-

dence in mainstream conserva-

tive and social-democratic

parties that for decades domi-

nated governments in Euro-

pean Union countries.

Insurgent movements from

the anticapitalist far-left to

the nativist far-right have

made inroads. The new forces

also include ideologically

eclectic groups such as 5 Star,

which grew out of anticorrup-

tion protests, as well as cen-

trist upstarts such as French

President Emmanuel Macron.

The breakdown of Italy’s

government comes as Europe

grapples with the lasting scars

of economic depression in the

periphery of the eurozone and

the pressures of an influx of

PleaseturntopageA

BYMARCUSWALKER

The Truth About Faster

Internet: It’s Not Worth It

WSJ testing shows typical U.S. households don’t use most of their

bandwidth while streaming, and get marginal gains from upgrading

Female College Grads on the Rise

This year is shaping up to be the first in which women make up

the majority of the college-educated labor force, a milestone that is

already altering benefits packages offered by companies. A

 James Mackintosh: Don’t rely

on Trump rescuing stocks... B

describe the more valuable

hardware with would-be buyers

and hash out a deal.

Earlier this month, one

seller in Lincolnton, N.C.,

posted a photo of a hard, gray

case on Marketplace under the

title “Gun case” and asking

$950. A similar case has a re-

tail cost of $30. The seller, in

an interview with The Wall

Street Journal conducted over

Facebook Messenger, said he

was really offering an AR-

style semiautomatic rifle.

He shared a photo of the ri-

fle, laid out on a bed alongside

more than 670 rounds of am-

munition, six magazines—and

the case. Within two hours of

his “Gun case” posting on Mar-

ketplace, he said he received

PleaseturntopageA

Gun sellers are using a sim-

ple trick to do business on

Facebook Inc.’s Marketplace at

a time when more mass shoot-

ings in the U.S. have renewed

the debate in Washington over

access to firearms.

The Marketplace feature,

which Facebook launched four

years ago, enabled its more

than two billion users to buy

and sell almost any secondhand

item by clicking a button on

their home page. However, the

private sale of many items, in-

cluding guns, is specifically for-

bidden under Facebook policy.

To dodge the prohibition,

sellers simply list gun cases or

boxes at inflated prices. Those

postings have become code for

actual guns, while in many in-

stances evading Facebook ef-

forts to bar banned items. Sell-

ers, via private messages,

BYPARMYOLSON

ANDZUSHAELINSON

Gun Sellers Skirt Ban

In Facebook’s Market

Americans are spending ever

more for blazing internet

speeds, on the promise that

faster is better. Is that really

the case?

For most people, the answer

is no.

The Wall Street Journal studied the inter-

net use of 53 of our journalists across the

country, over a period of months, in coordi-

nation with researchers at Princeton Univer-

sity and the University of Chicago.

Our panelists used only a fraction of their

available bandwidth to watch streaming ser-

vices including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

and YouTube, even simultaneously. Quality

didn’t improve much with higher speeds.

Picture clarity was about the same. Videos

didn’t launch quicker.

Broadband providers such as

Comcast Corp., Charter Com-

munications Inc. and AT&T Inc.

are marketing speeds in the

range of 250, 500 or even 1,

megabits a second, often prom-

ising that streaming-video bingers will bene-

fit. “Fast speeds for all of your shows,” de-

clares one online ad from Comcast.

But for a typical household, the benefits of

paying for more than 100 megabits a second

are marginal at best, according to the re-

searchers. That means many households are

paying a premium for services they don’t need.

What follows is our evidence that you’re

being oversold:

PleaseturntopageA

By Shalini

Ramachandran ,

Thomas Gryta ,

Kara Dapena and

Patrick Thomas

INSIDE

 Trump retreats on

background checks................. A

 Facebook tightens privacy

controls.......................................... B

Bus Hijacker in Brazil Holds Riders Hostage, Is Killed by Police

SHOWDOWN: Brandishing what authorities later said appeared to be a toy gun, a man held more than 30 commuters hostage on a bus

in Rio de Janeiro for about three hours on Tuesday before he was killed by a police sniper. All of the hostages were freed unharmed. A

RICARDO CASSIANO/AGENCIA O DIA/REUTERS

LIFE & ARTS

Schools try to

outsmart students

as vaping moves into

the classroom A

STEVEN SENNE/AP

MARKETING

Cereal makers struggle

to boost sales of what

was once an American

breakfast staple B

MARK KAUZLARICH FOR WSJ

CONTENTS

Business News.. B3,

Crossword.............. A

Heard on Street. B

Life & Arts......... A9-

Markets.................... B

Opinion.............. A13-

Property Report... B

Sports........................ A

Streetwise................. B

Technology............... B

U.S. News............. A2-

Weather................... A

World News........ A5-

s2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

What’s

News

 Gun sellers are using a

simple trick to do business on

Facebook’s Marketplace at a

time when more mass shoot-

ings in the U.S. have renewed

the debate in Washington

over access to firearms. A

 Trump backed further

away from calls for stricter

background checks for gun

purchasers and stressed men-

tal illness instead as a major

factor in mass shootings. A

 Italy’s government col-

lapsed, triggering a power

struggle between the country’s

right-wing nationalists and

rival parties while deepening

Europe’s political upheaval. A

 The White House canceled

Trump’s planned visit to Den-

mark after the nation’s prime

minister said she wouldn’t

entertain his proposal to

purchase Greenland. A

 Trump questioned how

Jewish Americans could vote

for Democratic candidates as

he stepped up criticism of

Reps. Tlaib and Omar, who

have been critical of Israel. A

 A Hong Kong citizen

who is an employee of the

British Consulate in the

city is believed to have

been detained by China. A

 Syrian forces captured a

strategically important town,

as the Assad regime pushes

to retake the nation’s last

opposition stronghold. A

 California is off to one

of its slowest wildfire sea-

sons in years, a respite af-

ter last year’s infernos. A

 Cardinal George Pell’s

conviction on child sex-abuse

charges was upheld by a

panel of Australian judges. A

T

rump said he is consid-

ering measures to bol-

ster the economy, including a

possible reduction in capital-

gains taxes, and continued to

press the Fed to cut rates

even as he played down signs

of a possible slowdown. A

 Bayer is selling its animal-

health business toElanco

for $7.6 billion amid mount-

ing legal liabilities from its

Roundup herbicide. B

 Facebook will start giv-

ing users more control over

what data is shared with

the company from their

other online activities. B

 Stock volatility has re-

ceded in recent days, and

some investors have bet the

tranquility will persist. B

 Major U.S. stock indexes

fell and investors resumed

buying less risky assets.

The Dow slipped 0.7%. B

 Banks are on the verge

of getting some relief from

Volcker-rule limits on spec-

ulative trading, a priority

for the industry. B

 Qualcomm reached anew

patent-licensing deal with

LG, securing its technology in

a suite of wireless devices. B

 Walmart is suing Tesla,

alleging that some of Tesla’s

solar panels sparked roof

fires at several of the re-

tailer’s locations. B

 Home Depot cut its sales

forecast and warned that

falling lumber prices and the

potential effects of tariffs

could weigh on growth. B

 Kohl’s reported its third

consecutive decline in quar-

terly sales, though it said

business improved toward

the end of the period. B

Business&Finance

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