Emmanuel Macron swept to power in 2017 on a pro-EU, anti-far right ticket, determined to reshape the bloc in his image with the help of Germany’s Angela Merkel. But his early ambition to deepen Europe’s ties in a host of areas – including a common budget for the euro zone – was soon replaced by fudge and vague promises, as ...

For more than a decade, executives, intelligence agencies and conspiracy theorists have been warning about the dangers of equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. And for almost as long, Huawei has denied that its telecommunications products pose any kind of security threat. The West has finally found its smoking gun. Yet it may not be enough to sway those on ...

This was supposed to be a no-drama, non-event Federal Reserve policy meeting — and was, until a small communication slip led to outsize moves in markets, with stocks and bonds selling off simultaneously. Understanding why tells us a lot about investor mentality and market positioning, not to mention the need for the Federal Reserve to develop a better feel for ...

Even as he awaits official confirmation of his election to a second term, Indonesian President Joko Widodo appears to be thinking about his legacy. He’s proposing a $33 billion plan to relocate the capital far away from clogged Jakarta. The idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. That doesn’t mean it’ll work. Jokowi, as the Indonesian leader is known, is ...

Google investors may have had a flashback to the company’s bad old days of 2015. That year may feel like a distant memory. That was before news cycles were measured in seconds. It was before people were talking in earnest about FAANG stocks and before Mark Zuckerberg had sat through multiple rounds of congressional hearings. Back then, Google’s growth looked ...

Much of modern economic theory is based around a simple idea: Human beings maximise utility. But what is utility? Many people think of it as happiness or pleasure; British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the inventor of utilitarianism, conceived of it this way. But this isn’t how modern economists think of the concept. To an economist, utility simply means how much people ...

Bloomberg Bond traders will have one word on their minds as they gear up for the latest readings on inflation: “ transitory.” That’s how Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell characterised the factors behind muted price pressures after the policy meeting, where officials kept interest rates unchanged. Markets whipsawed on his comments, with benchmark 10-year Treasury yields bouncing off their lowest ...

Bloomberg A sense of caution is gripping peso bulls as markets approach the Philippine central bank’s interest-rate decision. Increased speculation that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will ease monetary policy is threatening to break the peso’s Asia-beating rally this quarter. A reduction in the benchmark rate could give foreign investors — who already don’t seem too keen on buying Philippine ...

Bloomberg First-quarter gold purchases by central banks, led by Russia and China, were the highest in six years as countries diversify their assets away from the US dollar. Global gold reserves rose 145.5 tonnes in the first quarter, a 68 percent increase from a year earlier, the World Gold Council said in a report. Russia remains the largest buyer as ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer John Flint is pressing ahead with a plan to rein in costs after the Asia-focussed lender reported its best quarter in more than three years. The better-than-expected first quarter results were driven by revenue growth that increased at triple the pace of adjusted operating expenses, reversing a pattern that bedeviled Flint in 2018. ...