Bloomberg Italy’s two populist parties, rivals and allies in the governing coalition, face off in regional elections in the small northern region of Trentino-Alto Adige as they seek an edge in their national power struggle. As voters in the semi-autonomous, largely German-speaking provinces of Trento and Bolzano, head to the polls Sunday, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and the anti-immigration, ...

It is a sign of the times — the kind involving the seven-horned beast, and the rain of fire, and the end of days — that recent news has been dominated by Kanye, Stormy and the misogynist boor who is president of these United States. It would be a circus if it were not a crime scene, complete with credible ...

Earlier this month, IKEA Group published its annual Life at Home report, which surveys more than 22,000 people in 22 countries. It’s an intriguing look at what the home-furnishings giant describes as the “four dimensions that are shared by everyone, no matter where or how we live — space, place, relationships and things.” Two of those elements, space and things, ...

If Bank OZK is any indication, investors will be a lot less patient with banks than they were a decade ago the next time trouble hits. Worse, OZK’s recent results may indicate that there is indeed trouble ahead. OZK, a midsize bank based in Little Rock, Arkansas, that has become one of the nation’s most aggressive commercial real estate lenders, ...

On Saturday, more than 100,000 people marched through central London to demand a second vote on Brexit. They’re about the only ones talking sense on the matter. No one knows where negotiations over the UK’s exit from the European Union will end up. (Things are not looking great.) But it’s now obvious that no one heading to the polls in ...

India’s government is caught in a bind. It needs money to appease voters ahead of a tighter-than-expected reelection campaign. But it’s also set praiseworthy deficit targets for itself that it’s already breached once. So it could use new ways to finance more spending. Such pressure often leads to bad decisions. This week, a senior official suggested that one solution might ...

Procter & Gamble Co.’s (P&G) 2019 outlook is starting to look more attainable. The company behind brands such as Pampers diapers and Dawn dish soap reported that organic sales — a figure that excludes M&A and currency effects — rose a robust 4 percent in the first quarter over a year earlier. That made for P&G’s strongest growth on this measure ...

As another top Scandinavian bank faces money-laundering accusations, it’s clear that the rules are changing for European lenders under intense US pressure. A closer scrutiny of clients with links to the former Soviet Union and other high-corruption regions is fast becoming a necessity. Though the motives behind the pressure can be questioned, the outcome is mostly positive for Europe. Its ...

Bloomberg Package maker Sealed Air Corp fell the most in six months after saying higher raw material costs would crimp the bottom line. A few days earlier it was rising freight outlays at Fastenal Co., where $1.1 billion of market value was erased. On October 9, paint maker PPG Industries Inc. mentioned rising expenses. The shares cratered. From railroads to ...

Bloomberg Sweden’s central bank could next week give a clearer signal that it’s ready to tighten already in December as policy maker are growing eager to end almost four years of negative interest rates. Governor Stefan Ingves and his colleagues are on Wed-nesday expected to keep their benchmark unchanged at minus 0.5 percent, but could signal a greater probability that ...