First the good news: Homelessness in the US is down. In the mid-2000s, President George W. Bush’s ‘housing first’ program made substantial inroads against the problem. President Barack Obama continued the campaign with the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program in 2009 and a follow-up program in 2010. As a result of these efforts, the nationwide homeless population has continued ...

The world doesn’t like its essential commodities being controlled by a small group of producers. Less than a year after BHP Billiton Ltd. announced plans to merge its iron ore operations with those of Rio Tinto Group in 2009, the proposal was dropped amid expectations that regulators in Europe and Asia would oppose the deal on antitrust grounds. So why ...

A pattern has emerged in Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s response to various legislative bodies’ interest in his company. The more informed and pointed questions legislators want to ask, the less time Zuckerberg is willing to spend answering them. That should mean it’s probably time to stop asking and start acting in specific areas that have been adequately pinpointed ...

Bloomberg Anyone with a sense of symmetry can appreciate the S&P 500 Index right now. After bouncing all year, the equity benchmark just spent a week sitting at the precise midpoint of this year’s trading range. A perfect 50 percent retracement, in the language of technical analysis. Which is to say, it’s stopped moving — at least for the last ...

Bloomberg Traders could be forgiven if flashbacks of the euro zone crisis come back to haunt them as the euro slid to a six-month low and risk premiums on Spanish and Italian bonds soared amid rising political risks. European risk assets took a massive pounding ahead of a long weekend in London as investors fled from riskier bonds, stocks and ...

Bloomberg For years, Swiss private banks largely resisted the temptation to merge with rivals. Often run by proud families, few wanted to let go of their independence or dilute their legacies. While local giants UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG went through painful reorganisations, smaller banks had time to continue with business as usual, even winning over disaffected ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co.’s new public finance chief Stratford Shields is shaking up the department by dismissing senior bankers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and bringing in colleagues from his former employer, Morgan Stanley. Fifteen employees from its public finance department were removed, retired or quit as the bank shifted its strategy, according to a person familiar ...

Bloomberg The Bank of Korea (BoK) stayed the course amid rising uncertainty, leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged in a unanim-ous decision. The central bank is balancing concerns including record household debt and recent weak domestic economic data with external risks such as rising US interest rates and global emerging-market instability. Governor Lee Ju-yeol described uncertainties as high, and as ...

Bloomberg Kenya plans to overhaul legislation governing its financial sector by creating new agencies that regulate the cost of credit and protect consumers, according to a draft law on the Treasury’s website. The Financial Markets Conduct Bill seeks to “promote a fair, non-discriminatory marketplace for access to credit, to provide for the establishment of uniform practices and standards in relation ...

Bloomberg Nigerian central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele’s tight monetary-policy stance and system of multiple exchange rates may have paid off through slowing inflation and a stable naira, and he’s not about to change that soon. The MPC has kept its benchmark interest rate at a record 14 percent since July 2016 despite calls to lower rates to support economic growth. ...