If President Trump fires Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, that won’t necessarily be the end of his investigation. Power to continue the probe, and report on its findings, could also rest with Beryl Howell, who as chief judge of the federal district court here oversees the Mueller grand jury. To prepare for the crisis that Mueller’s firing would cause, ...
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Good news is no longer unspeakable in Japan
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is crossing an important threshold. It’s about time. Once off limits, Japan’s eventual exit from ultra-loose monetary policy is now a public topic for Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. In testimony to the Japanese parliament this week, he said there are internal discussions on how to begin to withdraw from the bond buying that’s kept interest rates ...
Read More »Four ways for technology wizards to perfect the world
A new season of the Mike Judge’s HBO comedy ‘Silicon Valley’ is happily upon us, which means that over the next two months or so we’ll be getting regular reminders of one of the show’s recurring themes: that those who toil in the Valley care about nothing so much as making the world a better place. Or, as Gavin Belson, ...
Read More »BOJ buys record $7.8 billion of Japanese ETFs to support market
TOKYO / Reuters The Bank of Japan (BOJ) bought the largest amount of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on record in March as the central bank supported a market hit by a rising yen and fears of a global trade war. The central bank, which usually buys ETFs to support the market when shares fall in morning trade, said it bought a ...
Read More »Easter price push keeps ECB on track for ending stimulus
BRUSSELS / Reuters An early Easter helped drive a pick-up in euro zone inflation in March, keeping the European Central Bank on track with preparations to wind down its huge stimulus programme in coming months. Inflation in the 19 countries sharing the euro was 1.4 percent year-on-year, European Union statistics office Eurostat estimated on Wednesday — in line with market ...
Read More »â€˜Oman has means to maintain its currency peg’
Bloomberg Oman has the means to maintain its currency peg and has no plans to change it even though the decline in oil prices has hurt its finances, central bank Governor Tahir Al Amri said. Oman’s gross foreign currency reserves, which stood at $19.6 billion at the end of January, are enough to cover nearly nine months’ worth of imports, ...
Read More »Romanian central bank keeps main interest rate on hold
BUCHAREST / Reuters Romania’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate on hold at 2.25 percent on Wednesday, it said, likely waiting to assess the impact of two consecutive hikes it delivered earlier this year on rising inflation. Nine of ten analysts polled by Reuters last month had expected the bank to hike interest rates by a quarter point. A ...
Read More »India’s RBI set to keep bond market party going
Bloomberg India’s government kicked off a party in the bond market last week. And the central bank won’t want to spoil that. While Governor Urjit Patel and his monetary policy committee have turned more hawkish on inflation recently, they are set to hold the benchmark interest rate at 6 percent, according to all 26 economists in a Bloomberg survey. That ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank should scale back US business: JPMorgan
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG needs to scale back its US operations and focus on serving European companies to unlock capital and improve returns, according to analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. The US business “consumes material balance sheet resources†while suffering from “persistently low profitability,†Kian Abouhossein and Amit Ranjan wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. The alternative ...
Read More »Trump-Xi tariff war hits Boeing, spurs Airbus to cruise ahead
Bloomberg Boeing Co., the biggest US exporter, suffered a setback in China after the country proposed an additional 25 percent tariff on US aircraft in a retaliatory move, giving rival Airbus SE a leg-up in a market set to the become the world’s biggest. In a tit-for-tat response to tariffs by President Donald Trump, China announced the planned levy on ...
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