Monopoly power is a hot topic of economic debate. Economists are starting to ask whether increasing industrial concentration is choking off productivity growth, reducing capital investment, throttling or deterring would-be entrepreneurs, raising consumer prices, and reducing the share of national income flowing to workers. This is a good and important effort. But it’s also possible that with all the attention ...

Yields on 10-year US government bonds have risen 40 basis points since September, about as much as German 10-year Bunds yield in total. The more than 200 basis point difference between the two debt market bellwethers is increasingly difficult to justify. It’s the lack of yield in Europe that looks out of whack. Just like the US, growth is picking ...

Preaching morality while practicing cupidity can be tricky, but various American governments have done it for years regarding smoking. This mental contortion now has a new chapter. The four largest American tobacco companies (Altria, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, Philip Morris) are, under government compulsion, funding newspaper and television ads to tell — actually, to remind — people that their products are ...

Bloomberg A provision in the new tax law, intended to prevent American companies from shifting profits abroad to benefit from a lower overseas rate, might also hit the largest foreign banks with significant US operations. Under the Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax, commonly called BEAT, payments made by US businesses to related companies abroad must be counted when calculating global ...

Bloomberg The last day of a bitter year for China’s non-bank borrowers proved to be especially painful: they’re now paying a record premium for short-term funds. As interbank lending rates climbed due to banks hoar-ding cash for year-end regulatory checks, the increase was especially significant for non-bank financial institutions, such as securities and insurance companies. A measure of what they’re ...

Bloomberg Egypt selected five banks to manage a Eurobond sale of about $4 billion, the finance minister said, as the nation taps cheaper funding sources to bridge its budget gap. The government selected HSBC Holdings Plc, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi for the sale scheduled around January, Amr El-Garhy said ...

Bloomberg Punjab National Bank, India’s second-largest state-run lender, will be able to avoid massive losses after the government forced delinquent borrowers to repay loans or face liquidation proceedings under a new law. The interest and bids received so far for assets put up for sale by India’s new bankruptcy court indicates that the bank may not have to take “huge ...

Bloomberg German inflation slowed, underscoring the challenge the European Central Bank will face in 2018 as it gradually removes its stimulus program. Consumer prices rose an annual 1.6 percent, the Federal Statistics Office said. Inflation has remained tepid in Germany even as record-low unemployment bolsters private consumption and a recovery in global trade fuels exports and investment. The Bundesbank this ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. is withdrawing from an industry pact designed to allow financial advisers to change companies without being sued by for- mer employers, further unrav- eling the accord after Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AG said they would pull out. “Similar to others in the industry, Citi has decided to exit the protocol,” company spokesman Drew Benson said in ...

Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB’s Swedish mortgage loan book continued to shrink in November after the biggest Nordic lender saw the first decline in at least 15 years the previous month. The mortgage book fell to 443.5 billion kronor ($54 billion) in November from 444.7 billion kronor in October, according to Statistics Sweden data. The decline acceler- ated to more than ...