The hostility towards Wall Street remains so great that both political parties say, in their platforms, that they’d like to break up America’s biggest banks. But before engaging in this drastic economic surgery, it’s worth examining whether Dodd-Frank is working. Recall that the law, named after its congressional sponsors, former Sen. Senator Christopher Dodd and former Rep. Barney Frank, ...

  In the latest effort to prop up economy and spur growth, Japan’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a massive 28-trillion yen stimulus package, including cash to improve infrastructure and raise the birth rate in the ageing nation. Undoubtedly, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has deployed many strategies to goad the economy to grow. He somehow convinced the country’s central bank to ...

  Lionel Laurent Italy has a well-known problem: A stack of bad loans on the books of its banks and nobody willing to buy them at current prices. Until investors get more reassurance on what these loans are truly worth, Italian banks won’t emerge from their crisis — and will suffer more losses in future. The plan to rescue Banca ...

  Helicopter money is back in the headlines amid speculation that Japan may turn in desperation to the final chapter of the handbook of unconventional monetary policy. But there’s an alternative to handing consumers a one-time payment in the hopes they’ll spend it: Give them a permanent wage hike instead. Milton Friedman’s thought experiment about whirlybirds dropping cash from the ...

  Istanbul / AFP President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday launched his most bitter attack yet on Turkey’s Western allies over the July 15 attempted putsch, accusing them of supporting both “terror” and the coup plotters who tried to unseat him. Erdogan, who blames the plot on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, also described the coup as a “scenario written ...

  Tripoli / AFP More than 60,000 people have fled South Sudan since violence escalated in the oil-producing nation about four weeks ago, amid reports of gunmen killing civilians, looting villages and forcibly recruiting youths, the United Nations said. The number of refugees seeking shelter in Uganda has doubled in the past 10 days, with more than 52,000 arriving since ...

  Lagos / AFP Five rebels were killed as Nigerian troops thwarted a Boko Haram attack near the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the epicentre of the seven-year insurgency, the army said on Tuesday. “Troops of Operation LAFIYA DOLE accompanied by Civilian JTF successfully thwarted an attempt by Boko Haram terrorists on Yauri community at the outskirts of Maiduguri city, Borno ...

  Geneva / AFP Global migrant deaths have topped 4,000 in the first seven months of this year, a 26-percent increase in the fatality rate compared with the same period of 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday. The total of 4,027 migrant deaths this year includes those who perished crossing the Mediterranean as well as others who ...

  Tripoli / AFP Forces loyal to Libya’s unity government have advanced inside the extremist stronghold of Sirte, they said on Tuesday, following the first US air strikes on IS group positions in the city. Fighters backing the Government of National Accord (GNA) seized the central district of Al-Dollar after clashes that killed five of their members and wounded 17, ...

  Pretoria / AFP The Syrian regime’s key ally Russia launched heavy air strikes overnight on the outskirts of divided Aleppo city, slowing a “last-chance” assault by rebels seeking to break a government siege. The assault began on Sunday and is intended to ease the encirclement of the opposition-held east of Aleppo city, where an estimated 250,000 residents have been ...