Opinion

July Ndlovu, the boss of Anglo American Plc coal spin-off Thungela Resources Ltd, did his rival Glencore Plc a big favour earlier this year. When Thungela began trading as a separate company in June, Ndlovu told Bloomberg he wanted to increase output of the fossil fuel: “I didn’t take up this role to close these mines.” Glencore is the last ...

Future US pensioners should feel pretty happy about their golden goose. A strong stock market, coupled with a dovish Federal Reserve, has buffed up their retirement accounts. For the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, corporate pension plans are edging close to being fully funded. Over the past year, their collective retirement pot has grown an average 15.6%, data ...

Texans think very highly of Texas. This has always been the case, at least in my experience, but during a recent trip to Austin I noticed a deeper development: Texans are beginning to come to terms with their state’s history — and they are less concerned about past misdeeds than about future achievements. The relevant “monument” in Austin at the ...

The Royal Standard flag representing the Queen was lowered for the last time in almost 400 years over Barbados, the Caribbean island that is now a republic with a president as head of state. At the handover ceremony declaring Barbados’s constitutional independence, Prince Charles gave a contrite speech and Rihanna was formally declared a national hero. That does not sound ...

Somehow, China’s currency doesn’t come up in conversation so much anymore. The mercantilist approach of the Trump administration has been abandoned, and the level of the yuan is no longer a geopolitical flashpoint. However, perhaps we should all pay more attention. The yuan is now at its strongest in more than three years versus the US dollar. The last time ...

Supposedly, US President Joe Biden’s “Summit for Democracy” — which begins on December 9 — would show America was back as leader of the free world. Unfortunately, the Biden administration isn’t big on either thoughtfulness before the fact, or justification after. And in many parts of the world, including here in South Asia, the summit is likely to do more ...

After years of stumbles and underperformance, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is finally stepping aside as chief executive. The long-awaited move creates an opportunity for the social media platform to regain its footing, but there is much to be done. The company’s board announced that Twitter veteran Parag Agrawal, who has served as chief technology officer since 2017, will succeed Dorsey ...

More than a decade after Lloyd Blankfein, then-boss of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, claimed banks do “god’s work,” the finance industry still struggles to convince the public it’s a force for good. A new chapter in this debate has erupted in Europe where hedge funds and national governments can’t agree on what constitutes “good” financial speculation. Funds who bet that ...

Since the summer, it’s not been a fun time to be a central banker: What with not-so-transitory inflation playing havoc with official targets and leading to some pretty terrible attempts at forward guidance. Let’s look at Bank of England (BOE). But the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has not been the only major institution struggling to chart a clear course ...

A possible delisting of DiDi Global Inc at the behest of Beijing risks repercussions well beyond the fortunes of those who bought into the Chinese ride-hailing company. Tech companies from Tencent Holdings Ltd and SoftBank Corp to asset managers BlackRock Inc and Vanguard Group need to be prepared. In using national security as an excuse to reverse Didi’s June offering ...