Opinion

It’s never good when a CEO has to kick off his company’s year-end earnings report, as Kraft Heinz Co.’s did by saying: “While our 2019 results were disappointing …” Disappointing is putting it mildly, though. Try miserable. To recap: It was one year ago this month that the packaged-food manufacturer suffered a $15.4 billion writedown because of damage — largely ...

Two months after suffering its worst general election result for 84 years, Britain’s Labour Party continues to pick up the pieces. While Boris Johnson’s Conservatives govern with an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, Labour is simultaneously reflecting on its thrashing and electing a successor to outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn. This week saw the publication by Lord Ashcroft — ...

If the past is any guide — and it certainly will be — President Trump’s ambitious attempts to cut federal spending will almost certainly come to naught. The historical record is clear. As a practical matter, once government programs are created, they’re virtually impossible to kill, even if they’ve outlived their usefulness. Veterans of past budget wars (including me) going ...

Within a few months of joining UBS Group AG in 2011, Sergio Ermotti found himself in just the right place. Switzerland’s biggest bank needed to restore stability after a spate of trading losses, and the newcomer was quickly elevated to the chief executive role. His exit isn’t going so smoothly. Ermotti, 59, has signalled that he plans to step down ...

Any new chief executive likes to make their own mark. For Patrik Frisk, who took the helm of Under Armour Inc. last month, there’s even more reason than most. While founder Kevin Plank has ceded the role of CEO, he’s staying around as chairman and brand chief at the maker of athletic apparel. At first glance, the surprise sales and ...

The European Union’s (EU) aspiration to be a pacesetter in the global fight against the climate crisis is laudable. Even better, the bloc’s leaders want to bake financial innovation into their plans, giving their member countries (and companies and the region’s financial industry) a leg up in the rush to fund infrastructure projects that may literally save the planet. But ...

With more than two-score coronavirus infections and the threat raised to the second-highest level of severity, Singapore may not want to leave anything to chance when the budget is unveiled next week. The city-state is building an early reputation for handling the crisis professionally. Hong Kong, which is getting brickbats for ineptitude, will take note of its arch-rival’s fiscal defense. ...

Deutsche Bank AG is back — at least if its ability to sell the riskiest type of debt is a yardstick. After a six-year hiatus marked by a flirtation with collapse, billions of euros of losses, multiple management changes and its biggest restructuring in decades, Deutsche is going into the deep end of fixed-income risk: a benchmark perpetual bond (known ...

Nordstrom Inc.’s seven-story New York flagship at Broadway and 57th Street is home to a velvet-lined Nike boutique, a facial massage studio in the heart of the shoe floor and lots of expensive new merchandise. That’s how it’s always been at Nordstrom. But last month brought something new with the opening of See You Tomorrow, a luxury apparel resale boutique ...

Every society in the world is going to pay a price for global warming. But it’s the poorest countries and communities who will suffer the most from rising seas and burning lands — and likely also from any drastic measures taken to prevent climate change. The environmental crisis is closely linked to the humanitarian one, and requires the joint action ...