For Jaguar Land Rover, the only way out of its deep pothole may be to get a tow from China. The luxury unit of Tata Motors Ltd posted dismal fiscal first-quarter results, recording an unexpected pretax loss of 264 million pounds ($346 million) after running into trouble in many of its main markets. JLR, usually the profit engine for Tata, ...
Read More »Opinion
Too many jobs feel meaningless because they are
As earnings season is upon us, it’s worth asking: Does business create value these days the way it once did? One sign it doesn’t is a significant decline in the formation rate of US firms over the past few decades. Economists Peter Orszag and Jason Furman have argued that investment and innovation have taken a back seat to profits derived ...
Read More »EU hurtles towards a pyrrhic Brexit victory
There were a few “Amens†coming from the UK after Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, reportedly told The Sunday Times that “there is no objectivity or good faith from the European side†when it comes to the bargaining over the terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union. He urged UK Prime Minister Theresa May to hold ...
Read More »BoJ has found some cover for tapering
When a central bank feels the need to tell the world that its monetary policy is “continuous†and “powerful,†you know investors will conclude that it’s neither. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has finally created some cover for stealth tapering. The BOJ left its main stance unchanged on Tuesday. It’s holding the short-term policy rate (which it charges banks ...
Read More »Walking dead reincarnated at Credit Suisse Group
Credit Suisse Group AG was not long ago ranked alongside Deutsche Bank AG as a basket-case bank whose CEO was a possible “dead man walking.†Yet Tidjane Thiam has shaken off that prognosis by essentially copying his Swiss rival UBS Group AG. He’s shrunk his firm’s trading unit to focus on wealth management, all while cutting costs. And it’s paid ...
Read More »Trump’s tech tariffs are awesome, for SE Asia
Donald Trump may well be the best thing that’s happened to Southeast Asia’s humble electronics industry in quite a while. Relatively small, and frankly not as sexy as their North Asia cousins, makers of components and devices with factories dotted around the region may get some time in the spotlight thanks to the US administration’s decision last month to levy ...
Read More »Japan is going global as America looks inward
If a random American were to be asked “Which countries are at the forefront of globalisation?†or “Which countries are the guardians of the liberal order?,†it seems unlikely that Japan would be among the countries they named. The Land of the Rising Sun is typically thought of as a closed-off country, with little immigration, a protectionist trade policy and ...
Read More »GDP growth data shows how little things have changed
The second-quarter gross domestic product data released recently showed a robust 4.1 percent increase. It wasn’t “historic,†as President Donald Trump proclaimed, but it was undoubtedly solid. With midterm elections a little more than three months away, it is no surprise the release became fodder in our endless national political debate. Lots of misinformation and questionable claims were proffered. But ...
Read More »Gauging the Fed’s reaction to Trump’s tweet
Judging from commentary in markets late last week, an additional factor now features in the calculus of some Fed watchers as they look forward to this week’s two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting: how policy makers will respond to President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting that the central bank refrain from raising interest rates and risk â€taking away our big competitive ...
Read More »London traders are frogs boiling in a Brexit pot
The news that the Deutsche Bank AG has transferred about half of its business clearing euro-denominated derivatives to Frankfurt from London shouldn’t come as a surprise. But it’s another reminder that money flows to where it feels most welcome and stays where it’s well treated — and post-Brexit London is set to be a more hostile environment for finance. Even ...
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