Opinion

  Microsoft Corp is going all in on gaming. The technology behemoth announced an agreement to buy Activision Blizzard Inc for $69 billion in cash. If the deal goes through, it would become the biggest acquisition in the company’s history. But is this mega-deal a smart move? At first blush, the merger makes sense. Gaming is one of the largest ...

  Forecasts for a second year of strong global growth face two main dangers: the health of China’s economy and the prospect of much higher US interest rates. How the world’s commercial poles navigate these risks will determine whether 2021’s rapid expansion was a blip or whether the recovery will outlive the pandemic. China appears determined to quash — rather ...

From the way people have worried about it, you might think that the world’s value chains have been in turmoil for much of the past two years. Searches for the term “supply chain” on Google roughly doubled between June and October, when they briefly overtook “interest rates” as a topic of concern. That coincides with a period when the cost ...

  New European bond issuance had a hesitant start to 2022, with the first week constrained by the release of hawkish minutes from the Federal Reserve. But the second week more than made up for it: A new record was set with over 144 billion euros ($165 billion) of Europe-originated syndicated bond deals printed so far this year. This week’s ...

  Many of us fantasize about quitting our jobs. In 2021, more people than ever turned that dream into reality. The latest US Bureau of Labour Statistics data show that 4.53 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last November. This was both a new monthly record and the eighth successive reading above the pre-pandemic high. In the UK, the story ...

  Through the latter decades of the Cold War, there was little cooperation or alignment between the Soviet Union and China. The Russians had a far more developed global military presence, a higher level of ambition to impose their ideology on others, and a much bigger economy. China was primarily focused inwardly, struggling (and eventually succeeding) in lifting most of ...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) spent a record $30 billion last year on factories that churn out the world’s most-advanced chips. It seems that wasn’t enough. This year, it’s decided to up the ante by forecasting a budget of as much as $44 billion. Rivals better watch out. “Every year our capex is spent in anticipation of the growth that ...

The great economic rebalancing between capital and labour is finally here — in banking at least. The share prices of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc and most other US banks tumbled after both banks reported higher costs for 2021 and predicted more inflation to come, most of which is being driven by higher pay. What is more, the jump ...

At long last, President Joe Biden has settled on a candidate for one of the biggest jobs in global finance: the vice chair for bank supervision at the Federal Reserve. The nominee — Duke University law professor Sarah Bloom Raskin — is a good choice for what will be an immensely challenging assignment. First, it’s worth noting that everyone on ...

  GlaxoSmithKline Plc is right to snub Unilever Plc’s 50 billion-pound ($68 billion) proposal to buy the UK drugmaker’s consumer healthcare arm. Unilever’s offer may be in the ballpark, but the consumer-goods giant can justify stretching further — and could easily be forced to. The asset is a unique business with scale and strong brands, including Panadol painkillers and Sensodyne ...