Heading into this earnings cycle for the biggest US banks, analysts were already plenty worried about net interest income, which is how much the firms make from customers’ loan payments compared with what they pay on deposits. After all, long-term interest rates have plummeted since the end of last year amid signs of slowing global growth and the Federal Reserve ...

It was similar to the maligned film director who says, “My movie isn’t bad, the audience just isn’t smart enough to understand it.” Except this time it was the chief executive of a $30 billion telecoms equipment firm talking about his quarterly earnings. Ericsson AB’s adjusted operating profit hit 3.9 billion kronor ($415 million) in the three months to June, ...

Do people really care about income inequality? Or when they use the term, are they really thinking about something else? You would certainly think from the US political debate that Americans want to close the rich-poor wage gap. In 2013, President Barack Obama famously asserted that inequality is “the defining issue of our time.” Or take Senator Elizab- eth Warren, ...