Analysts are trying urgently to evaluate the potential impact of a full-fledged trade war on the Chinese economy. This typically involves estimating how much various tariff scenarios will reduce China’s GDP growth, with current estimates ranging from the minimal, 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points, to the substantial — 2 percentage points. This is probably the right way to evaluate the ...

Getting two management teams to agree on a deal to create the world’s largest industrial gases group was hard enough. Finalising the combination of Praxair Inc and Linde AG is proving harder still. The former, in particular, should be asking if the benefits really are worth it. The possibility of a transaction surfaced in August 2016. An agreement to create ...

Global investors are positioned for a coordinated tightening of monetary policy by the world’s major central banks. Although the US Federal Reserve is already far down that path, the others are just getting started. The European Central Bank is set to end its bond purchase program by year-end. The Bank of England is leaning towards hiking interest rates for only ...