Bloomberg John Gutfreund, who was proclaimed the “King of Wall Street” in 1985 for harnessing the egos and fiefdoms of Salomon Brothers into one of the most profitable investment-banking firms, only to be deposed after a 1991 trading scandal, has died. He was 86. He died on Wednesday at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York after suffering …

Beijing / AFP China’s consumer inflation jumped to 2.3 percent in February, its highest in nearly two years, official data showed on Thursday, in a positive sign for demand in the world’s second-largest economy. Food prices surged during the annual Lunar New Year holiday, with vegetable prices jumping 30.6 percent year-on. The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) released …

New Delhi / AFP India’s finance minister vowed on Thursday to recover more than $1 billion from heavily indebted Vijay Mallya, as a political row erupted over the flamboyant businessman’s surprise departure from the country. Arun Jaitley told parliament that Mallya’s grounded Kingfisher Airlines owed a group of mostly state-run banks some 90 billion rupees ($1.34 billion) in unpaid loans. …