It was their first face-to-face meeting at the White House. And they were not goody-goody about each other. US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried utmost to sidestep the issues that could be a spoiler in their first public appearance. Their inability to shake hands in the Oval Office spoke volume about the meet. During presidential …

  Michael Hasenstab, the star bond investor, says he’s betting against the euro as a “hedge against populism.” This, however, is a narrative that’s going out of fashion; it won’t define the euro’s performance this year. In the summer of 2014, Hasenstab defended his Templeton Global Bond Fund’s investment in Ukrainian bonds by saying, “What we liked was that everyone …

  Another storied occupation is on its way out and the replacement is neither robots nor foreign workers. We’re witnessing the death of the shoe salesman. Macy’s recently said it would convert more shoe departments to an “open sell” format, where customers serve themselves from stacks of boxes. J.C. Penney is experimenting with the format. It’s the way sales have …