Bloomberg Copper is poised to drop this year as higher US interest rates and elections in Europe curb demand, according to the chairman of China’s second-largest refiner of the metal. Prices will end the year lower than where they started, Jiangxi Copper Co. Chairman Li Baomin said in an interview in Beijing as the government announced growth plans for …

  The new push for a “multi-speed Europe,” in which only those countries that want a closer union pursue it, will almost inevitably fuel resentment in Eastern Europe, where politicians are already up in arms about being treated as second-class Europeans. A battle over food quality has become a major proxy for that resentment. The Visegrad Four — Poland, the …

  European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is set to preside over a lot of nothing happening at policy meeting. This would be a missed opportunity. Bundesbank actions are worsening already-dangerous inefficiencies in European markets, and undermining the impact of the ECB’s bond purchases. Draghi has to demonstrate that his Governing Council is not controlled by the Germans. Financial creativity …