Bloomberg The Bank of England’s corporate-bond purchase program, announced on Thursday, has been met by skepticism from some credit market analysts, who say precedents across the Channel don’t bode well for the program’s ability to stimulate issuance. While credit market observers reckon the BOE’s corporate-bond program will engineer a modest reduction in borrowing costs across the sterling bond market …

  Japanese growth is still sluggish. Consumers aren’t consuming much, and businesses aren’t investing. The government doesn’t have many options to remedy this, and the Bank of Japan, which has sent both long-term and short-term interest rates into negative territory, has basically no more room to maneuver. The dreaded Zero Lower Bound is starting to bite. The BOJ is buying …

  Mac Margolis Every four years, political leaders have tried to set aside feuds and celebrate the world’s best athletes as they compete for medals and glory — a tradition that harkens back to the first Olympic Games held in Greece some 3,000 years ago. Apparently, the Brazilians didn’t get the message. One day before the opening ceremonies for the …