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How Europe could help the UK to cancel Brexit

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s meeting on Friday with President Emmanuel Macron of France is part of a wider effort to sell her Chequers plan for Brexit to European Union heads of government – and to loosen the grip of Michel Barnier, the unyielding civil servant who’s conducting the negotiations on their behalf. Her campaign is failing. Europe doesn’t like ...

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Free trade is rare and certainly no utopia

President Donald Trump recently suggested the removal of all tariffs and non-tariff barriers to global trade. Sounds intriguing, but free trade is rare and it’s certainly no utopia. Historically, it’s been largely confined to periods when a major global power promoted the free exchange of products in its own enlightened self-interest. That was true of Great Britain in the 19th ...

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HSBC’s cost problem is a downer for investors

HSBC Holdings Plc investors should strap in for a bumpy ride. With costs rising in the first half, the London-based lender may find tamping down expenses a challenge as it moves ahead with its pivot to Asia and a focus on China’s Pearl River Delta. The brewing trade war that has swept across the bank’s largest markets in the region ...

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