Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should abandon a scheduled increase in the sales tax this year as it risks pushing Japan’s economy into recession and hampering efforts to generate stable inflation, according to former economy minister Heizo Takenaka. “Of course a sales tax hike would increase the possibility of a recession,” said Takenaka, who is now a professor at Toyo ...

Bloomberg Germany’s effort to catch up to the digital age starts this week when the gavel falls on the auction for the airwaves to build ultra-fast 5G wireless networks. The rollout of the technology is critical as Europe’s biggest economy seeks to transition away from its reliance on old-school engineering. The country lags behind the likes of Albania and Moldova ...

Bloomberg Bruce Flatt put Wall Street’s biggest private equity players on notice that the Canadian juggernaut was coming for them three years ago. The head of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. told Bloom-berg Television then that his firm — pushing into private equity — should be mentioned in the same breath as Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP and KKR & ...