With the traditional department store in its death throes, Macy’s Inc. is doing its best to keep the concept alive. The struggling retailer last week unveiled a strategic blueprint to defend its business against the twin threats of online and discount competitors. The centerpiece is closing 125 of its department stores over the next three years, including some 30 locations ...

It’s easy to announce an initial public offering in Europe, but far harder to complete it. Don’t be distracted by the handful of decent-sized share issues launched in January. The recent evidence suggests that the target audience for European IPOs is smaller, fussier and harder to reach than it used to be. Some 17 offerings totaling 1.4 billion euros were ...

Germany made post-war history on February 5. In a total shock, one of the country’s 16 state parliaments elected a premier with votes that included members of a hard-right populist party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Worse, one of the AfD leaders in that state, Thuringia, is Bjoern Hoecke, considered to be on the party’s extreme — indeed proto-Fascist — ...