In a rare bout of introspection, the European Central Bank has conceded that it’s partly to blame for creating the landscape that led to the misadventures in illiquidity that undid Neil Woodford and prompted investors to pull billions of dollars out of GAM Holding AG and H2O Asset Management. It’s right to be worried about asset managers stocking up on ...

After its $11.2 billion Hong Kong share sale, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will be sitting on $43 billion in cash. That sounds like a great problem to have. Only one publicly listed, non-financial company has more: Apple Inc., at $49 billion. Then you realise that management literally has more money than it knows what to do with. Sitting on the ...

If you see a flowering of “palm-oil free” labels on supermarket shelves next year, then thank Indonesian drivers, President Donald Trump’s trade negotiators, and sickly pigs in China. Palm oil — the red, semi-solid fat used in everything from noodles and soap to pastry and lipstick — has rarely been less attractive to consumer-product manufacturers. That isn’t so much a ...