Tokyo / AFP Money-losing Sharp on Thursday accepted a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the parent of Taiwan’s Foxconn, ending speculation over its uncertain future with the first foreign takeover of a major Japanese electronics firm. Sharp — which has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for years — had been mulling rival offers from Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision, better known as …

Bangkok / AFP Thai exports fell by nearly nine percent in January, their worst drop in more than four year as economic woes continue to pile up on the kingdom’s military rulers, government figures released Thursday showed. Once one of Southeast Asia’s most vibrant and successful economies, Thailand has struggled with lacklustre growth fuelled by more than a decade of …

Say it ain’t so, Doug. From 2009 to early 2015, Douglas Elmendorf was the widely respected director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he repeatedly warned lawmakers that chronic deficits are unsustainable, pose long-term dangers — and that shrinking them sooner rather than later would make the task easier. Now, economist Elmendorf, who has become dean of the Kennedy School …