New York / AFP Confronted with a sluggish global economy, US companies have settled on a controversial tool that rewards shareholders and executives: share buybacks. First permitted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 1982, the use of share buybacks has spread rapidly over the last five years due in part to pressure from activist investors anxious for a ...

Washington / AFP US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Europe’s powerful competition commissioner that the EU review of tax breaks given to multinationals could have an “outsized” impact on US companies. In a recent meeting , Lew expressed concerns to Margrethe Vestager, who is leading the campaign to end excessive tax breaks by EU members to huge multinational firms, that ...

Reuters Argentina’s auto production will hold steady or drop slightly this year as sales are hit by the steep recession in main trading partner Brazil, the ADEFA association of vehicle makers said on Saturday. “The external situation will remain complicated,” the president of ADEFA, Enrique Alemany, said in a statement published online. “There are no prospects for a Brazilian recovery.” ...