The economic recession triggered by the drop of oil prices and the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused the country’s hydroelectric dams to run low, have combined to bring the once-booming Venezuela to its knee. Venezuela’s revenue, highly dependent on oil exports, has dropped from $80 billion in 2013 to between $20 billion and $25 billion in 2015, ...

  Justin Fox Amazon.com and Facebook had great earnings reports this week. They also reported spending a lot of money on the future. Capital spending was up 35 percent at Amazon and 125 percent at Facebook in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year. Research and development spending was up 28 percent at Amazon and 26 percent ...

People tend to fear spiders and snakes more than they do electrical sockets or fireworks, even though the latter present a far greater danger. This might help explain why humans have such a hard time seeing the threat of climate change. Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior can be understood only by studying our ancient ancestors. Through 99 ...

  The bugbear of deflation is threatening to claim new victims Down Under, after having already wreaked havoc across some of Asia’s biggest economies. The latest inflation data from Australia showed the world’s 12th-largest economy has slipped into deflation for the first time in seven years. Falling clothing, food and gasoline prices pushed the consumer price index down 0.2 percent ...

  Donald Trump’s foreign policy speech lays out what would be a disastrous course for the U.S. with regards to Russia and European security. On the other hand, for Europe and its eastern neighbor, the disengagement he is proposing might work out quite well — just not in the way Trump intends. Trump’s most specific statement — an extremely rare ...

  BLOOMBERG Equity markets in the United Arab Emirates extended declines on speculation recent gains were overdone after earnings fell at some of the country’s biggest banks. Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index slipped for a second day, dropping 0.8 percent to 4,506.14 at the close, the lowest level in more than two weeks. First Gulf Bank PJSC, the emirate’s third-largest ...

  ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has decreased by -0.99% to close at 4576.75 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has lost AED 7.44 billion attaining AED 742.41 billion. A total of 323.55 Million Shares were traded with a total value of AED 430.67 million during the trading session of 01-05-2016 through 4682 transactions. The number of companies ...

  Bloomberg China Construction Bank Corp., the nation’s second-largest lender, reported a 1.4 percent gain in first-quarter profit from a year earlier even as bad loans climbed. Net income rose to 68 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in the three months ended March 31, the Beijing-based lender said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Nonperforming loans jumped to ...

  Ankara / Reuters Turkey’s central bank will promote the head of its markets division to deputy governor, officials announced, elevating another banker with Islamic finance credentials to its policy-setting committee. Erkan Kilimci is due to be named as one of the bank’s four deputy governors shortly, the officials said, declining to be identified because the information has not yet ...

  Berlin / Reuters Restoring German banks’ financial ties with Iran will take time given debt owed to Berlin and transparency concerns, the head of the German banking association said, dampening expectations before a business summit in Tehran. Iran owes Germany about €500 million ($569 million) under so-called Hermes covers, a German government arrangement that protects German companies if foreign ...