A “festival of economics” sounds like a contradiction in terms. What next? A bacchanalia of boredom? A celebration of sophistry? Thomas Carlyle dubbed economics “the dismal science” for good reason. Yet Turin’s International Festival of Economics lived up to its billing. Giuseppe Laterza, the festival impresario, got the inspiration of the festival from two sources: the Hay-on-Wye book festival in ...

  In recent days, prominent venture capital funds have come out with survival tips for their portfolio companies. While asking startup founders to tighten their belt is sound advice, it’s worth wondering when venture capital titans might be urged by their investors to scale back their own pay, too. Their compensation has been rising fast. Last year, median cash pay ...

  Inflation in the euro area surged to 8.1% in the year to May, yet again higher than expected. Up to now, despite signs that inflation was getting entrenched, the European Central Bank (ECB) had chosen to stand pat. It had its reasons, but they’re no longer persuasive. The ECB’s task is difficult, to put it mildly — and only ...

Bloomberg Frontier Group Holdings Inc sweetened the terms of its takeover offer for Spirit Airlines Inc and won support from a key proxy advisory firm, giving the ultra-discount carrier new momentum as it tries to fend off a rival bid by JetBlue Airways Corp. Frontier agreed to pay $250 million, or $2.23 a share, to Spirit if the deal collapses ...

  Bloomberg Boeing Co won’t launch a new jetliner any time soon to address Airbus SE’s widening sales lead in the narrow-body market, Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun said. Prominent customers like Air Lease Corp founder Steven Udvar-Hazy have been calling on Boeing to get moving on the mid-sized aircraft family Calhoun tabled two years ago. But there are no ...

  Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc expects revenue to balloon well above its original expectations this quarter as consumers swarm back to travel following the pandemic, helping the carrier absorb the impact of higher jet-fuel prices and other expenses. Total revenue will jump by as much as 13% over the same period of 2019, the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline said ...

Bloomberg UK travellers are bracing for further widespread disruption as airports and roads struggle to cope with a surge in people returning from Jubilee weekend getaways and London Tube workers head out on strike. Lengthy queues are expected at airport passport controls while roads will be clogged with 19 million drivers expected to get behind the wheel over the weekend, ...

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc said it needs another two quarters or so to work through an inventory surge that prompted markdowns and contributed to last month’s steep stock decline. About a fifth of the 32% jump in inventories last quarter came from merchandise piling up more quickly than the company wanted, said John Furner, chief of Walmart’s US operations. Another ...

  Bloomberg Starbucks said it’s reopening its stores in Shanghai after a wave of Covid-19 infections and government lockdowns hurt its business in key Chinese market. The Seattle-based company has reopened 600 of its 940 stores in the city, a spokeswoman said by email. Starbucks is moving quickly to restart business there on just the third day of Shanghai’s official ...

Bloomberg Several explosions took place in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday with no casualties reported, Kyiv authorities said, while air defense forces shot down another Russian missile in the region. Kyiv was last struck around the end of April. The situation in the eastern Luhansk region, where Russian troops continue to storm the city of Sievierodonetsk, remains “extremely difficult,” Governor ...