Can Nikolai Kondratieff save us — or destroy us? You say: Nikolai who? Kondratieff was a young Russian economist who died in prison in 1938. He developed an economic theory that purportedly explains both the dynamism and the destructiveness of the capitalist economic systems. The source of this explanatory power, he contended, was the existence of “long waves” or “long ...

A familiar band of fixers may be coming to JC Penney’s rescue. Can they do it again? Major mall operators Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners LP, along with Authentic Brands Group LLC, are in talks to buy the bankrupt department store chain, Bloomberg News reported. This coalition has taken similar action before, rescuing teen clothing retailer Aeropostale ...

Life isn’t about finding perfect solutions but making difficult trade-offs. So it is with the contact-tracing apps that are proliferating faster than I can keep up with. In Germany’s newly launched “Corona App”, it has got several trade-offs wrong, and should have learned from the experience of nimbler countries like Singapore. The goal, of course, is the same for all ...

The Federal Reserve realises that it doesn’t have to buy US corporate bonds, right? I ask this question only somewhat in jest. In a surprise move, the central bank announced that it would start to buy individual company bonds under its $250 billion Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, specifically by following a diversified index of US corporate bonds created expressly ...

Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc is planning to raise $5 billion by borrowing against its frequent-flyer program, pioneering a new tool for US carriers to boost liquidity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley have committed to provide the financing and arrange syndication, United said in a statement. The deal, which is expected to ...

Bloomberg The US government will allow Chinese airlines four flights a week into its airports, an expansion following China’s announcement it would permit the same number of operations by the Americans. In the latest action, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling on passenger flights between the two nations, the Transportation Department issued an order that doubles the number of operations permitted ...

Bloomberg American Airlines Group Inc is in talks to raise new financing to help it weather the collapse in travel demand during the pandemic, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company is working with Citigroup Inc on a potential junk bond offering that may be secured by collateral including airport slots and gates, said the people, who ...

Bloomberg The return of Boeing Co’s 737 Max to European skies is at risk of additional delays because US coronavirus travel restrictions have hindered planning for test flights by regulators from the continent. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will perform its flight tests on the grounded Boeing jet after the US Federal Aviation Administration conducts its own, said ...

Bloomberg The two largest mall landlords and Authentic Brands Group LLC are in talks to buy bankrupt department-store chain JC Penney Co, according to people familiar with the matter. Authentic Brands may team up with Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Partners to acquire the retailer as part of its court reorganisation, said the people, who asked not to be ...

Bloomberg North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border, in an explosive rebuke to Seoul that appeared designed to draw maximum global attention with little immediate risk of war. The move represented North Korea’s most serious provocation in years and follows an escalating series of threats against South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s government. The ...