Bloomberg Hollywood producers eager to dramatise the life of Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor Co chairman who staged a cinematic escape from Japan in December, are likely to get a simple response: call my agent. Not just any agent. Ghosn is working with Michael Ovitz, the founder of Creative Artists Agency and former president of Walt Disney Co, to ...
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Mahindra shares all set for biggest drop in ten years
Bloomberg Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd shares headed for their steepest decline in more than a decade after the Indian automaker reported a surprise drop in its December-quarter earnings. The stock tumbled 7.2% to 528.2 rupees at 3:21 pm in Mumbai, set for the steepest fall since August 2009, and the worst performance on the 16-member gauge of automakers. Other companies ...
Read More »Wind giants in Germany are not so keen on market rates
Bloomberg The first time Germany auctioned offshore wind projects, developers were happy to forgo any subsidies, confident the technology was robust enough to turn a profit unaided. Now, they’re not nearly so sure. Germany’s offshore wind giants now are looking at a UK programme that would ensure they get paid enough for their power, no matter what wholesale prices are ...
Read More »Are there virtues to a stagnant economy?
Grant President Trump some bragging rights. After all, most economic news has recently favoured Trump, including the 225,000 payroll jobs created in January. Naturally, he’s going to take credit if he can. Similarly blessed, a Democratic president would surely do the same. In his State of the Union address last week, Trump gushed self-congratulation. “Incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting,” ...
Read More »Coronavirus could be ‘good’ for stocks
It seems inconceivable that the coronavirus outbreak, which killed more than 811 people and shut down two-thirds of China’s economy, could be bullish for stocks. Yet Shenzhen’s private sector-heavy ChiNext Index not only brushed away a selloff, but also hit a three-year high on February 6. The most obvious explanation? This epidemic is giving policymakers the opportunity to correct past ...
Read More »France’s richest man gets a free lunch from the ECB
Bernard Arnault, the boss of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, exceeded even his own incredibly low yield expectations in his company’s giant bond sale— which included the biggest corporate issue in euros since 2016. The luxury giant raised 7.5 billion euros ($8.3 billion) and 1.55 billion pounds ($2 billion), over a range of maturities from two to 11 years, ...
Read More »No, Boeing is not ruining Trump’s 3% growth target
Boeing deserves blame for many things, but dragging US economic growth below 3% isn’t one of them. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business that Boeing Co. is a big reason the US won’t see the 3% expansion in gross domestic product that the Trump administration had been predicting for 2020. The Max crisis will shave 50 basis points ...
Read More »Mumbai shows why India’s cities need more tax revenue
Acute fiscal stress is building in India’s states and municipalities, including the urban authority that manages the richest city, Mumbai. This matters. Local bodies hold the key to lasting solutions for a broader crisis of financial resources. The federal government’s chronic deficits dominate discussions about India’s precarious public finances. It’s time to flip this New Delhi-centric approach. State government accounts ...
Read More »Half of Twitter’s users are worthless, and that’s good
Allow me to let you in on a little secret: Twitter Inc. isn’t a big user of its own product. That’s right, while the company’s main account @twitter has 57.1 million followers, it follows just one other, which doesn’t make it a very engaged account holder. And its tweet frequency is relatively low — even I have sent more tweets ...
Read More »Credit Suisse’s giant repair job is only just beginning
In ousting Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam, Credit Suisse Group AG is taking only a first step in rehabilitating its battered reputation. A spying scandal, embarrassing revelations on how the bank is run and a public spat at the top of the company have seriously tarnished a 163-year-old Swiss banking franchise whose clients depend on its discretion. The exit of ...
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