Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s main car brand plans to deepen cost cuts and ax more jobs as profits slip in the industry’s shift to electric and self- driving cars. The German carmaker said on Wednesday it will eliminate as many as 7,000 positions — with measures including early retirement and not filling vacant positions — for an annual profit gain of ...

Bloomberg The European Union set new criteria for the use of palm oil in biofuels in a balancing act to avert a trade war with producers in Asia while appeasing climate protagonists at home. The measure approved by the European Commission on Wednesday spells out the type of biofuels from palm oil that may be counted towards the EU’s renewable-energy ...

Good presidents learn while they are in office. Donald Trump, however, is doubling down on many of the same bad ideas he campaigned on. A recent example is an initiative his administration is reportedly developing to force US allies to pay far more for hosting American troops and bases. The initiative flows naturally from the president’s desire to get even ...

Charles Li, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., has his plan at the ready. An agreement with MSCI Inc. is in the bag. Once regulators bless the idea, he will give futures contracts on China’s A-share index in the city a go. One place where Li’s announcement was received with some trepidation was the rival financial center ...

When it comes to General Electric Co. and its mammoth turnaround, I’ve long felt that a recovery in its bedrock business and financials won’t mean as much without a corresponding correction to the misguided priorities and cultural arrogance that led to its difficulties in the first place. So it’s good to see the company making some progress in that area. ...

Evidently, President Donald Trump is still toying with the idea of imposing steep tariffs on cars and automotive parts. In a White House brimming with bad economic ideas, this would be the worst one yet. Last month, the Commerce Department completed a confidential report on the national-security implications of auto imports. If the probe uncovered a threat of some kind, ...

The 2008 financial crisis and the deep recession that followed taught the world to be more skeptical of macroeconomic theories. In the years leading up to that crisis, many leading macroeconomists displayed a startling amount of complacency, bordering on hubris. The defining quote came in a 2003 essay, when Nobel-winning macroeconomist Robert Lucas made a startling declaration: Macroeconomics in [its] ...

India’s corporate funding market is what Winston Churchill might have described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. The riddle, according to India Ratings and Research Pvt., a unit of Fitch Ratings Inc., is that borrowers’ credit metrics aren’t likely to worsen from here. And yet in the financial year starting April 1, their borrowing costs may ...

Last April, when 34 technology companies announced their membership of a Cybersecurity Tech Accord, it was portrayed as proof that the private sector was, at long last, taking responsibility for protecting civilians online — something governments had conspicuously failed to do. Since then, the ranks of signatories to the self-imposed cybersecurity standards has more than doubled. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., ...

Bloomberg US equities climbed as data showed better-than-expected demand for durable goods and modest pressure on inflation. The pound jumped before another Brexit vote and the dollar dipped. The S&P 500 Index gained for a third day, with industrial stocks among the best performers. European shares also advanced, and the pound rallied before the next major Brexit vote. Crude oil ...