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The European Union has a problem with dirty money

After a string of scandals, the European Commission has unveiled new plans to crack down on money laundering. It’s right to take this problem seriously — but its proposals are weak. Instead of setting up a new agency and equipping it to do the job, Europe plans to keep relying on national authorities, some of which aren’t up to the ...

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In IL&FS, India rues its own belt-and-road debt fiasco

It was as a newspaper-office intern in New Delhi in 1992 that I witnessed the birth of India’s homegrown belt-and-road initiative. The program was midwifed by an up-and-coming lender that few had then heard of: Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS). It wasn’t called belt-and-road, a term that would gain currency much later as a catchphrase for China’s opaquely ...

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Emerging markets hear the mighty dollar roar

The first stage of this emerging market currency crisis was all about how the problems of individual nations were spilling over into contagion — but without dollar strength as a factor. No longer. A nine-year high for US average hourly earnings in last week’s non-farm payroll report, combined with the strongest reading for the manufacturing PMI index since 2004, have ...

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Samsung back in favour as Moon kick-starts ‘economy’

Bloomberg In a meeting that was unthinkable 19 months ago, South Korea’s president will this week introduce the head of the country’s biggest conglomerate to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. The parley caps a remarkable period for Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., who since the start of 2017 has been arrested, tried and jailed before ...

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WuXi AppTec files for $1bn-plus HK offering

Bloomberg WuXi AppTec Co., the Chinese contract medical researcher, has submitted an application for a Hong Kong share sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The offering could raise more than $1 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The Shanghai-listed shares of WuXi AppTec have nearly quadrupled since they began ...

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China’s Huatai, Bluestar mull UK share sales

Bloomberg Huatai Securities Co., China’s third-largest brokerage by market value, and Bluestar Adisseo Co. are among Chinese companies considering UK listings as authorities prepare a trading link between the two countries, people familiar with the matter said. Huatai, which has a market capitalisation of about $16 billion, has asked investment banks to pitch for a role on a potential sale ...

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Trump tariffs won’t force China’s hand, says state-run newspaper

Bloomberg It would be a “serious mistake” for US President Donald Trump to try to force China to make concessions in the face of high tariffs, according to an editorial in China’s state-run English-language newspaper. “Underestimating China’s resolve to safeguard its legitimate interests, the United States will find its protectionist measures backfiring to harm its own industries and the American ...

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Renault-Nissan teams with Google, lets Android into dash

Bloomberg Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. are about to do what many carmakers have been trying to avoid: let Google into the dashboard. The French-Japanese auto alliance announced a technology partnership that will make its vehicles among the first to use Google’s Android operating system in the dashboard, letting Alphabet Inc.’s software control mapping and navigation, ...

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