Congress adopted a budget last week, paving the way for the introduction of a tax bill, and the White House responded (as it is wont to do) with a tweet. “Budget passes house,” it read. “Momentum for tax cuts growing. #TaxCuts #TaxReform.” Sadly, this message betrays a confusion that does not bode well for the prospects for smart tax reform. ...

Catalonia’s now ousted separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has to look for hopeful signs wherever he can get them. After Girona FC, his hometown soccer team, sensationally defeated Real Madrid 2-1 on Sunday, Puigdemont tweeted it was ‘an example and a reference for many situations’ — and added a winking emoticon. In reality, the weekend’s events showed Puigdemont and other Catalan ...

The status of bitcoin as a legitimate financial asset may be rising even faster than its price. Just last month, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, said that bitcoin was A) a fraud and B) something his bank would never touch. Dimon said he would personally fire anyone who deigned to trade it. CME group president Bryan ...

In his final months as European Central Bank president in 2011, a frustrated Jean-Claude Trichet lamented that “In the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned by conventional tools.” Economics models, he argued, could learn from other disciplines like physics, engineering and psychology; they should better capture the simple fact that humans are not rational, particularly in a crisis. His ...

Bloomberg The pound is likely to be driven this week by the state of Brexit negotiations and UK politics, after losing support from bets on central bank policy tightening. Sterling could see any slide exacerbated should it drop below $1.30, according to Morgan Stanley, with the resumption of Brexit talks, fallout from a harassment scandal and industrial data to provide ...

Bloomberg To the naked eye, it was just another up week for stocks. The S&P 500 Index rose 7 points, the eighth time in a row it’s been up. Beneath the surface a barrage of headlines on everything from earnings to the Federal Reserve and taxes were drawing brighter lines between winners and losers. While benchmarks muddled along and broader ...

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA added to concerns about excessive bitcoin speculation, with the bank’s deputy head following Credit Suisse Group AG’s top executive in saying that it’s a bubble. “Bitcoin today is in my view very clearly in a bubble,” Severin Cabannes said in a Bloomberg Television interview. His comments came a day after Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam said ...

Reuters Kuwait’s Burgan Bank, the country’s third largest lender by assets, is in early discussions with banks for the refinancing of a $350 million loan due in December, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The bank raised the original debt facility in 2015 with a group of seven banks, including regional and international lenders. The new loan would ...

Bloomberg Reforming the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s monetary policy mandate could potentially result in lower interest rates, the new finance minister said. Requiring the central bank to target full employment as well as price stability when making rate decisions will ensure its objectives are more aligned with the well-being of New Zealanders, Grant Robertson said in a television interview ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. added $1 billion in the third quarter to what it says the bank may face in possible legal expenses. Legal costs could potentially be $3.3 billion more than what the San Francisco-based bank has reserved, Wells Fargo said in a regulatory filing. While that figure was unchanged from the previous three-month period, it constitutes a ...