Bloomberg The UK’s painful pay squeeze in the aftermath of the financial crisis helped save 800,000 jobs, according to new research. A report published by the Resolution Foundation showed that real average earnings in the UK fell by about 7 percent between 2009 and 2014, the equivalent of a 1 billion-pound ($1.3 billion) weekly wage loss. Still, that pain saved ...

Bloomberg European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called on Italy to redouble its fiscal efforts to avoid deviating from the goals agreed to with Brussels, saying the government in Rome has already enjoyed concessions on spending. The commission “has to look out for the observation of the rules, and in the case of Italy we have introduced lines of flexibility in ...

Bloomberg Verizon Communications Inc. is offering buyout packages to as many as 44,000 management employees as part of a cost-cutting drive, potentially eliminating more than a fourth of its workforce. The offer, which excludes executives in sales or crucial company roles, is part of a four-year, $10 billion cost-reduction program that Chairman Lowell McAdam put in place last year. A ...

Bloomberg The US boom won’t be enough to stop the rest of the world economy from slowing. Finance ministers and central bankers head to Indonesia next week for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting, with the lender signalling it will cut its global growth forecasts for the first time in two years after the best upswing since 2011. That’s despite ...

Bloomberg Brazilians are putting their young democracy to a political stress test, going to the polls deeply divided after years of corruption and recession have pummeled faith in their institutions. The 147 million voters in Latin America’s largest economy have from 8 am until 5 pm on Sunday to cast ballots for a new president as well as most state ...

Bloomberg A populist surge wasn’t enough to dislodge the pro-Western centrist parties that have ruled Latvia for more than 25 years. While the governing coalition lost ground at elections on Saturday, Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said newly formed parties with similar ideologies can join to represent a majority in parliament. That would once again lock out the Russia-leaning Harmony, which ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo reported progress on Sunday after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang amid high expectations that he can resolve details over a second summit with President Donald Trump. Pompeo returned to Seoul and was meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, with a written statement possible, according to the Blue House. ...

Bloomberg Theresa May is taking her message direct to the opposition. Days after she danced on stage and promised better times ahead for her Conservative Party members, the UK prime minister took the rare step of writing in the Observer newspaper to entice wavering Labour supporters over to her camp. John McDonnell, who would lead economic policy if Labour came ...

Bloomberg Nigeria’s main opposition party nominated former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its candidate to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari in February’s elections in Africa’s biggest oil producer. Abubakar, 71, won the People’s Democratic Party’s primaries with 1,532 votes, Ifeanyi Okowa, chairman of the nomination convention committee and governor of Delta state, said on Sunday in the oil hub of Port ...

The descent of American capitalism into a racket is being greased by professed capitalists in government, in collaboration with professed capitalists in what is called, with decreasing accuracy, the private sector. This is occurring under the auspices of Republicans, and while many Democrats are arguing, with some accuracy but more incoherence, this: The government has become a servant of grasping ...