America watched three searing versions of reality television this week. They all demonstrated that under the glare of the lights and the stress of questioning, character reveals itself. Christine Blasey Ford was a startlingly powerful witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee, in part because she had been unknown to most Americans before the cameras started rolling. Her answers were clear ...

The world’s biggest repository of citizen information, India’s Aadhaar database, is now beyond the private sector’s reach. That was the verdict last week by the country’s top court, which refused to strike down the entire biometric-based system as unconstitutional. Now only the government can use it, and that’s a problem. Fulfilling regulatory “know-your-customer,” or KYC, requirements by verifying a bunch ...

Brexit-backing Boris Johnson wants to slash taxes on property purchases in Britain. A rival thinks they should be raised to target foreign buyers – not Jeremy Corbyn, but Prime Minister Theresa May. Neither pitch is convincing. Johnson is wrong to think that cutting stamp duty will fix a housing market that years of cheap mortgages and subsidies have distorted to ...

Bloomberg A downbeat mood settled over markets on Tuesday, as fears surrounding the populist Italian government’s fiscal plans topped a list of reasons for caution. US equity futures tracked losses across Europe and Asia, the euro dropped a fifth day, and Treasuries and bunds advanced. Contracts for the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones indexes all followed the Stoxx Europe ...

Bloomberg After a rally from mid-August gave way to another sell-off through early September, emerging-market investors would be forgiven for being wary of new signs that calm is returning. But with the dollar struggling to make headway and equity valuations in the developing economies near the lowest this year, the scene may be set for more gains. So say commentators ...

Bloomberg Another rotation to value has been snuffed out. Bets that the market’s winners will keep winning and that quickly-expanding firms will outperform are once again trouncing a market-neutral portfolio that effectively buys inexpensive stocks and shorts pricier ones. The US momentum and growth factors are at multi-year highs relative to value after lagging for a small stretch in mid-September. ...

Bloomberg The money laundering scandal engulfing Danske Bank A/S has Denmark’s political establishment on edge. After living through the crisis of 2008, and the populist wave that followed, some of Denmark’s most prominent political figures say it’s now imperative that voters aren’t left with the same sense of indignation that they felt roughly a decade ago. Morten Ostergaard, the leader ...

Bloomberg The era of zero interest rates in the world’s major eco-nomies ended with the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise borrowing costs last week. The average interest rate in developed economies weighted for output passed 1 percent for the first time since 2009, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. A similar gauge for the Group-of-10 economies compiled by Natwest Markets ...

Bloomberg Noble Bank International, the Puerto Rican financial services firm with clients that have included prominent cryptocurrency ventures, is looking for a buyer, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. The bank has lost many of its customers, including Bitfinex and Tether, and is no longer profitable, the person said. The company could sell itself for a ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc.’s Russia unit gained more foreign currency holdings from retail depositors than any other bank during the ruble’s crash in August. Clients’ foreign currency current account holdings increased by 17 percent month on month to the equivalent of $1.4 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data provided by the lender. That was the largest net gain among ...