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Bitcoin bigshot forgot one rule for selling shovels

We all know the sage advice that in a gold rush the best thing to do is sell shovels. My caveat would be to ensure you’re paid in cash. And just to be clear for the modern world, this does not mean getting paid in Bitcoin Cash. Yes, I am looking at you, Bitmain Technologies Ltd. The Chinese company is ...

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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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