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Record UK profits are nothing to sing about

The sight of J Sainsbury Plc CEO Mike Coupe singing ‘we’re in the money’ neatly sums up the dichotomy between those feeling the pinch from Brexit and those who aren’t. UK corporations have rarely been this flush. They reported record pretax profits in the first quarter, according to the Share Centre, a broker. Average revenue growth for members of the ...

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California puts solar on the roof and up for grabs

If we could somehow capture all the energy expended on Twitter when California approved new rooftop solar standards, we’d solve our climate problems immediately. The perpetual emotion machine has cranked up in response to the California Energy Commission passing a new building code that will, among other things, require most low-rise residential buildings constructed after 2019 to have built-in solar-power ...

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German postman delivers $3 trillion debt reminder

Perhaps Germany’s reputation for penny-pinching is undeserved after all. Net debt at Deutsche Post AG, the mail and logistics operator, swelled by a whopping 10 billion euros ($12 billion) in the first three months of 2018. The bulk of that change of it relates to new accounting rules, rather than new borrowing. But that’s what makes it interesting (bear with ...

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Critics of economics are actually dwelling in the past

In last July, writer and researcher John Rapley penned an article in the British newspaper the Guardian entitled “How Economics Became a Religion.” This followed on the heels of shorter but equally acerbic critiques by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian and Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph, earlier that year. In 2015, the Guardian published an article by Joris Luyendijk called ...

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HSBC to cement lead in Saudi with $5 billion bank merger

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is set to reaffirm its position in Saudi Arabia with the takeover of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s local venture as lenders bet on the kingdom’s ambitious plans to transform its economy. In the country’s first bank merger in almost 20 years, HSBC affiliate Saudi British Bank offered to take over RBS-backed Alawwal Bank in ...

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Goldman Sachs, Aberdeen picking up bargains from emerging markets selloff

Bloomberg A stronger dollar, rising US yields and geopolitical tensions have sent plenty of investors bolting from emerging markets. Then there’s Aberdeen Standard Investments and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Aberdeen Standard Investments, which oversees about $770 billion, took advantage of the recent selloff to increase its holding in the Russian ruble, South African rand and Indonesian rupiah. Goldman Sachs Group ...

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Poland looks to extend longest fiscal policy pause

Bloomberg Poland’s lack of urgency to raise interest rates is becoming less out of step with global central banks as plans to tighten monetary policy get sidetracked around the world. Maintaining the rate differential with major economies won’t be a challenge any time soon for Governor Adam Glapinski as he looks to extend Poland’s longest-ever policy pause at least through ...

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Thailand doesn’t feel pressure to join global tightening

Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged near a record low, and said it doesn’t feel pressure to join a global wave of tightening that’s swept along some peers in Southeast Asia. Monetary policy committee members voted unanimously to hold the one-day bond repurchase rate at 1.5 percent, where it’s been since 2015, according to a Bank ...

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UBS head of European M&A Brizay joins BofA

Bloomberg UBS Group AG’s head of mergers and acquisitions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Severin Brizay, is planning to leave to join Bank of America Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. Brizay will become head of consumer and retail investment banking for EMEA at the US lender, the people said, asking not to be identified as ...

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