Having spent nearly a decade crafting new capital requirements to bolster the resilience of the country’s largest banks, the US Federal Reserve is getting ready to do some fine-tuning. The rules can certainly be improved — but what’s needed is more than tinkering around the edges. The Fed has two main tools to ensure banks have enough equity capital, the ...

I once congratulated Mario Draghi on his performance as president of the European Central Bank (ECB), telling him he had made only one mistake. “What’s that?” came the instant question. “Taking the job,” I replied. My point was that by the time Draghi was appointed, the ECB could no longer hope to be a conventional central bank, if indeed it ...

The field of weather forecasting holds a lesson that economists might do well to heed: Stop being so sure of yourself. The reputation of the economics profession suffered after the 2008 financial crisis, in large part because its practitioners were so overconfident. They have since been working to forge more realistic models of the economy, and re-examining some of their ...

Imagine if the US banned Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg’s disappointing performance last week on Capitol Hill. Something similar happened in Russia on Monday as the country’s internet censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, ordered internet providers to block access to the Telegram messenger. This being Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the ban isn’t just an attack on the freedom of communication and expression: It happens ...

Bloomberg China will impose temporary anti-dumping deposits on US sorghum imports from Wednesday, adding to trade tensions between the world’s biggest economies. Soybean meal futures climbed on concerns the oilseed could be targeted next. Imports will incur a 178.6 percent duty, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a preliminary ruling. That’s in compliance with domestic law and World Trade Organization ...

Bloomberg Vingroup JSC, Vietnam’s biggest developer, is targeting an initial equity offering of as much as $2 billion for its luxury residential arm, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Hanoi-based group’s Vinhomes JSC unit is considering seeking a valuation of $13 billion to $16 billion in the share sale, according to one of the people, who asked not ...

Bloomberg A stellar rally for smaller-sized Japanese companies over the last two years is about to face its biggest test yet should evidence emerge this earnings season that the country’s tight labor market is starting to erode profitability. A combination of attractive relative valuations for larger stocks and the greater hit to small and medium enterprises from labor shortages should ...

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. can continue manufacturing and selling smartphones in China while it battles Huawei Technologies Co. over patent royalties, a US judge ruled. The order by a federal judge in San Francisco blocks Huawei from enforcing a decision by a Chinese court, which ruled Samsung is infringing two Huawei patents. In January, the Intermediate People’s Court of Shenzhen ...

Bloomberg India’s southwest monsoon, which waters more than half of the country’s farmland and is crucial for growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, is expected to be normal this year. Annual rain between June and September is likely to be 97 percent of a 50-year average, the India Meteorological Department said. The forecast has a margin of error of 5 percent, ...

Bloomberg Kraken, one of the world’s longest-operating cryptocurrency exchanges, will end its trading services for Japanese residents. The San Francisco-based company cited the rising costs of doing business in Japan for its decision, though it said it may re-enter the country in the future. It tentatively plans to cease all its services, which began in October 2014, by the end ...