Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa treaded a fine line between his ruling party’s rival factions when he named steady hands to key cabinet posts and purged some of his predecessor Jacob Zuma’s most ineffectual appointees. While keeping a handful of Zuma loyalists in largely minor positions, Ramaphosa brought back as finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, who Zuma replaced in late ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s opposition has renewed private talks with the government in a bid to push back the date of the country’s presidential elections as President Nicolas Maduro’s administration seeks some legitimacy for the vote, according to people familiar with the matter. Two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, former Governor Henri Falcon and lawmakers from two of Venezuela’s largest opposition parties participated ...

Bloomberg Former general Prabowo Subianto is firming as a candidate for Indonesia’s presidential election, raising the prospect of a rerun of the bitter 2014 race that saw Joko Widodo take power in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. In the strongest signal yet, the co-founder of the main opposition party known as Gerindra has indicated that Prabowo would be the party’s nominee ...

When asked why his opinions frequently changed, economist John Maynard Keynes is said to have responded with some variation of “When the facts change, I change my mind.” Well, it’s time the Federal Reserve changed its thinking on monetary policy. Economies are becoming increasingly driven by real and financial asset prices, meaning financial stability can no longer be relegated to ...

Budget airlines are all about cheap flights — AirAsia Bhd. really brings new meaning to the term. Its non-fuel costs are the lowest in the entire industry. At 1.73 US cents per available seat kilometer, they’re less than half of Ryanair Holdings Plc’s 3.59 cents and about one-sixth of the amount paid by the big three US carriers, according to ...

If Unilever NV picks Rotterdam over London as its new headquarters, Britain will need to ask itself why. One reason might be that the UK’s corporate culture puts shareholders first—and this money-grabbing ethos is behind the times. Theresa May’s government is braced for the Anglo-Dutch consumer group to leave London, the Financial Times reported. Unilever started reviewing its dual-headed structure ...

For all the talk of the costs that “Brexit” will impose on Britain, the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union will not be painless for the rest of the bloc either. One immediate problem will be how to fill the gap in the EU budget resulting from Britain’s departure. The UK is a net contributor to the EU budget. Even ...

Uttar Pradesh, (UP) India’s largest state, is also its greatest challenge. It has about as many people as Brazil but, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, suffers from development indicators more similar to sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in Asia. Anyone who wants India to live up to its potential has to figure out how to fix UP. And that ...

When the China Insurance Regulatory Commission announced last week that it was seizing Anbang Insurance Group Co., the only surprise was that it took so long. Last year, the company was told to sell its overseas assets, its founder was placed behind bars, and banks were ordered to stop offering its products. So what, if anything, does this latest incident ...

Stocks have been on a wild ride, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 10.4 percent from its peak on January 26 to the February 8 trough, before recovering about half those losses. Usually, big declines foreshadow Federal Reserve-induced recessions. Late in a business cycle, the central bank worries about economic overheating and jacks up interest rates to crushing levels. ...