Ever since the financial crisis we’ve become accustomed to the idea that whatever governments fail to do, central banks can always come to the rescue. If you need a reminder of why this statement is wrong, look no further than the Bank of England (BOE). Much like other monetary authorities in the rich world, the BOE has been the main ...

Almost exactly one year ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on national television to announce that, in a few hours, existing Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes would no longer be legal tender. This came as a complete shock to most; the weeks and months that followed featured long queues at bank tellers as hapless Indians tried to exchange old notes for ...

So China would like a bit of foreign expertise after all. In a surprise move, and timed with US President Donald Trump’s state visit, China said it would scrap foreign ownership limits for banks and asset management firms. Asia’s biggest economy has been talking about opening its banking industry for a while now. Foreigners are already movers and shakers in ...

How should we think about new and future technologies? The two main stances seem to be extreme optimism and extreme pessimism. A better approach would be careful planning and management. Optimists like to point out that technology has been the greatest force for human welfare in the history of the species. They’re right. Before the Industrial Revolution, societies like the ...

Bloomberg US stocks fluctuated as a global risk-off tone pushed Treasuries and the dollar higher. The pound weakened amid renewed political pressure on UK PM Theresa May. The S&P 500 Index was mixed as consumer shares pulled the measure up from its session lows. Sovereign bonds advanced, led by British gilts. The sterling slid against all G-10 peers after a ...

Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose on Monday, apparently boosted by purchases of shares by state-linked funds, while a surge in GFH Financial lifted Dubai’s bourse. Data released by the Saudi exchange showed local individual investors were net sellers of stocks by a margin of about 13 percent. That pattern appeared to continue on Monday, when the market fell as ...

Bloomberg China’s plan to ease foreign-ownership limits on financial firms drew praise from IMF chief Christine Lagarde, who described the move as a “very positive development.” The partial removal of barriers “is an indication of two things: openness and also better strength and confidence in their own system,” the International Monetary Fund managing-director said in an interview in Danang, Vietnam. ...

Bloomberg Mizuho Financial Group Inc.’s profit fell and the Japanese bank offered a bleak assessment of the long-term outlook, confirming it will eliminate thousands of jobs to cut costs. The nation’s third-biggest lender will shed 19,000 positions — about a quarter of its workforce — in the next 10 years, it said in a statement, confirming recent media reports. Lending ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank used its Statement on Monetary Policy to flesh out its consistent recent view of accelerating growth and sluggish inflation, suggesting interest rates will stay at a record-low 1.5 percent. Underlying inflation forecasts revised slightly lower for 2018 and cut by half percentage point for 2019, mainly to allow for upcoming reweighting of CPI. “The assessment of ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Mark Tucker has met with shareholders and discussed takeovers of US credit-card businesses in his first month in office, the Sunday Times reported. Investors are said to be wary of the plans given the retrenchment by the world’s largest banks in recent years, the newspaper said, citing people it didn’t identify. People linked to the ...