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Horn of plenty leaves investors on horns of a dilemma

The Asian dollar bond market has been a cornucopia for issuers this year. Amid plentiful liquidity, it’s easy to lose sight of just how little reward there is now for all the risks investors are being asked to accept. Less than seven months into 2017, asset managers and private-bank clients have written checks for $175 billion to companies and governments ...

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Put Trumpcare out of its misery

Congressional Republicans have just produced their latest version of Trumpcare. On the plus side, this one gives up on earlier proposals to repeal three taxes that the Affordable Care Act imposes on the wealthy, making it a bit less fiscally reckless. On the minus side, it’s still a terrible plan. It’s designed to drastically weaken America’s health security — and ...

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India’s new tax is a work in progress

A country rarely praised for its efficient bureaucracy, India has managed its biggest administrative reform in years pretty well. Its new goods-and-services tax, replacing 40 other taxes and levies, came into force earlier this month without undue disruption. This policy deserves to be a great success — but to make the most of it, the government still has work to ...

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Why China’s acquisition spree is ending badly

China’s overseas acquisition streak seems to be coming to an unhappy end. Outward direct investment fell by 46 percent in the first half of the year, due partly to tightened capital controls and partly to new restrictions on ‘irrational investments.’ But the authorities should be asking a more fundamental question: Why do China’s companies struggle so much overseas? Typically, companies ...

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Amazon panic button gets a workout

W.W. Grainger Inc.’s results weren’t stellar, but what exactly were investors expecting? The industrial-parts distributor has lost about a quarter of its market value over the past year amid worries that its efforts to combat Amazon.com Inc. with lower prices won’t work and will make it less profitable. We got further proof of that Wednesday when Grainger reported a further ...

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Apple predictions will be very wrong again

It’s the silly season for financial predictions about Apple Inc. With history as our guide, it is folly to place much faith in them. Nearly every day brings deeply researched reports from stock analysts on their Apple sales forecasts. And this is not about the next quarter or two. The most pressing question analysts are trying to answer is how ...

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Mastercard wins dismissal of $18bn class action suit

Bloomberg A London judge rejected an application by a group representing 46 million consumers to pursue a lawsuit against Mastercard Inc. that would have been the largest of its kind since U.S.-style class actions were introduced in the UK. The 14 billion-pound ($18 billion) lawsuit initiated by Walter Merricks, a lawyer who once led the UK organization that handles consumer ...

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UBF launches unified platform for handling customer complaints

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business The UAE Banks Federation (UBF), a professional body representing 48 member banks operating in the UAE, announced that it has secured support of the Central Bank for its initiative which aims at developing a unified framework for handling complaints of bank customers in the country. “The proposed framework was developed as part of UBF’s continued ...

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BofA chooses Dublin for main EU hub after Brexit

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. (BofA) has picked Dublin to locate its main European Union hub in preparation for Britain quitting the bloc in 2019, the latest global bank to finalize its contingency arrangements after Brexit. The bank will move some roles from London to the Irish capital and other cities across the EU, it said in a statement. Bank ...

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