Among the memorabilia in Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein’s office is a fragment of the Wright brothers’ first airplane. But the most intriguing items may be two small plastic satellites on sticks that can be maneuvered to simulate a dogfight in space. Space is now a potential battle zone, Goldfein explains in an interview. The Air ...

  Coming soon to a portfolio near you: Chinese bonds. Like it or not, fixed-income securities from the mainland’s vast, opaque and increasingly default-prone debt market are about to go more global. The good news is that Beijing has been paying attention to international investor concerns over the way the notes are sold and traded. Premier Li Keqiang said that ...

  If you think it will be hard for the US Federal Reserve to normalize monetary policy, spare a thought for the European Central Bank. The euro zone’s monetary guardians have said they will continue to buy 60 billion euros a month in government and corporate bonds until the end of 2017. Headline inflation is running at 2 percent — ...

  Turkey’s referendum on expanding the president’s power is facing resistance both from inside and outside the country. The country is deeply divided over the constitutional changes proposed by President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan. It would bring an executive presidential system, merging the powers of the prime minister and the president. Erdogan argues that a strong presidency will make Turkey better ...

  BEIJING/ AP China’s trading partners are bringing the top UN food standards official to Beijing in a last-ditch attempt to persuade regulators to scale back plans to require intensive inspections of food imports — including such low-risk items as wine and chocolate — that Washington and Europe say could disrupt billions of dollars in commerce. The rule could inflame ...

  Bloomberg Default fears are resurfacing in Singapore ahead of a wall of maturing corporate debt, as a US bankruptcy filing by a firm from the city flags lingering pain despite economic recovery. Pressure to pay down obligations has been unrelenting. Companies excluding banks must repay S$38 billion ($27 billion) of local bonds over the next four years. The maturities ...

  Bloomberg Australia is facing a period of “heightened risk” in the housing market, the nation’s top banking regulator said, amid rising speculation further lending curbs may be imposed to cool runaway housing prices. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Chairman Wayne Byres said that while he refused to ever use the “B-word” — referring to a bubble — “if everyone isn’t ...

  Bloomberg India is asking private equity funds to invest in profit making state-controlled companies as Asia’s third biggest economy seeks to meet its asset sale target of 725 billion rupees ($11 billion) for next financial year. The government is inviting buyout firms to “look into the opportunity of picking up strategic stakes in state assets, whether as a technology ...

  Bloomberg The rupee’s surge and a banking system awash with funds will shift focus to a little-used tool in the Indian central bank’s arsenal before next month’s policy review. The Reserve Bank of India may consider raising the cash reserve ratio for the first time since 2010 if deposits accumulated due to November’s cash ban don’t flee over the ...

  Reuters Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed on Monday with petrochemicals and the insurance sector weighing on Saudi Arabia while Qatar rose as it completed its upgrade by index compiler FTSE Russell to secondary emerging market status. The Saudi index fell 0.5 percent with the main drag coming from the petrochemical sector as Brent oil futures fell ...