It is axiomatic that if someone is sufficiently eager to disbelieve something, there is no Everest of evidence too large to be ignored. This explains today’s revival of protectionism, which is a plan to make America great again by making it 1953 again. This was when manufacturing’s postwar share of the labor force peaked at about 30 percent. The ...

  If you applied for a mortgage in the past few years, you probably noticed that the record-low rates during much of that period were only available to a lucky few. Lending standards tightened a lot after the subprime fiasco. The torturous process — supplying the lender with triplicate tax returns, W-2s, character references and so on — was a ...

  Risk is back on, so who needs chocolate? Nestle SA needs to roll with the times, and investors have a lot of optimism that its brand-new Chief Executive Officer, Ulf Mark Schneider, can produce a quick change of gear. He’s certainly got the right background, but the tactics Nestle needs aren’t in his DNA. Investors should tread cautiously. The ...

  A high-ranking defector of North Korean has said that president Kim Jong-Un is planning a ‘prime time’ nuclear weapons push in 2017. The development comes as Pyongyang wants to take advantage of leadership transitions in South Korea and the United States. As per the revelation made by Thae Yong-Ho, who fled his post as North Korea’s deputy ambassador to ...

  Bloomberg Singapore’s commodities-related defaults could turn out to be the canary in the mine. Despite a modest rebound in resource prices, restructuring specialists including KPMG and Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee see more Asia-Pacific commodities and shipping companies being pushed into delinquency. Law firm DLA Piper said there could be choppy waters ahead on rising interest rates and President-elect ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Banking shares boosted Saudi Arabia’s stock index to its highest level this year, while other Gulf markets moved little in quiet trade with some foreign investors absent for New Year holidays. The Saudi index closed up 1.3 percent at 7,257 points in its highest trading volume for two weeks, rising above technical resistance at this year’s ...

  DUBAI / Reuters National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, and investment firm KAMCO said they had been invited by the public debt office at the Kuwaiti ministry of finance to participate in a bond issue by the government. A request for proposals has been sent to NBK’s subsidiary NBK Capital to help arrange ...

  Bloomberg Egyptian companies unable to repay US-dollar denominated debts after the devaluation of the pound will be allowed to negotiate fixed exchange rates with banks. The move aims to alleviate financial pressure on manufacturers following the central bank’s decision to remove all restrictions on the local currency on Nov. 3. The pound has since lost more than half its ...

  Bloomberg Britons are holding onto their cash in a sign that they may be hunkering down in the face of economic uncertainties, according to the British Bankers Association. Personal deposits grew an annual 4.8 percent in November, data compiled by the BBA show. They increased by 32.4 billion pounds ($39.7 billion) in the first 11 months of the year, ...

  Bloomberg China’s requirement for how much cash banks must hold as reserves is “very high” and should be reduced at an “appropriate time,” a senior banking regulator said, according to a media report. Other financing tools can be used to manage the money supply after easing the required reserve ratio, China Banking Regulatory Commission official Yu Xuejun said at ...