When I talk to friends in asset management, I often hear them express a deep, gnawing worry about low interest rates. Fears that low rates would spark inflation, or cause governments to default on their debt, seem to have receded. I don’t hear many people talk about a “bond bubble” anymore. But one big concern won’t go away — the ...

  Noah Feldman A company puts out word that it’s hiring: recent college graduates only, no experienced salespeople need apply. That’s age discrimination, right? Not according to a ruling from a federal appeals court last week. Overturning a half-century of practice, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit held that job applicants can’t benefit from the disparate-impact provision ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai unveiled on Monday the ‘Global Islamic Business Excellence Centre’ (GIBEC), which aims to expand Islamic economic activities beyond Islamic finance and contribute to the development of an Islamic business ecosystem in line with the emirate’s Islamic economy capital initiative. The Centre will also institute the ‘Global Islamic ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business As visionaries, industry leaders and policymakers come together for this year’s Global Islamic Economy Summit (GIES), the International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF) is set to take the stage to push the Halal standardisation agenda forward. HE Mohamed Saleh Badri, Secretary-General of IHAF, said: “The GIES presents an ideal opportunity for IHAF to discuss among key ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business The third Global Islamic Economy Summit 2016 is all set to start at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai under the theme “Inspiring Change”. Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the two-day summit is organised by Dubai Chamber of ...

  Beijing / AFP Chinese internet billionaire Jack Ma has bought a stake in cinema legend Steven Spielberg’s company, they said, the latest tie-up between China and Hollywood as they seek to make movies for audiences in the Middle Kingdom and beyond. Alibaba Pictures, a unit of Ma’s sprawling e-commerce conglomerate, has taken a minority shareholding in Spielberg’s Amblin Partners, ...

  HANOI / AP A court in central Vietnam rejected lawsuits from hundreds of fishermen seeking compensation from a Taiwanese steel company for losses caused by its release of toxic chemicals that killed a large number of fish and caused one of the country’s worst environmental disasters. Catholic priest Dang Huu Nam, who helped the fishermen file the lawsuits at ...

  Singapore / AFP Beleaguered Asian commodities trader Noble Group said on Monday it has agreed to sell its North American energy business to US power generator Calpine Corp for a total $1.05 billion. The Singapore-listed firm said the sale brings it closer to completing an initiative to raise $2.0 billion in capital as it strengthens its finances to turn ...

  Colombo / AFP Sri Lanka aims to make a record $3.5 billion from tourism this year on the back of its improved rights record under a new government after years of ethnic war, its tourism minister said on Monday. Tourism on the Indian Ocean island suffered heavily during a decades-long civil war that ended in 2009, but has been ...

  Bloomberg Foreign ownership of Malaysian government bonds dropped in September for the first time in 12 months, with the outflows likely to have been triggered largely by debt maturities. Overseas holdings decreased 0.4 percent to 213 billion ringgit ($51.4 billion), after climbing to a record in August, according to central bank data released in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Sovereign ...