May, 2021

• 8 May

  Is the best job in finance all about the bonus?

  Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, is hamstrung in competing for talent with the rest of the investment industry. As a public institution, it faces what it calls “barriers to remuneration.” In other words, it can’t pay its stars what they would earn working at a hedge fund. But a study just published celebrating 20 years of active management ...

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• 8 May

  Congress should end US military’s wish lists

  In his first budget request to Congress, President Joe Biden is set to propose $715 billion in defense spending — a 0.4% cut in real terms. After four years in which military spending increased substantially, the administration is right to take aim at Pentagon excess and seek greater value for taxpayer dollars. But perhaps the biggest obstacles to realising those ...

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• 8 May

  Scotland’s future casts shadow over Johnson’s election win

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson is celebrating triumphant early results in UK elections, but he faces trouble ahead with Scotland cementing support for its independence movement. In a key set of local and national votes, Johnson’s ruling Conservatives tightened their grip on the pro-Brexit former industrial heartlands of northern England. They took the parliamentary seat of Hartlepool, which overwhelmingly backed ...

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• 8 May

  China urges UN states to avoid event on Xinjiang

  

  Bloomberg China is asking United Nations member states to stay away from an event organised by some Western countries that will address human rights issues in its Xinjiang region, Reuters reported. The virtual event is “politically motivated” and interferes with China’s domestic affairs, the report said, citing a memo by the Chinese UN mission. It’s being organised next week by ...

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• 8 May

  Tens of millions plunge into poverty in Covid-ravaged India

  

  Bloomberg After dipping into his savings to weather India’s snap pandemic lockdown last March, Manoj Kumar was just getting his head above water again earning 600 rupees ($8) a day as a construction worker in the tourist hotspot of Goa. He’d squirreled away enough for a trip last month to his native village in Bihar some 1,490 miles away for ...

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• 8 May

  New York probe into Andrew Cuomo expands to adviser

  Bloomberg The New York State Attorney General’s Office is expanding its investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. The probe, focused on harassment allegations against Cuomo, will now look at whether one of the governor’s top advisers linked support for the governor to access to coronavirus vaccines.

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• 8 May

  Biden lifts secrecy of White House visitor logs cloaked by Trump

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s White House released its first set of records detailing visits by official guests, returning to a practice set by the Obama administration and dismissed by the Trump team, disclosing 400 visits during his first 12 days in office. While hundreds of visitors might have visited the White House complex on an ordinary pre-pandemic day, the sparse ...

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• 8 May

  South Africa’s ANC excludes Ramaphosa foe from talks

  

  Bloomberg The top leadership of South Africa’s ruling party excluded its suspended Secretary-General Ace Magashule from a meeting on Saturday, confirming the sidelining of one of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s biggest detractors. Magashule was ordered to vacate his post after he ignored an order by the African National Congress (ANC) to step aside while he faces trial on graft charges. He ...

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• 8 May

  Global race to tapering ignites hunt for next currency winners

  

  Bloomberg Global central banks are starting to wind down the trillion-dollar money printing machines set in motion to rescue their economies in 2020. Getting ahead of them is becoming this year’s biggest currency trade. Early changes to bond-buying programs from Canada and Britain have been rewarding for foreign-exchange players. Meanwhile, Norway, which hasn’t needed to deploy more unconventional policy such ...

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• 8 May

  HDFC profit surges 43% in Q4 as soured debt provisions drop

  

  Bloomberg Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) plans to raise as much as $17 billion in bonds after India’s largest mortgage financier posted a better-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter profit. The Mumbai-based shadow lender’s fourth-quarter net income rises 43% to 31.8 billion rupees ($432 million) as it set aside fewer provisions for bad loans, it said in a statement. That beat an ...

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