December, 2019

• 22 December

  UK PM has a Bank of England problem

  

  After a landslide victory in the UK general election, Boris Johnson has many difficult choices ahead — not least on Brexit. One imminent personnel decision, however, will reveal a lot about whether Britain still wants to play in the big league globally. Johnson’s government is about to pick a new governor for the Bank of England, as Mark Carney’s term ...

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• 22 December

  DuPont’s breakups only lead to more breakups

  Round and round the DuPont merry-go-round of financial engineering we go. The chemicals giant agreed on Sunday to sell its nutrition and biosciences division to International Flavours & Fragrances Inc. via a tax-friendly Reverse Morris Trust transaction that values the business at about $26 billion. DuPont de Nemours Inc. will receive a one-time $7.3 billion cash payment and its shareholders ...

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• 22 December

  US-China deal will be a short-term truce

  There are times, including in armed conflict, when adversaries see it in their own interests to opt for a truce and sell it to the outside world as a steppingstone to a comprehensive peace. But both sides know it will be only a prelude to renewed tensions down the road. This could well be the best way to think of ...

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• 22 December

  Indian court turns back the clock on Tata coup

  

  How do you unscramble an egg called Tata Sons? The second law of thermodynamics says orderly things gradually turn more chaotic, and there’s no going back, no separating yolks from whites. But the appeals judge of India’s corporate law arbiter thinks he can reverse time. Or so it would appear from his order declaring that Cyrus Mistry, deposed three years ...

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• 22 December

  For FedEx, it could always get worse

  

  It can always get worse for FedEx Corp. Back in June, I wrote that the parcel-delivery company had managed to fall out of a basement window when it issued fiscal 2020 guidance that fell well short of already depressed expectations. Two guidance cuts later, it seems we’ve sunk below the foundation and are in the dirt with the worms. The ...

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• 22 December

  China’s chip quest is all heart, not enough brain

  

  China has made developing its own chip industry a matter of patriotic pride. It helps that “China chip” and “China heart” sound the same in the local language. The strain of this 1.7 trillion yuan ($243 billion) endeavour may be too much for the debt-clogged arteries of its municipal governments, though. Over the past decade, Beijing hasn’t hesitated to deploy ...

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• 22 December

  Slump in Germany’s air travel points to spread of flight shame

  

  Bloomberg Mounting concern about carbon emissions may be altering travel habits in Europe’s largest economy as figures from German airports show a steady decline in passengers taking domestic flights. The number of people flying between German cities fell 12% in November from a year earlier, according to the ADV industry group, marking a fourth straight monthly drop and mirroring a ...

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• 22 December

  Airbus seeking more engines from GE unit

  

  Bloomberg Airbus SE is in discussions with General Electric Co. and Safran SA’s airplane CFM International unit to increase supplies of its engines as Boeing Co. halts production of the beleaguered 737 Max narrow-body, reports said. The engine maker is seeking to ramp up production of the 1A variant of the CFM LEAP engine, which is used on the A320neo ...

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• 22 December

  Citi, American Air cancel trips, seize points for rewards abuse

  

  Bloomberg American Airlines is canceling reward trips and seizing miles, joining partner Citigroup in cracking down on customers who take advantage of the carrier’s loyalty program by opening multiple accounts. Some customers have started complaining in recent weeks on Twitter and a popular Reddit site for people who make a hobby of signing up for credit cards, either properly or ...

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• 22 December

  Amsterdam’s ghost airport grounded by growth-climate clash

  

  Bloomberg From its colonial trading days to reclaiming land from the sea, the Netherlands has a tradition of pushing the limits, but a public backlash over a planned airport suggests that many Dutch have had enough. With the opening of a second Amsterdam hub delayed by 20 months and counting, political fronts are hardening ahead of a crucial environmental-impact report ...

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