April, 2019

• 27 April

  Putin says Russia may offer passports to all Ukrainians

  Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin said he may extend an offer of citizenship to cover all Ukrainians after he sparked controversy by ordering passports to be made available to people in areas of the country controlled by pro-Moscow separatists. Russia’s offer of citizenship is “not only to the people who live” in the rebel-held areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and ...

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• 27 April

  US must break out of its ‘terrorism fatigue’

  

  One disturbing aspect of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka was that the slaughter of 321 victims came at a time when America is suffering what might be described as “terrorism fatigue.” The wars against Al Qaida and the IS extremists are part of a painful past that policymakers and the public want to escape. Those Middle East conflicts ...

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• 27 April

  The real crisis risk at the ECB

  

  The euro zone has only recently recovered from a double-dip recession, but there are already questions about how prepared it would be for a new crisis. All eyes are on the European Central Bank (ECB), which has been the strongest line of defense against an economic slowdown. While pessimists worry that the ECB has few tools left if it needs ...

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• 27 April

  Britain’s embrace of Huawei is about Brexit

  British Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision not to ban Huawei Technologies Co. outright was the easier choice. That doesn’t mean it was the right one. The US has been vociferously pushing for countries to exclude telecommunications equipment made by the Chinese firm, saying it’s vulnerable to hacking by state-sponsored actors from its home nation. But Huawei also has some of ...

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• 27 April

  China’s bond market reaches a tipping point

  For those who watch China closely, there has never been a more pivotal moment in the evolution of its economy and financial markets. More than 40 years since the start of its “Reform and Opening Up” process, and despite the volatility in US-China relations, China’s commitment to market reform remains. This year will likely see the improvement of market access ...

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• 27 April

  Jet Air crisis and collapse of the Indian capitalism

  

  The grounding of Jet Airways India Ltd., the country’s oldest private-sector carrier, isn’t just bad news for customers and its 23,000 employees. It raises yet again a question that’s puzzled two successive governments and will continue to bedevil whichever party takes power after elections conclude next month: What’s killing capitalism in India? Jet was born in the early 1990s, when ...

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• 27 April

  Deutsche goes back to a cold, dark place

  

  Deutsche Bank AG’s decision to abandon an attempted takeover of Commerzbank AG makes sense, but it still leaves both sides scrambling for alternative solutions to the same problem of pathetic returns. After weeks of deliberations, the German behemoth concluded the benefits would not have offset the “additional execution risks, restructuring costs and capital requirements.” The rationale is hardly a surprise. ...

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• 27 April

  Facebook proves adept at beating lower expectations

  

  This shouldn’t be a surprising quality in one of the world’s most valuable companies, but it’s worth saying: Facebook Inc. is savvy. This company has a list of problems longer than a drugstore receipt. It’s a creepy data hoarder. It has botched efforts around the globe to stem violence or other abuses on its internet hangouts, and it was an ...

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• 27 April

  SoftBank unit invests $125mn in Google’s Loon balloons

  

  Bloomberg One of the most improbable ideas from Google’s eccentric co-founders — using high-altitude balloons to provide internet connections — is getting a boost from another unconventional technology mogul. An affiliate of Masayoshi Son’s telecom company SoftBank Corp is investing $125 million in Loon, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet Inc. The SoftBank unit and Loon will share technology and ...

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• 27 April

  Sequoia-backed drone startup begins Ghana medical deliveries

  

  Bloomberg US venture capitalists Sequoia Capital Operations LLC and Andreessen Horowitz are backing a tech startup that says it’s the world’s largest medical drone delivery service, sending 148 types of medicine to areas around Ghana. San Francisco-based Zipline International Inc struck a deal with the West African nation’s government to make on-demand deliveries of vaccines, blood products and other treatments, ...

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