April, 2019

• 8 April

  How to get a trade deal that pleases everyone

  

  The key to crafting international agreements is making sure that all parties are able to declare victory. That seems to be at the heart of the emerging trade pact between the US and China. Beijing would have until 2025 to meet commitments on commodity purchases and would allow American companies to wholly own Chinese businesses, three people familiar with the ...

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• 8 April

  Are central bankers bad capitalists?

  

  The global synchronised economy recovery has turned into a global synchronised economic downturn. The outlook seems to be getting bleaker by the day, and major central banks are hinting that they may need to keep monetary policies loose. The European Central Bank (ECB) has even suggested that it could start buying corporate bonds again. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to ...

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• 8 April

  What’s left of Nomura after $1 billion in cuts?

  Three cheers for Nomura Holdings Inc. At least from its shareholders, not its staff. After three straight quarters of losses, the Japanese investment bank unveiled plans to cut $1 billion in costs from its struggling wholesale business. The measures largely target Europe, though no region, including its home market, is spared completely. Ever since it bought Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s ...

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• 8 April

  Energy companies need more digital executives

  A recently published Strategy& study examines the role of “chief digital officer” in the world’s 2,500 largest publicly listed companies. Chief among the consultancy’s findings: 2016 “was the high-water mark in CDO hiring” (though their 2018 data run only through the first quarter of the year, a spokesperson says). One reason for that peak, the study’s authors say, is that ...

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• 8 April

  Why India needs its own Canary Wharf, a $1tr state

  

  Even as India is consumed by its upcoming elections, the world’s biggest, the country is nearing another milestone: It’s set to overtake the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy. By 2030, its GDP could top $10 trillion. Yet, unusually for such a geographically large and economically vibrant country, India has no states to compare to California in the US, ...

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• 8 April

  Dark horse in the 5G auction is trouble for Spain’s Telefonica

  

  A high stakes game of 3-D chess is currently playing out in the sleepy German town of Mainz. The outcome will determine the landscape of the country’s telecoms industry for the next 20 years. Telefonica SA’s local unit is at particular risk of losing out. The Spanish carrier is bidding alongside Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone Group Plc and 1&1 Drillisch ...

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• 8 April

  Investors might want to buy tickets to Indonesia

  

  It’s not Bollywood yet, but Indonesia could be germinating Asia’s next big film scene. After years of stifled growth and censorship, new cinemas are opening across the vast Southeast Asian archipelago at a rapid clip thanks to large cash investments. Meanwhile, international filmmakers are setting up operations. With local production houses and cinema owners taking their companies public, investors might ...

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• 8 April

  Fed may bow to Trump’s call for rate cut if inflation softens

  

  Bloomberg With his call for lower interest rates, President Donald Trump has weighed into a debate inside the Federal Reserve about what central bankers should do about sub-par inflation. It’s not totally crazy to think he’ll eventually carry the day. In advocating easier credit, Trump and senior economic adviser Larry Kudlow have harped on the paucity of inflation to justify ...

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• 8 April

  Slowing global growth can risk central bank independence: Fitch

  

  Bloomberg Slowing global growth could threaten central bank independence and bring calls to expand remits beyond inflation targeting, according to Fitch Ratings. “Investors would be wise to consider the potential implications of mounting political pressures for greater contributions from monetary policy to support economic growth, possibly by unconventional means,” said James McCormack, Global Head of Sovereign Ratings at Fitch. Central ...

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• 8 April

  BOJ fuels slowdown fears with economic downgrades

  Bloomberg Japan’s central bank further fueled the growing consensus that the economy has made a turn for the worse with its widest downgrade of the nation’s regional economies in six years. In its equivalent to the Fed’s Beige Book, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) marked down its economic assessment of three out of nine regions in its quarterly report released ...

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