January, 2019

• 29 January

  China wants to dominate internet

  

  For the past year, the US and China have been engaged in a wide-ranging trade war. Nominally, the dispute concerns intellectual-property violations, forced technology transfers and other unfair practices. In reality, though, this clash is a symptom of a much larger strategic showdown — one in which Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks “decisive victory.” Aided by technology, China is embarking ...

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• 29 January

  Now banks are looking worried about Brexit

  

  The exodus from London is getting real. Ever since the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016, people have been watching for signs of how the prospect might affect London’s role as a global financial center. It stood to reason that it should: Assuming the breakup meant that the UK units of global banks would lose ...

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• 29 January

  Europe’s ‘right to be forgotten’ needs limits

  An adviser to Europe’s top court issued an opinion this month on behalf of liberty, judicial restraint and common sense. Here’s hoping the court heeds his recommendations. At issue was the so-called right to be forgotten, a muddled and misguided legal concept under which any citizen of the European Union can ask search-engine companies like Google to take down links ...

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• 29 January

  Why India’s next budget shouldn’t be excessively bold

  

  On February 1 in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will present its last federal budget before general elections are held in a few months. Unlike most other budgets, this typically isn’t a high-octane affair; governments are discouraged from locking their successors into any new spending or taxes. An “interim” budget, as it’s called, tries to avoid committing spending for ...

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• 29 January

  United Technologies offers air cover amid growth problems

  

  United Technologies Corp.’s latest results suggest aerospace is still a safe place as worries mount about a slowdown in global growth. The $96 billion conglomerate that’s planning on splitting itself into three reported a staggering 11 percent gain in revenue excluding the impact of M&A and currency swings for the final months of 2018. That was the first time quarterly ...

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• 29 January

  Renault-Nissan’s loveless marriage will survive

  

  Under Carlos Ghosn, the independent auto analyst Maryann Keller was telling me the other day, the alliance of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. was a little like Yugoslavia during the reign of Marshal Tito. Yugoslavia was a disparate collection of Slavic republics — Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and so on — with natural tribal enmities. In the decades after World ...

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• 29 January

  TD taps helocs to regain clients in ‘leadership push’

  

  Bloomberg Toronto-Dominion Bank is seeking to win back customers with home-equity loans — even as concerns grow over elevated consumer debt amid a slowing Canadian economy. A push for a greater market share of home-equity lines of credit, or helocs, is part of this year’s strategy for Teri Currie, group head of Canadian personal banking at the country’s largest lender ...

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• 29 January

  Hungary central bank leaves rates unchanged

  

  Bloomberg Hungary’s central bank left its main interest rates unchanged, sticking to a gradual shift towards the end of ultra-loose monetary policy as it assesses the need to curb brewing inflation pressures. Rate setters left the rate on required reserves unchanged at 0.9 percent and the overnight deposit rate at minus 0.15 percent on Tuesday, with both decisions matching economists’ ...

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• 29 January

  Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to allow dollar trading to ease currency squeeze

  

  Bloomberg Zimbabwe said it will allow companies and individuals to transfer dollars electronically, as it looks to ease a crippling scarcity of foreign exchange that’s sent the economy into meltdown and triggered protests. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has upgraded its systems to allow for such transactions and will run testing until February 1, after which it plans to go ...

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• 29 January

  Age of volatility is back, says Kenya bank chief

  

  Bloomberg Volatile times are back on the global economic scene with the US appearing to lack clear policy and growth in Europe slowing, the Kenyan central bank governor said. Comments by members of the US government have undermined the Federal Reserve’s role as an anchor of monetary policy, Governor Patrick Njoroge said. Other key concerns include the threat of a ...

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