December, 2018

• 17 December

  The bubble is losing air. Get ready for a crisis

  

  The ‘everything bubble’ is deflating. The fact that it’s happening relatively slowly shouldn’t blind us to the real threat: The world is dangerously underestimating how hard it’ll be to deal with the fallout once it pops. Frothy markets can’t disguise the warning signs. The shift to tighter monetary policies in the West is putting pressure on global equity and real ...

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• 17 December

  Having biggest private jet doesn’t always help

  

  By rights, wealthy finance types should adore Bombardier Inc. The Canadian aerospace and train manufacturer’s Global 7500 is the biggest business jet around and can fly non-stop from New York to Hong Kong reaching almost the speed of sound. It’s yours for a mere $73 million. To describe the cabin as roomy is an understatement. There are four separate “living ...

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• 17 December

  How Meng Wanzhou’s arrest might backfire

  

  I am concerned with Canada’s recent arrest and possible extradition of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. Meng was travelling in Canada, switching planes using a Chinese passport, when she was taken into custody. If sent to the US, she would face charges of trying to defraud United States financial institutions, each carrying a maximum sentence of 30 years. And ...

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• 17 December

  Fed enters brave policy world as rates near normal levels

  

  Bloomberg As the Federal Reserve approaches the final stages of monetary policy normalisation 10 years after it cut interest rates to zero, it faces the tough task of charting a less certain path while taking incoming fire from President Donald Trump. Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues are expected to ignore Trump’s criticisms and raise interest rates this week for ...

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• 17 December

  Raid on Deutsche Bank hasn’t helped revenue, says CFO

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG’s quarterly revenue was impacted by the raids on its Frankfurt headquarters, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke told Bloomberg. “The raid has not helped us on the revenue side, especially in a weak market environment like we have seen in December,” von Moltke said in email comments. “We expect these negative effects to fade away soon ...

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• 17 December

  More banks in crosshairs as Denmark tax probe grows

  

  Bloomberg Denmark is trying to find out just how many banks were involved in suspicious stock trades executed for the sole purpose of getting a tax rebate. The transactions in question started more than a decade ago, after Denmark and Switzerland made it possible to claim back taxes on dividends through a revised double-taxation accord between the two countries. Nordea ...

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• 17 December

  Borrowers brace for end of easy money

  

  Bloomberg Bankers and borrowers are bracing themselves for a difficult year selling eurobonds now that the days of easy money are coming to an end. January’s often the busiest month of the year for new bond sales but as credit markets lose their biggest backer and political threats loom — Brexit, Italian fiscal angst and trade woes — companies must ...

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• 17 December

  StanChart spins off private equity unit

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc reached an agreement to separate its private-equity unit, ending more than two years of effort by Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters to get out of the business. Intermediate Capital Group Plc said on Monday that its funds are buying a majority of the bank’s private-equity assets in a transaction valued at about 790 million pounds ($997 ...

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• 17 December

  Europe’s retail apocalypse spreads to online from malls

  

  Bloomberg Europe’s retail crisis is spreading from bricks-and-mortar stores to e-commerce as Asos Plc plunged the most in 4 1/2 years after warning that Christmas shopping got off to a disastrous start. The gloomy update from a UK online retailer that competes with Amazon.com Inc. and has furnished fashions to the likes of Meghan Markle shows that retail weakness is ...

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• 17 December

  Instacart to close its Whole Foods delivery in split from Amazon

  

  Bloomberg In 2014, when Instacart Inc. was a younger grocery-delivery startup, Whole Foods was its first major relationship—Instacart’s debut national retail partner and an investor as well. A lot has changed since then. Amazon.com Inc. now owns Whole Foods and runs its own delivery service. So the startup and grocery chain are splitting up for good. Instacart said it will ...

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