September, 2018

• 25 September

  Rupert Murdoch’s Sky windfall lessens sting of defeat

  

  Bloomberg In Rupert Murdoch’s six decades of media dealmaking, UK broadcaster Sky Plc stands out as the one that got away. The octogenarian may still have the last laugh. While Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. lost out to Comcast Corp. in a weekend auction of the UK pay-TV company he launched almost three decades ago, the global media magnate now ...

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• 25 September

  China’s racing to the top in income inequality

  

  During China’s greatest period of economic growth, fed by widespread industrialisation that lifted millions out of poverty, inequality has also increased — at the fastest pace and to the highest level in the world. It may get worse. China’s Gini coefficient, a widely used measure of income dispersion across a population, has risen more steeply over the last decade than ...

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• 25 September

  ‘Brexit’ brings its own hell to shoppers

  

  So much for hell on the British high street. Next Plc, the clothing retailer, has upgraded its profit forecast for this year by 10 million pounds ($13 million), meaning they’ll be on a par with 2017. The shares jumped by 8 percent. Simon Wolfson, chief executive, had expected UK shoppers to rein in their spending in August and September after ...

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• 25 September

  Environmental cleanup is great, but stop polluting

  

  When considering what to do about pollution, there are two kinds of people: techno-optimists who assume humanity will eventually find a way to clean up all our messes, and those less fun but more pragmatic environmentalists who say that it’s always easier and cheaper to avoid making the mess in the first place. Battle just broke out between these two ...

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• 25 September

  Abe should know that economy is his legacy

  After his victory last week in an internal vote to lead Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looks set to remain in office till 2021 — longer than any Japanese political leader since the days of the samurai. He has a lot still to do in this third and last term, and shouldn’t waste his remaining time ...

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• 25 September

  Washington has chosen slow economic growth

  

  It worked in the 1990s: The US economy continued to grow strongly for several years even after it showed signs of capacity constraints and low unemployment. The question is whether that can happen again, or whether this cycle is destined to end in a bout of inflation that prompts the Federal Reserve to raise rates and end the party. The ...

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• 25 September

  Asia’s aversion to bank accounts is a big deal

  

  There’s a flaw in the forecast for an ever-rising Asia: a vast gap in the financial system. Big slices of the population don’t have a bank account. It’s hard to see the region reaching its full potential, let alone surpassing the US as an economic superpower, until this bridge is crossed. An economy without broad use of banks cannot grow ...

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• 25 September

  Mario Draghi is actually preaching in the desert

  

  Spare a thought for Mario Draghi, if you can. The European Central Bank (ECB) president never tires of telling politicians about the urgent need to complete the euro zone’s half-finished monetary union. His logic is sound about this being the best way to fight future crises. Yet after a year in which the region’s leaders failed to do even the ...

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• 25 September

  Praet snaps Draghi’s inflation comments; euro whipsaws

  

  Bloomberg European Central Bank policy maker Peter Praet said he doesn’t believe President Mario Draghi intended to send a new signal when he said the pickup in underlying euro-area inflation is “relatively vigorous.” The euro slid after Praet, the ECB’s chief economist, made the remarks in London on Tuesday. The single currency jumped the previous day when Draghi spoke at ...

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• 25 September

  Danske Bank faces more penalties from regulator

  

  Bloomberg Danske Bank A/S faces more penalties from the financial regulator as multiple probes into one of Europe’s biggest money laundering scandals get under way, according to Denmark’s government. The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority already forced Danske to add almost $800 million to its capital burden back in May, in response to earlier signs of laundering breaches. Business Minister Rasmus ...

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