August, 2018

• 7 August

  Japan college admits altering test scores to keep women out

  

  Bloomberg The Japanese university at the centre of a sexism scandal apologised for “systematic” manipulation of test scores aimed at keeping female students out, with top officials saying that discrimination against women should never be allowed. After media reports surfaced of the discrimination, Tokyo Medical University today released a report that concluded a written test for prospective students had “serious ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  UK sees ‘Brexit deal’ slipping to end-November

  

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is resisting the European Union’s timetable for Brexit talks and is calculating that US President Donald Trump might help her. While EU officials are signaling they want September to be a showdown moment in negotiations, the UK is aiming for a later deadline, according to a person familiar with the situation. May’s team thinks ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Glencore’s poised for record profit despite bad year

  

  Bloomberg Glencore Plc may have had a nightmarish year so far, but the world’s top commodity trader is still raking in mountains of money. The company is facing a US corruption probe, got mired in a dispute with its billionaire former partner in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been caught in the fallout from new US sanctions on ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Carmakers risk $16bn EU fines on emission breaches

  

  Bloomberg Automakers failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions risk writing a big check to the European Union. Manufacturers ranging from Renault SA to Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler AG are on the hook for total fines in excess of 14 billion euros ($16 billion), should they fail to comply with tighter emission regulation phased in from 2020 and in full force the ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Daimler scraps Iran expansion plan due to US sanctions

  Bloomberg Daimler AG dropped plans to expand its business in Iran after the US renewed a host of sanctions and President Donald Trump threatened to penalise companies doing business in the country. The German carmaker has suspended its “limited” activities in Iran until further notice because of the trade curbs coming into effect on Tuesday, the Mercedes-Benz maker and biggest ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Tariffs wreck boat-building industry in US

  

  Bloomberg They’re Donald Trump’s kind of business. They dominate the domestic market, rack up a trade surplus by selling to foreigners, and do a lot of their manufacturing in states that voted for him. But America’s recreational boat-builders are getting caught up in the president’s trade war. With every escalation, they’ve taken a fresh hit. The industry employs about 150,000 ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Think again! Has there been productivity boom?

  

  Let’s travel back in time to 1995. Most Americans still remembered the calamitous inflation of the late 1970s (prices rose 13 percent in 1979). Many federal benefits, including Social Security, were (and are) tied to inflation. But was the inflation overstated, as many economists thought? If so, the economy might be doing better than repor-ted. To answer that question, the ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Are adjusted earnings manipulated!

  

  Corporate executives and their accountants have long contended that the use of adjusted earnings, which ignore costs like acquisition expenses, interest payments or just about anything they find inconvenient, gives investors a better picture of companies’ performance. Under no circumstances is it manipulation, they say. But a new study suggests it just might be. The study, which will be presented ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Masayoshi Son just dialed up a wrong number

  Masayoshi Son is a man of grand ambitions. But his dream of raising $30 billion in an initial public offering of his Japanese mobile-phone company may be a stretch. SoftBank Group Corp is seeking a valuation of about $90 billion for its domestic wireless business and is speaking to advisers about selling a third of the unit, Giles Turner, Ruth ...

  Read More »
• 7 August

  Fund giant sees $21bn exit. Could be worse

  In the year since melding two companies to create an asset management company with sufficient heft to compete globally, Standard Life Aberdeen Plc shares have lost almost a quarter of their value. Imagine how much worse life might have been without that merger. Standard Life suffered net outflows of 16.6 billion pounds ($21.5 billion) in the first half, it said ...

  Read More »