March, 2018

• 28 March

  Ethiopia ruling party picks leader from protest-hit region

  

  Bloomberg Ethiopia’s ruling coalition appointed a top official from the protest-hit Oromia region as leader, as the government tries to quell unrest that’s posed the biggest challenge to its rule in a quarter-century. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front chose Abiy Ahmed, 42, a retired lieutenant general and recently appointed chairman of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization, to succeed Hailemariam ...

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• 28 March

  Ghanaians protest in Accra against military deal with US

  Bloomberg Hundreds of Ghana opposition members took to the streets of the capital, Accra, to demonstrate against a government decision to allow a US military base in the West African nation. Former Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and general secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress Asiedu Nketia joined protesters calling themselves Ghana First Patriotic Front. Members of the Convention ...

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• 28 March

  What does Europe care about? Watch its spending

  

  “Don’t tell me what you value,” Joe Biden once said. “Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” He wasn’t talking about the European Union, obviously, but it’s a great line that’s as telling today in Europe as it was when he used it to criticize Washington Republicans in 2008. Negotiations on the next seven-year budget cycle ...

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• 28 March

  China’s stock rally isn’t about economy

  

  A curious thing is happening in China: Its stocks appear immune to any economic slowdown. For years, there was a strong correlation between China’s GDP growth rate and the performance of the benchmark MSCI China Index, which tracks Hong Kong and US-listed Chinese companies. The relationship was so pronounced that fund managers sifted through an array of macro indicators trying ...

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• 28 March

  Novartis’s new CEO has cash, momentum for an overhaul

  Asset swaps have been a big thing in pharma over the past few years. Now it’s time for the un-swap. Novartis AG said it was unwinding part of a complicated 2014 asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline PLC, trading its stake in their consumer-health joint venture for $13 billion. The decision isn’t a huge surprise, though the timing is unexpected. It suggests ...

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• 28 March

  These trade jabs don’t look like economic warfare

  So is a trade war upon us? President Donald Trump announced last week that the US would place $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, but what does that mean for the future of world trade? This conflict seems more likely to remain a modest spat than to blossom into a slugfest. First of all, China responded to Trump’s ...

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• 28 March

  Uber can’t afford to be an ugly American abroad

  

  Anybody who commutes via ride-share in one of Southeast Asia’s traffic-choked cities knows that Uber Technologies Inc. has always been an also-ran in the fast-growing region. Compared with Grab Taxi Holdings Pte. Ltd., the dominant ride-sharing company in Southeast Asia, it consistently had fewer cars available and was perpetually behind in offering localized services. When Uber announced on Monday that ...

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• 28 March

  The financial crisis is far from over for students

  

  The financial crisis and the bursting of the housing bubble are now a decade behind us. But at least one consequence persists: a pile of student loans. Those loans, and the government’s relentless efforts to collect on them, continue to haunt Americans years after names like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns faded into memory. Since the recession began in 2008, ...

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• 28 March

  Amazon is already reshaping the health care industry

  

  Without having done much yet, Amazon.com Inc. is already transforming US health care — and not necessarily for the better. The mere threat of the online giant getting into the health business prompted the country’s two largest pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts Holding Co. — to join forces with two of its largest insurers, Aetna ...

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• 28 March

  Cyberattacks hit debt-market pricing at biggest Nordic bank

  

  Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB will start pricing debt products to reflect threats to data as the scandal engulfing Facebook Inc. redefines corporate risk. Mathias Leijon, co-head of corporate and investment banking at Nordea in Stockholm, says his team has been thinking “a lot about this” risk, with a key question emerging as, “How do you include the cost associated with ...

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