November, 2017

• 25 November

  Merkel stabilises grip on Germany as enemies retreat

  

  Bloomberg Angela Merkel returned to the international stage with a path to her fourth term opening up and her enemies in retreat. A week that began with the collapse of coalition talks, intrigue and finger-pointing ended with the chancellor telling her European Union partners that Germany is back to business as usual. The Social Democrats, her government partner during two ...

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• 25 November

  Egypt raises security alert as mosque death toll rises to 305

  Bloomberg Egypt raised its security alert to the highest level on Saturday as it emerged that the IS may have been behind a mosque attack in the restive north Sinai in which more than 300 people died, the most lethal single assault in the country’s recent history. Hours after the midday attack on Friday, the military said it launched overnight ...

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• 25 November

  Pakistan’s decision to set free alleged terrorist leader draws US criticism

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s decision to set free the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai drew quick criticism from the US, where President Donald Trump has demanded that Pakistani leaders take tougher action against terrorists. Hafiz Saeed, who allegedly planned attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that left 164 people dead, had been detained at his house in Lahore without charges ...

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• 25 November

  Ireland’s Varadkar stands by deputy amid election threat

  Bloomberg Ireland’s government pledged to stand by its embattled deputy leader, raising the stakes in a stand-off which could lead to a surprise general election. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar won’t “abandon” his deputy, Frances Fitzgerald, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said in a RTE radio interview after opposition political forces demanded she resign over her handling of a whistle blower ...

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• 25 November

  Score one for the experts as Brexit costs grow

  

  In the run-up to the UK’s 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, and immediately after it, the ‘remain’ campaign was much derided for fear-mongering. People are sick and tired of experts warning about doomsday scenarios, said Conservative politician and lead-Brexiter Michael Gove. Those warning that Brexit would cost the economy were dubbed “remoaners”; Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond ...

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• 25 November

  Indian bankruptcies get a dose of karma, Uncle Sam style

  

  India’s fledgling bankruptcy regime is turning both karmic and American. Eat, pray, love; applaud the shift. The government tweaked the 2016 insolvency law on Wednesday to disallow managements that have been “willful defaulters” from bidding for their own assets. That weird term has been defined by the central bank as instances where borrower firms didn’t repay while having the capacity ...

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• 25 November

  Justice has a case on AT&T/Time Warner

  The Justice Department’s new head of antitrust enforcement, Makan Delrahim, is getting plenty of grief for his surprise decision to challenge merger of AT&T and Time Warner. He’s been accused of stretching law “beyond the breaking point,” and of helping President Donald Trump act on his long-running grudge against Time Warner’s flagship news network, CNN. Actually, Justice is to be ...

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• 25 November

  The stock market might actually be right

  The idea that prices in financial markets reflect all available information — also known as the efficient markets hypothesis — has many variations: Some adherents think the process is immediate and precise, while others think it’s much messier, with prices often missing true value by a significant margin. New research suggests that the latter version fits the data better — ...

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• 25 November

  China’s quest for clean air is shaking up industry, inflation

  

  The great Chinese environmental cleanup, now in full swing, is shifting the corporate landscape in unexpected ways and even stoking inflationary pressure that may soon be felt in supply chains worldwide. As President Xi Jinping’s government intensifies the fight against the country’s world-class pollution problem, companies are scrambling to adapt to tighter regulation while investing in cleaner energy. In industries ...

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• 25 November

  The Beautiful 50 fly close to the sun

  

  China’s largest blue chips are flying high.There’s been a seismic shift in the notoriously speculative $8.7 trillion stock market. Large-cap blue-chip companies are the new darlings, a reversal from the smaller growth stocks previously in favor. The Beautiful 50, a local term for the 50 most influential companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, returned 33 percent this year. The Shenzhen ...

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