April, 2017

• 23 April

  Poland’s Play to announce IPO to boost growth

    Bloomberg Play, Poland’s fastest growing mobile provider, may soon announce an initial public offering that would give it a multibillion-dollar valuation. The Warsaw-based company, which already serves about 14 million customers, is reviewing options to generate further growth, according to a filing on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange Friday. One option is an IPO, the company said in the filing. ...

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• 23 April

  Don’t compare Reagan’s economy to Obama’s

  

    If I were teaching a college-level course on political economy, my midterm exam would ask students to spot the errors in an op-ed with the headline, “Do You Want Reagan’s Economy or Obama’s?” Why? Because this particular article, by former Republican Senator Phil Gramm and Michael Solon, a GOP policy adviser, provides a perfect opportunity to show how partisan ...

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• 23 April

  Beware the weak debt tail wagging emerging markets

  

    It’s not often that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns of a risk to global financial stability at its spring meeting in Washington, and almost immediately evidence jumps out of a bank earnings report in Mumbai. That’s what happened on Wednesday. The IMF released analysis showing an alarming buildup of vulnerable corporate debt — the kind where operating profit ...

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• 23 April

  How the US can win the alms race

    In the 21st century, human misery has become something of a growth industry. Conflicts have driven the number of displaced people to an all-time high; last December, the United Nations launched a record appeal for humanitarian aid; three months later, citing impending famines in several African countries, it said the world faced the “largest humanitarian crisis” since the UN’s ...

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• 23 April

  Venezuela teeters on verge of collapse

    Venezuela is teetering on the verge of total collapse. Anger is growing with President Nicolas Maduro who has utterly failed to meet people’s most basic needs. Hundreds of thousands in Venezuela cannot get access to food. Economic crisis is only getting worse. Inflation is out of control and government has no cash to import food and medicine. No wonder, ...

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• 23 April

  EU’s Brexit strategy is to play for time

  

    A leaked European Union paper outlining the bloc’s initial negotiating position in Brexit talks hints at a clever zero-sum strategy. The EU’s main goal is to deter other potential exiters and offload all the anxiety about the truly important issues in the divorce on the UK alone. The paper (actually called a “non-paper” in EU parlance because it’s still ...

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• 23 April

  Macy’s and the survival of retailing

  

    Any good arson investigator can spot areas of higher concentration of an accelerant at the scene of a fire. In the conflagration sweeping bricks-and-mortar retail, it’s likely that history will designate the accelerant as the newly appointed head of the first major chain to start closing profitable stores in large numbers: Macy’s chief executive, Jeff Gennette. The future of ...

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• 23 April

  Silicon Valley should worry about housing, not visas

  

    Silicon Valley tech companies have good reason to be concerned about President Donald Trump’s plans to review the H-1B visa program, which has been crucial in providing them access to foreign labour. It wouldn’t be such a big deal, though, if they didn’t put their offices in such expensive places. The valley’s biggest employers each host thousands of workers ...

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• 23 April

  Wall Street’s great earnings don’t spell jobs for Asia

    With the exception perhaps of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., first-quarter earnings at US banks are booming, powered by gains in fixed-income trading. But if you think that’s cause for celebration among job seekers in Asia, you’d be wrong. Beyond digital banking, the region’s hiring thermometer is set to deep freeze. It’s a reflection of the broader slowdown in investment ...

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• 23 April

  Etihad to debut world’s first mobile exhibition unit at ATM

  

    Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways will debut its innovative mobile exhibition unit at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai, providing delegates with a first-hand experience of its award-winning cabin products and inflight service. The 16m long mobile exhibition unit, weighing approximately 22 tonnes and measuring 50m², travelled to the UAE from Europe where it has clocked 60,000km ...

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