Hope for global solar boom fades

Bloomberg Hope for a boom in the global solar industry this year is fading as the top market is expected to miss its installation target. China is likely to fail meeting the new capacity estimates it touted earlier this year, which were as high as 45 gigawatts, according to analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets and BloombergNEF, as well as the ...

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China’s precarious future

Demography does not dictate any nation’s destiny, but it shapes every nation’s trajectory, so attention must be paid to Nicholas Eberstadt. He knows things that should occasion some American worries, but also knows more important things that should assuage some worries regarding Russia and China. Writing in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs (“With Great Demographics Comes Great Power”), Eberstadt, ...

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Winters justifies his pay package

Bill Winters, the target of the biggest shareholder mutiny at a large British bank in five years, is taking the fight back to his detractors. The Standard Chartered Plc chief executive officer looks in no mood to throw in the towel on his promise to achieve a double-digit return on tangible equity by 2021. In a world that’s slipping back ...

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Billionaire Agnellis make another bet on France

The automotive M&A carousel is taking another turn, with Peugeot SA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV hopping aboard this time. The two companies confirmed on October 30 that they are in talks about a potential merger that would create a $47 billion auto giant. This comes just a few months after Fiat abandoned talks to merge with Peugeot’s French rival ...

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A struggling India needs more trade, not less

India, not long ago the world’s fastest-growing major economy, is struggling. Growth has plummeted to 5% — well below potential and not nearly enough to employ the millions of young Indians entering the workforce every year. Lending has slowed to a trickle, as has consumer demand. Voices across the political spectrum say the last thing the country can afford now ...

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US and Russia must keep the Open Skies Treaty

The Open Skies Treaty of 1992 isn’t a major arms-control agreement. But the Donald Trump administration’s reported intention to exit it is, in a way, a more troubling sign than its withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Treaty last year. If the US abandons the pact, it and Russia will be blind to each other’s military deployments, giving paranoid generals a ...

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Sony’s optimism on profits looks pretty pessimistic

Sony Corp. just raised its full-year profit forecasts by single digits. That looks like good news, but it’s not. It’s the lowest mid-year update for the Japanese electronics giant since at least 2016, and there could be more to come throughout the sector. Operating income for the year to March 31 will be 4% higher than its July estimate at ...

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At this price, UK’s Telegraph is more than a vanity play

If the owners of Britain’s Daily Telegraph are serious about wanting to sell the publication for a price similar to what they paid for it 15 years ago then they’ll need to make a very convincing argument that it’s a perfect megaphone to influence British politics, especially at this crucial time in the country’s history. No serious media investor is ...

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Flagship Barneys Madison Avenue store to stay open

Bloomberg After weeks of hand-wringing over its fate, the flagship location of Barneys New York Inc will stay open for at least another year, albeit with a new format. The store will morph into a “pop-up retail experience” including boutiques, art and other cultural events, according to a statement from its new owner, Authentic Brands Group LLC. But the centre ...

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Delta may pull out of Alitalia bidding

Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc may pull out of bidding for Alitalia SpA, complicating efforts to rescue the bankrupt Italian carrier, Corriere della Sera reported, citing unidentified people familiar. The Atlanta-based firm doesn’t want to take part in a bidding game and might tell Alitalia’s administrators that its offer to inject about 100 million euros ($112 million) is final, Corriere ...

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