A standard theme in detective thrillers is that the perpetrator feels compelled to return to the scene of the crime. It’s an irrational urge, and readers of such potboilers are often left wondering whether the protagonist secretly wants to get caught. Perhaps we’re living a real-life version of this fictional plot in President Trump’s alleged solicitation of political help from ...
Read More »UK should ban fracking for good
The UK government’s temporary fracking moratorium should turn into a permanent ban. Allowing shale gas extraction makes sense only when a country is still phasing out coal, and then only under certain conditions. But the UK is almost finished with coal, and fracking can only postpone its transition to clean energy. The Conservative government has banned the drilling of new ...
Read More »The Fed helped Trump win the 2016 election
Donald Trump has renewed his quarrel with the Federal Reserve, tweeting again that the central bank is a bigger problem for the US economy than China. Whether or not it’s wise for the president to lash out in public, he’s right to be concerned. An excessively tight monetary policy from the Fed helped to get him elected, and could contribute ...
Read More »Asia’s big trade pact will hurt the global economy
From a political perspective, India’s decision overnight to walk away from immediate involvement in a trade zone encompassing half the world’s population and a third of its economy is good for almost everyone. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi no longer needs to make difficult concessions on agricultural trade. Other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership group (RCEP) ...
Read More »Yes Bank should cut loose talk and close this rescue
Yes Bank Ltd. has changed. In the past, the troubled Indian lender kept quiet rather than tell shareholders the truth about its bad loans. Now, under new management, it can’t stop talking about an impending rescue. If the former approach nearly destroyed the bank, this latest strategy isn’t going to help fix it. In early September, CEO Ravneet Gill told ...
Read More »Carmaker Peugeot’s Fiat takeover is great for some investors
Peugeot SA’s equity holders might not think much of its takeover of Italy’s Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV but bondholders appear to love the idea. Fiat’s credit spreads (the extra yield above the benchmark) have tightened by as much as one-third after news of the deal emerged, accompanying a jump in the company’s share price. Peugeot’s shares fell sharply because of ...
Read More »WeWork isn’t only wreck hiding in your portfolio
Look inside your mutual fund: WeWork isn’t the only unicorn with a valuation so slippery that it’s worth $47 billion one day and $0 the next. Back in June 2015, fund managers from Fidelity Investments to BlackRock Inc. valued their stakes in Uber Technologies Inc. somewhere between $33 and $40 a share. The ride-hailing company is now trading at the ...
Read More »Stocks drift amid mixed earnings; Treasuries gain
Bloomberg Stocks in Europe struggled for traction alongside US index futures as a raft of corporate earnings and economic data presented a somewhat muddy outlook for global growth. Treasuries rose after dropping for three days. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index erased a modest gain after data showed the euro-area economy remained close to stagnation last month amid a broad downturn ...
Read More »HK exchange profit drops most in 3 years
Bloomberg Hong Kong’s stock exchange suffered its worst slide in profit in almost three years as the Asian financial hub is buffeted by social unrest and political tension between the US and China. Facing turmoil on multiple fronts, trading slid in the period and the number of stock listings this year is running at about half the pace of 2018. ...
Read More »India will be fastest-growing market over 20 years: Boeing
Bloomberg India will be the world’s fastest-growing aviation market over the next two decades, according to Boeing, which expects the South Asian nation to need 2,380 planes in that period at a value of $330 billion. The US manufacturer’s forecast is slightly higher than the one it made in December 2018, when it said India would require 2,300 new aircraft ...
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