Bloomberg Germany made an emotional appeal for forgiveness to neighbouring Poland 80 years after the start of World War II that was met by a renewed demand for reparations by the fellow European Union member’s prime minister. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visiting the town of Wielun, Poland, where Nazi bombers caused the first large-scale civilian casualties of the conflict in ...
Read More »Have we really lost our economic dynamism?
On this Labour Day, the American economy — the source of jobs for almost all of us — is full of promise and peril. It is hard not to be impressed with its job-creation capacity. Since the low point of the 2007-09 Great Recession, payroll employment has increased by 21.7 million jobs, with strong growth under both President Obama and ...
Read More »Sweden should issue green bonds
Sweden is considering selling 100-year bonds to take advantage of the unprecedented decline in global yields. With almost half of the nation’s debt already owned by the central bank, though, there’s skepticism about how much demand the debt office can drum up in what is an already illiquid market. So the country should accelerate plans to issue its first green ...
Read More »Sony’s Olympus sale is boon for activist investors in Japan
Dan Loeb’s team is unlikely to be celebrating over Sony’s decision to sell its stake in Olympus Corp. Investors in Japan have reason to put a few crates of bubbly on ice, though. The sale was a mere side note on the laundry list of changes that Loeb’s Third Point LLC asked for at Sony, in an eight-page letter published ...
Read More »What if there was a trade war truce?
Even a trade truce could have its losers. The economic conflict between the US and China has been jarring, no doubt – decades-old commercial relationships have been torn up, supply chains are getting upended, global growth is slowing, and investors and businesses are rattled. On days when the standoff seems endless, you might find yourself asking: Can’t we just go ...
Read More »Asian nations should fix its megacities, not move them
Asia’s biggest cities, from Shanghai to Dhaka, are struggling to manage the impact of decades of growth. Some are sinking. Most are traffic-choked. And almost all struggle with chronic air pollution. Worst of all, coastal cities face the threat of being inundated by rising seas. Indonesia’s capital Jakarta suffers these urban ills more acutely than most, which is why President ...
Read More »Africa’s Sahel region needs world’s help
Strong and sustained global growth has enabled living standards throughout most of the world to converge on an upward course. Even throughout Africa, the world’s poorest continent, there have been drastic improvements in health, education and governance. Countries such as Ethiopia and Tanzania are seeing the start of industrialisation. Yet a few parts of the world remain mired in desperate ...
Read More »The elderly in the US aren’t so poor after all
It was probably inevitable that we would have a “retirement crisis†as hordes of baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) sprint and stumble into their “golden years.†But it’s a fake crisis, even though it’s already becoming a staple of journalism and politics. It presumes that most Americans can’t afford to retire comfortably. Not so. It’s important to ...
Read More »Market fragility on show as trade war curbs optimism
Bloomberg The trade war just ratcheted up another notch and the outlook for Chinese manufacturing deteriorated further, signalling the caution that characterised a tumultuous August for global markets may have further to run. The ground is laid for a volatile start to September, exacerbated by the US Labor Day holiday on Monday crimping trading volume with Treasuries and equity markets ...
Read More »Philippine stock index may rise to 8,450 by year-end
Bloomberg The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index may rise to 8,450 by the end of 2019 with corporate earnings expected to grow faster this year and as government ramps up spending in the second half, according to Philequity Management Inc. The stock gauge will further climb to 9,125 in 2020 when earnings are estimated to increase 11 percent, according to ...
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