UK faces snap poll as crisis deepens

Bloomberg The UK moved a step closer to a general election as the political crisis engulfing the country over its divorce from the European Union deepened. Allies of Prime Minister Boris Johnson are considering a snap poll as he battles his opponents in parliament who are trying to stop him taking the UK out of the EU without a deal ...

Read More »

Botswana set to hold elections next month

Bloomberg Botswana, the world’s second-biggest diamond producer, will hold elections on October 23, with the southern African nation’s ruling party facing its toughest challenge since gaining independence in 1966. Nominations for parliament and municipal candidates is set for September 26, the Independent Electoral Commission said in an emailed statement on Monday. The Botswana Democratic Party has been in power for ...

Read More »

As Trump era gets noisier, is a weary public tuning out?

You could say many things to describe a week in which President Trump got in a snit about buying Greenland, called the Federal Reserve chairman an “enemy,” reversed his position repeatedly on China, and rebuffed European allies by saying he’s ready to invite Russia to a global summit at one of his Florida golf resorts. But “exhausting” would be the ...

Read More »

Macron clears a low bar at the G7

What a difference a weekend makes. Emmanuel Macron emerged as big beneficiary from the G7 summit, a junket that has come under increasing criticism as the shrinking group of leaders struggle to forge a consensus in the era of Donald Trump. Last week, US president’s tone on Twitter was aggressively anti-European Union — but by Monday he was full of ...

Read More »

‘Brilliant jerks’ from Silicon Valley may simply be jerks

Silicon Valley has a split personality about “brilliant jerks.” These are the kind of abrasive, boundary-pushing executives whom the industry (and often the media) lionizes — until they push boundaries too far and are kicked out of the tech Garden of Eden. Consider Anthony Levandowski, a former executive in Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving vehicle project whom the US government charged this ...

Read More »

Dear Britain, where did it all go so wrong?

Dear Britain, please excuse the rest of us for our sheer disbelief: we were never expecting a constitutional crisis, let alone protests around the country. You are making Italy’s political system look like a model of composure, and that’s not something to be taken lightly. For years, we have admired your parliamentary democracy, with its eccentric rituals and timeless ceremonies. ...

Read More »

Taxing short, cheap flights will cut carbon emissions

Germany’s former transport minister (and current senior legislator) Alexander Dobrindt has proposed setting a price floor on air tickets, to eliminate the cheapest offerings from Europe’s ubiquitous discount airlines. The idea probably will be rejected for political reasons, but it’s actually one to consider when it comes to reducing air travel’s climate impact. It’s difficult to tax airline tickets: Taxation ...

Read More »

Picking a bank CEO in Europe can be tough!

Picking a new CEO is one of the most important decisions a board can take, yet one that Europe’s banks appear to be intent on flubbing. Lenders are struggling to find successors for the current crop of leaders. Take UBS Group AG. On August 29, the Swiss bank revamped its management board, hiring a star banker from a rival and ...

Read More »

The stock market has become a very liberal place

Wall Street was a very conservative place politically when I started working in the capital markets in 1999, but it seems to have lurched to the left lately. It’s not only that many of the people who work there have become more liberal, but more importantly, left-leaning behaviour by publicly traded companies is being rewarded by the stock market. The ...

Read More »

Stocks mixed as China’s duties kick in; dollar rises

Bloomberg European stocks climbed, US futures pared earlier declines and Asian shares were mixed after the latest China-tariff hikes kicked in. The dollar rose alongside gold. The Stoxx Europe 600 advanced for a third straight session, led by telecom and utilities shares. Equities in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia declined in thin volumes a day after President Donald Trump’s duties ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend