If California Sen. Kamala Harris is elected president in 2020 and reelected in 2024, by the time she leaves office 114 months from now she might have a coherent answer to the question of whether Americans should be forbidden to have what 217 million of them currently have: private health insurance. Her 22 weeks of contradictory statements, and her Trumpian ...
Read More »Why bad news for China might be good news for Australia
Bad news in China might just be good news for Australia. That may sound counterintuitive, given the two economies are so closely intertwined. But Beijing’s efforts to stimulate its slackening economy are boosting the price of iron ore, among Australia’s biggest exports. Steel mills in China are humming. Tax cuts and steps to boost consumption stand to shore up Australia ...
Read More »Too many companies drain value from economy
Defenders of free markets have always portrayed them as rife with healthy competition. Striving to outdo each other in providing high-quality products to consumers at ever-lower prices, according to this narrative, companies only profit from the hard work they do and the risks they take. This means that corporate profits should grow roughly at the rate of the economy as ...
Read More »Rate-cut bets are on track as traders tune in to Fed speakers
Bloomberg If Federal Reserve officials are thinking of dashing bond investors’ expectations for lower rates, they have plenty of airtime in the days ahead to deliver that message. Traders have already absorbed a significant blow to their rate-cut bets, after the latest payrolls report showed a steeper-than-expected rebound in hiring. Futures still indicate a quarter-point cut in July, although about ...
Read More »Middle East stock markets trade mixed
Bloomberg Stock markets in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt advanced, while those in Saudi Arabia and Oman retreated as investors wait for earnings season to build up. “Earnings are back on the radar, and volume of trade in general could pick up as the bigger names start announcing their results,†said Issam Kassabieh, senior financial analyst at Mena in ...
Read More »Facebook’s Libra plan draws ECB warning on regulation
Bloomberg Financial regulators must act fast to prepare for the push by US tech giants such as Facebook Inc into the financial system, according to European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure. “It’s out of the question to allow them to develop in a regulatory void for their financial service activities, because it’s just too dangerous,†Coeure said in ...
Read More »Deutsche Bank culls its top leadership
Bloomberg Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing promised a “tough†restructuring in May. What he’s likely to deliver involves culling almost a third of the top leadership and slashing the balance sheet. The supervisory board, expected to meet in Frankfurt to adopt the bank’s sweeping revamp, will probably replace three out of nine management board members and cut ...
Read More »Neto plays down Brazil’s reform-rate cut link
Bloomberg Brazil’s Central Bank President Roberto Campos Neto said there is “no mechanical relationship†between congressional approval of a key pension reform bill and a cut in interest rates, in an interview with the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo. The comments appear to partially walk back the messaging in the central bank’s latest minutes, which suggested that the reform ...
Read More »India’s PNB uncovers fresh $555mn fraud
Bloomberg India’s beleaguered state-run lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) disclosed another incident of fraud amounting to $555 million, roughly one year after it suffered through the country’s costliest banking scandal. The new case relates to the non-performing assets of insolvent Indian firm Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, PNB said in a filing. It reported the fraud to the Reserve Bank ...
Read More »US to Congo banks: Step up fight on illegal financing
Bloomberg The US said banks in the Democratic Republic of Congo must increase their efforts to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. US authorities recommended the lenders “put in place rigorous control and monitoring of the accounts of politically exposed people,†according to a statement issued by the Association of Congolese Banks . The association met officials from the ...
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