Bloomberg Vale SA’s shares declined as the world’s biggest iron ore producer faced continued backlash from Brazilian authorities after a deadly mining accident in January. Rio de Janeiro-based Vale was ordered on March 15 to shut its Timbopeba mine in Minas Gerais state, which produces 12.8 million tons of iron ore per year, due to safety concerns. A court ordered ...
Read More »Vodafone invests in GAM fund making money off late payments
Bloomberg Big companies often leave their suppliers hanging for weeks without pay, but Vodafone Group Plc is taking this a step further: it’s investing in a fund that makes money off the delay. The British phone operator poured 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) into the 2.4 billion-euro fund run by beleaguered Swiss asset manager GAM Holding AG, which generates returns ...
Read More »The world is linked to the Brexit’s fate
Those of us who have always thought that Brexit — Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union — was a bad idea should be feeling self-satisfied and vindicated now. Well, we’re not; at least this observer isn’t. The reason is obvious. Many of the things that we feared would happen have happened, or might still. Worse, the consequences aren’t confined to ...
Read More »Italy faces an impossible choice
Italy’s populist rulers are famous for their contradictory positions. They’re against bailing out banks, but also oppose bailing in investors. They want to cut taxes, increase spending, but also want to keep public debt in check. They are in favour of infrastructure projects, but cannot make up their mind on whether a high-speed train link to France should go ahead. ...
Read More »Dirty money is creating schism in banking system
The dirty money scandal engulfing Europe’s post-crisis banking champions is leading to a lot of finger-pointing inside the bloc. The EU’s bank supervisors are investigating possible regulatory failures at the national level, but national supervisors are pushing back. The latest evidence of local muscle-flexing comes from the Italian central bank, which has asked ING Groep NV to stop taking on ...
Read More »Trump’s border crisis is made in the USA
The Trump administration says the US faces a “national security and humanitarian crisis†at its southwest border. The situation has indeed deteriorated — and President Trump’s approach to the issue is one reason why. His misguided policies have made a surge of asylum seekers from Central America harder to handle, and diverted attention and resources from a problem that has ...
Read More »We need a Green Marshall Plan, not a Green New Deal
At the fourth United Nations Environment Assembly in Kenya this past week, experts and officials from around the world debated how to come up with the investment and innovation needed for countries to grow without dooming the planet. National leaders, NGOs and others discussed, among other things, how to create more “sustainable patterns of consumption and production.†What really struck ...
Read More »FAA let pressure overcome principles on decision of 737
Public pressure is not a good reason for government to pull an aircraft out of service. Have we learned nothing from past panics? After an Ethiopian Airlines crash killed 157 passengers on March 10, and a Lion Air crash killed 189 last fall, the Trump administration issued an executive order to ground the Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 ...
Read More »Tesla’s new model Y raises a whole bunch of Qs
You had to be there. To really see Tesla Inc.’s new Model Y, that is. Those catching the livestream of the unveiling of company’s compact SUV got a relatively brief look at the Y. Much of the event was taken up with something like a greatest-hits rundown of Tesla’s previous vehicles, both real and promised. CEO Elon Musk poked at ...
Read More »Danske official points to other banks’ ties in Estonia scandal 
Bloomberg It seems increasingly clear that Danske Bank A/S was far from alone in its involvement in one of the world’s biggest money laundering scandals. Karsten Dybvad, the chairman of Denmark’s largest lender, says he hopes the $230 billion dirty money saga that has engulfed Danske doesn’t end up being even bigger. “But we can see in other banks that ...
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