An adviser to Europe’s top court issued an opinion this month on behalf of liberty, judicial restraint and common sense. Here’s hoping the court heeds his recommendations. At issue was the so-called right to be forgotten, a muddled and misguided legal concept under which any citizen of the European Union can ask search-engine companies like Google to take down links ...
Read More »Why India’s next budget shouldn’t be excessively bold
On February 1 in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will present its last federal budget before general elections are held in a few months. Unlike most other budgets, this typically isn’t a high-octane affair; governments are discouraged from locking their successors into any new spending or taxes. An “interim†budget, as it’s called, tries to avoid committing spending for ...
Read More »United Technologies offers air cover amid growth problems
United Technologies Corp.’s latest results suggest aerospace is still a safe place as worries mount about a slowdown in global growth. The $96 billion conglomerate that’s planning on splitting itself into three reported a staggering 11 percent gain in revenue excluding the impact of M&A and currency swings for the final months of 2018. That was the first time quarterly ...
Read More »Renault-Nissan’s loveless marriage will survive
Under Carlos Ghosn, the independent auto analyst Maryann Keller was telling me the other day, the alliance of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. was a little like Yugoslavia during the reign of Marshal Tito. Yugoslavia was a disparate collection of Slavic republics — Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and so on — with natural tribal enmities. In the decades after World ...
Read More »TD taps helocs to regain clients in ‘leadership push’
Bloomberg Toronto-Dominion Bank is seeking to win back customers with home-equity loans — even as concerns grow over elevated consumer debt amid a slowing Canadian economy. A push for a greater market share of home-equity lines of credit, or helocs, is part of this year’s strategy for Teri Currie, group head of Canadian personal banking at the country’s largest lender ...
Read More »Hungary central bank leaves rates unchanged
Bloomberg Hungary’s central bank left its main interest rates unchanged, sticking to a gradual shift towards the end of ultra-loose monetary policy as it assesses the need to curb brewing inflation pressures. Rate setters left the rate on required reserves unchanged at 0.9 percent and the overnight deposit rate at minus 0.15 percent on Tuesday, with both decisions matching economists’ ...
Read More »Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to allow dollar trading to ease currency squeeze
Bloomberg Zimbabwe said it will allow companies and individuals to transfer dollars electronically, as it looks to ease a crippling scarcity of foreign exchange that’s sent the economy into meltdown and triggered protests. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has upgraded its systems to allow for such transactions and will run testing until February 1, after which it plans to go ...
Read More »Age of volatility is back, says Kenya bank chief
Bloomberg Volatile times are back on the global economic scene with the US appearing to lack clear policy and growth in Europe slowing, the Kenyan central bank governor said. Comments by members of the US government have undermined the Federal Reserve’s role as an anchor of monetary policy, Governor Patrick Njoroge said. Other key concerns include the threat of a ...
Read More »Absa CEO Ramos to retire after steering split from Barclays
Bloomberg Absa Group Ltd Chief Executive Officer Maria Ramos will step down after overseeing the split from Barclays Plc, an alliance blamed for the loss of retail market share at South Africa’s third-largest bank. The stock rallied the most among its Johannesburg-based peers on Tuesday in the wake of her pending exit. Absa, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender, fell ...
Read More »Norwegian gets lifeline with Norway’s richest man backing
Bloomberg Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA gained the backing of Norway’s richest man, providing some stability to the struggling discount carrier as it searches for a new suitor following IAG SA’s decision to abandon its eight-month pursuit. The shares fell the most on record after Norwegian said it had raised 3 billion kroner ($353 million) in a rights issue underwritten by ...
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