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Bloomberg UK lenders approved the fewest home loans in eight months in December and demand for unsecured debt remained subdued, Bank of England figures show. The slowdown reflects fears that Britain risks leaving the European Union without a deal, a scenario that could rock the property market. Consumer credit grew at its slowest annual pace in four years. UK mortgage ...

Bloomberg A new privacy bill proposed by Senator Marco Rubio, which would override more restrictive state laws, is winning support from a Washington-based technology trade group that counts Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and eBay Inc. as members. The Florida Republican’s legislation would impose a national privacy standard and supersede tougher data-protection regulations that will take effect in California in ...

Stock and bond markets are flashing warning signs of a US recession just over the horizon, and President Donald Trump is having none of it: Investors may be gloomy about the vanishing gap between short- and long-term US Treasury yields, the dreaded yield-curve inversion that tends to forecast recessions, but the president is focusing on the bright side. The US ...

Italy’s Five Star Movement has risen to global prominence more for the colorful oddness of its founder, the comedian Beppe Grillo, than for the seriousness of its populist policies. But one of its proposals has attracted genuine interest from across the world: The idea of a “citizens’ income.” This concept could in theory appeal to both the left and the ...

In Britain’s retail apocalypse, culling staff might seem like an obvious course of action for hard-pressed store chains. But cut too deep, and the damage inflicted on the business can be even more devastating than Brexit-induced nervousness. Tesco is looking to eliminate up to 9,000 jobs – about half of which could be shifted elsewhere in the company – as ...

With high-stakes trade talks set to resume in Washington, US officials say any deal with China hinges on how it can be enforced. That is indeed a key issue. But to have any hope of success, the US can’t be entirely worried about whether China might cheat. It also needs to consider what conditions would best encourage Beijing to comply. ...

“I’m really enjoying the season finale of the UK,” quipped Irish software engineer Damian Sullivan on Twitter. His joke may not be far off the mark. Brexit negotiations are looking more and more like the type of destructive brinkmanship that the US has seen in recent years. But the stakes are much higher in the UK — rather than just ...

In the past decade, China has relied primarily on credit growth to fund its economic ambitions. The country’s banks are now feeling the constraints of this lending binge and need to raise a lot of capital over the next couple of years. The way China handles this challenge will determine its economic health. With 267 trillion yuan ($39.4 trillion) of ...

Facebook Inc.’s “family” of apps is about to get even closer. The New York Times reported that Facebook is planning to more closely integrate the apps it owns, including its Messenger and WhatsApp instant chat services, as well as photo-and-video-focused Instagram. The decision is both an inevitable end to independence for properties that Facebook acquired and initially left largely alone, ...

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA is making a last-ditch effort to boost its performance after a trading slump threatened Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea’s targets. The French bank — recovering from regulatory probes that cost it billions of euros and a management reshuffle — plans to cut jobs in less profitable investment banking businesses to save at least 100 million euros ...