No ‘emergency’ will allow Trump to build his wall

President Donald Trump has said that he can declare a national emergency and order his border wall to be built. He’s wrong. The US Constitution doesn’t contain any national emergency provision that would allow the president to spend money for purposes not allocated by Congress. And it’s clearer than clear that Congress not only hasn’t authorized money for a wall ...

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China has ignored this iPhone alert

A slowing economy and relatively high prices have been highlighted as chief culprits behind the slump in demand for Apple Inc.’s iPhones in China. There’s a third factor that’s been overlooked: the end of easy money. Apple last week cut its quarterly revenue forecast for the first time in almost two decades, blaming weak sales in Asia’s largest economy. Cheaper ...

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Tech’s brave investors should look at Samsung

Samsung Electronics Co. missed analyst estimates for fourth-quarter operating profit by 22 percent, the most in two years. That shortfall may be as much a function of sell-side analysts’ financial modeling as Samsung’s inability to deliver stronger earnings. Buy-siders, for example, have been selling down the stock since the middle of the third quarter, an indication that they saw tough ...

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Italy’s revolution is gone in 480 seconds

It took Italy’s populists just eight minutes to renege on one of their flagship stances. The coalition government gave its go-ahead to a bank bailout, saying it is willing to recapitalise Banca Carige, a troubled mid-sized lender, if needed. The plan smacks of hypocrisy. For years, the Five Star Movement has accused its political opponents of using public money to ...

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Calling time on Ghosn not a moment too soon

Where did Nissan Motor Co. end and the world of Carlos Ghosn begin? It’s unclear after his decades-long reign. “I have dedicated two decades of my life to reviving Nissan and building the Alliance,” Ghosn told a Tokyo court on Tuesday in his first appearance since his arrest, according to a prepared statement. He had worked “day and night, on ...

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In Brexit Britain, taking back control means the opposite

Prime Minister Theresa May likes to insist that her Brexit deal means Britain will “take back control” over its borders. But with just three months to go before the UK leaves the European Union, the very opposite is happening. Control is being outsourced, not taken back. The money and skills needed to create Britain’s post-Brexit infrastructure are making the country ...

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Industrial investors in US should proceed with caution

Fourth-quarter earnings tend to be an afterthought for investors in the US industrial giants. By this point in time, they usually have a good sense of the year that was and have already heard from companies on the near-term outlook. Not this year. Investors don’t have the same assurances headed into this earnings season and will be parsing the numbers ...

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Fed’s Bostic trims his rate outlook for 2019 to one hike

Bloomberg The US central bank should only raise interest rates once this year but keep going with its plan to gradually shrink the balance sheet, said Raphael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and one of the Fed’s more dovish policy makers. “Coming into this year, a year ago, I saw two moves for 2019. Right now, ...

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Ex-BOJ official sees yen rising to 100

Bloomberg There is a good chance the yen will strengthen to 100 against the dollar in coming months as slowing global growth and US-China trade tensions keep investors on edge, a former senior Bank of Japan official said. While that level would be tolerable, there is little the depleted BOJ can do about further yen strength or a serious downturn ...

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SEB to launch new sustainability push

Bloomberg Swedish lender SEB AB plans to hire 10 advisers to kick start a new push into all things energy. The bank is building a new unit within investment banking to focus on energy, an area that for SEB involves the shift away from fossil fuels to renewables, sustainable infrastructure projects, electrification and building sustainable societies, Chief Executive Officer Johan ...

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