Many Americans still think of the US economy as increasingly dominated by knowledge and technology workers. In fact, when it comes to jobs growth in this decade, blue-collar industries have outpaced service industries, and the trend is accelerating. Tariffs may amplify this trend — making the US economy more like China’s economic model. Throughout the economic expansion in the 1980s ...
Read More »Big pharma needs a payoff to beat the next superbug
Antibiotics might be the most important medicines we have. They treat everything from dirty cuts to rapidly mutating superbugs that make a stay at a hospital an increasingly scary proposition. With new strains of drug-resistant and potentially deadly bacteria continuing to emerge, it’s essential from a public-health perspective that the antibiotic pipeline remains robust. But instead, big pharmaceutical companies are ...
Read More »Mickey Mouse wriggles out of his takeover chains
A tiny subsection in the UK takeover code has shot from the margins to the center. The Takeover Panel prompted more controversy over an arcane rule and its application to the battle for Sky Plc. The rule book’s so-called chain principle determines what happens if a bidder takes control of a publicly traded company by buying a firm that owns ...
Read More »Chevron’s longtime nemesis hits the end of the road
Corporations are easy to hate. They are big, they are impersonal, and they operate by profit-driven rules that can sometimes seem cruel. When corporations are accused of wrongdoing by a community led by a plucky plaintiffs lawyer, there is a natural tendency to believe the latter over the former. Chevron Corp, which is ranked 13th on the Fortune 500 and ...
Read More »Trump’s ‘tax-cut’ fading into trade-war gloom at top banks
Bloomberg It was supposed to be the best of times for the biggest US banks: Rising interest rates and corporate tax cuts would boost profitability and spur lending, while deregulation lowered costs. The optimism didn’t last. Loan books probably expanded only slightly last quarter while revenue failed to match the acceleration posted in the first three months of the year, ...
Read More »Pakistan central bank raises its key rate again
Bloomberg Pakistan’s central bank increased its key rate for a second straight meeting as economic pressures build ahead of a tense national vote. The target policy rate was raised to 7.5 percent from 6.5 percent, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Tariq Bajwa said in a Karachi briefing. The increase by 100 basis points was predicted by nine economists in a ...
Read More »Blackstone seeks $20bn for buyout fund
Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP plans to start raising its next global private equity fund three years after gathering about $18 billion from investors for its last pool. The firm is expected to seek more than $20 billion when it starts marketing its eighth buyout fund later this year, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be ...
Read More »MUFG considers job cuts in UK and US
Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG) is considering job cuts at its securities operations overseas to keep them profitable. The brokerage arm of Japan’s biggest bank may reduce headcount in the UK and the US, reflecting market conditions, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings Co. Chief Executive Officer Saburo Araki said, without giving details. The firm had 605 employees in Europe and ...
Read More »Barclays leads European banks’ pursuit of risky US debt
Bloomberg When an indebted infant health-care company in Atlanta wanted to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to buy a rival in Pasadena, it turned to a lender thousands of miles away in London. Barclays Plc is helping Aveanna Healthcare LLC get a $221 million loan for its purchase of Premier Healthcare Services LLC, adding to a $900 million debt ...
Read More »Airbus nears blockbuster $23bn jet sale to AirAsia
Bloomberg Airbus SE is closing in on a blockbuster agreement to sell $23 billion worth of aircraft, based on list prices, to AirAsia Group Bhd., according to people familiar with the matter. The Malaysian airline, already the second-biggest customer for Airbus’s re-engined A320 narrowbody, is weighing an order for as many as 100 A321neo aircraft, according to people familiar with ...
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