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Italy’s auction of five and 10-year government bonds on Thursday will be the most important test of investor appetite since the country’s political crisis subsided. Buyers are understandably skittish. Appetite for the 10-year securities the government sold at the end of May was poor, something I remarked on at the time. Since then, yields on Italy’s two-year bonds have climbed ...

The rising US dollar and higher interest rates are pummeling emerging markets. Foreign investors who rode the big rally in these markets in 2016 and 2017 see little reason to stick around and are leaving en masse. This shift will probably persist since dollar-denominated obligations make up some 75 percent of the trillions of dollars in developing-economy debt. True, cheaper ...

Real estate is the driver of the Chinese economy. By some estimates, it accounts (directly and indirectly) for as much as 30 percent of gross domestic product. Keeping housing prices buoyant and development robust is thus an overriding imperative for China — one that is distorting policymaking and worsening its other economic imbalances. Despite reforms in recent years, there’s little ...

Rescuing a dying bank with taxpayers’ money is often the only way to prevent a costlier contagion. But nursing a deposit-taking institution by tapping life-insurance premiums of policyholders? That’s like allowing a localized infection to spread all over, hoping the natural immunity of an otherwise healthy body will help beat back the germs. India’s plan to sell a majority stake ...

A pattern is emerging in the war between the European Union’s antitrust authorities and US tech companies. The changes that Google and Apple made after adverse rulings and large fines appear to be little but window-dressing, and left intact the problems the penalties were intended to solve. In June 2017, the European Commission fined Google 2.4 billion euros for giving ...

Bloomberg Some of the world’s largest money managers soured on emerging markets as compounding trade threats deepened the worst monthly rout for developing currencies since the US election. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it’s reducing an overweight position in developing-nation currencies, preferring a more “defensive” stance as China and Europe warned the escalating trade war could trigger a global recession. ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. will pay $5.1 million to settle a US regulator’s claims that employees abused clients by persuading them to sell certain investments before maturity, generating large fees for the lender. Brokers with Wells Fargo Advisors, from January 2009 to June 2013, encouraged retail customers to sell market-linked investments meant to be held to maturity so they ...

Bloomberg Irish banks are set to be forced to hold more capital to cope with a future economic downturn, according to a person familiar with the matter. The country’s central bank is leaning towards increasing the so-called counter cyclical capital buffer from zero percent in coming months, according to the person, who asked not to be identified as the information ...

Bloomberg Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda endorsed a Japanese government call for employers to raise wages by 3 percent a year — far faster than the current pace — to help the central bank meet its inflation target. “The government request for 3 percent wage increase is quite appropriate,” Kuroda said during a panel discussion at a European Central ...

Bloomberg For months, global regulators have been scrambling to get a grip on cryptocurrencies. Yet, even as they debate potential action, a key question looms: What exactly are these things? Now, a consensus appears to be forming around how to define these new instruments. In a speech at the annual general meeting of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, ...