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The trustees for Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports last week. This is cause for discouragement because it reminds us how much we’ve mortgaged the country’s future to spending for older Americans. Already, Social Security and Medicare constituted 42 percent of federal spending in 2017, say the trustees. If they had included Medicaid, the share would have exceeded ...

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has nearly $1.5 trillion in assets and a legion of external asset managers running its portfolio. The GPIF sees itself as a ‘super-long-term investor’ with the goal of a century or more of sustainable investment and outflows. Managing money for that long is a matter of stewardship, not just picking assets — and in ...

If Germany has too many banks and beleaguered lender Deutsche Bank AG is too reliant on its trading businesses, wouldn’t a merger with rival Commerzbank AG fix two issues at once? Probably — but for Deutsche’s chairman to bring it up now is as ill-timed as cracking a joke at a funeral. His bank needs to address its problems first ...

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reportedly once said that he enjoyed trying to change the course of history, even if that meant “throwing rocks into glass houses and listening to the shattering of glass.” So it’s no wonder he thinks that US President Donald Trump would be a great Brexit leader. “Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Britain’s chief diplomat told a ...

Italy’s new Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is eager to talk to the European Commission about running a higher deficit, he told his country’s parliament this week. He’s about to find out that the rest of the EU isn’t ready to listen. Brussels is ready to take the same hard-line approach with Rome’s populist rulers as it has with Britain’s Brexit ...

For years now, it’s been a common view in the retail world that a win for Amazon.com Inc. is a loss for some old-school retailers. But these days, that’s not necessarily the case. Traditional brick-and mortar chains are starting to strike some innovative partnerships with their arch-competitor, turning to unconventional arrangements in the hopes of getting more shoppers back into ...

Erich Sixt, chairman and chief executive officer of the Pullach, Germany-based global car rental company that bears his family’s name, recently described electric cars as a “costly political error” given their still inferior range, long charging times and the huge investment necessary to expand the charging infrastructure. It may have been a self-serving statement, but he may also well be ...

Bloomberg US equities opened tentatively higher and European stocks rose as investors eased into a hectic week, during which three major central banks set interest rates, President Donald Trump meets North Korea’s leader and Brexit returns to the fore. The S&P 500 Index gained a bit at the start of trading, led by financials, while the dollar rose with Treasury ...

Bloomberg The 2018 selloff in cryptocurrencies deepened, wiping out $42 billion of market value over the weekend and extending this year’s slump in Bitcoin to more than 50 percent. Some observers pinned the latest retreat on an exchange hack in South Korea, while others pointed to lingering concern over a clampdown on trading platforms in China. Cryptocurrency venues have come ...

Bloomberg The message came from one of Bank of America Corp’s (BofA) most powerful board members across large video screens: “We’re not going to do anything crazy to the customer — and we’re not going to do anything crazy for the customer.” The declaration by Frank Bramble Sr. kicked off the firm’s shareholder meeting in April. It wasn’t just for ...