Bloomberg Hundreds of Ghana opposition members took to the streets of the capital, Accra, to demonstrate against a government decision to allow a US military base in the West African nation. Former Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and general secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress Asiedu Nketia joined protesters calling themselves Ghana First Patriotic Front. Members of the Convention ...
Read More »What does Europe care about? Watch its spending
“Don’t tell me what you value,†Joe Biden once said. “Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.†He wasn’t talking about the European Union, obviously, but it’s a great line that’s as telling today in Europe as it was when he used it to criticize Washington Republicans in 2008. Negotiations on the next seven-year budget cycle ...
Read More »China’s stock rally isn’t about economy
A curious thing is happening in China: Its stocks appear immune to any economic slowdown. For years, there was a strong correlation between China’s GDP growth rate and the performance of the benchmark MSCI China Index, which tracks Hong Kong and US-listed Chinese companies. The relationship was so pronounced that fund managers sifted through an array of macro indicators trying ...
Read More »Novartis’s new CEO has cash, momentum for an overhaul
Asset swaps have been a big thing in pharma over the past few years. Now it’s time for the un-swap. Novartis AG said it was unwinding part of a complicated 2014 asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline PLC, trading its stake in their consumer-health joint venture for $13 billion. The decision isn’t a huge surprise, though the timing is unexpected. It suggests ...
Read More »These trade jabs don’t look like economic warfare
So is a trade war upon us? President Donald Trump announced last week that the US would place $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, but what does that mean for the future of world trade? This conflict seems more likely to remain a modest spat than to blossom into a slugfest. First of all, China responded to Trump’s ...
Read More »Uber can’t afford to be an ugly American abroad
Anybody who commutes via ride-share in one of Southeast Asia’s traffic-choked cities knows that Uber Technologies Inc. has always been an also-ran in the fast-growing region. Compared with Grab Taxi Holdings Pte. Ltd., the dominant ride-sharing company in Southeast Asia, it consistently had fewer cars available and was perpetually behind in offering localized services. When Uber announced on Monday that ...
Read More »The financial crisis is far from over for students
The financial crisis and the bursting of the housing bubble are now a decade behind us. But at least one consequence persists: a pile of student loans. Those loans, and the government’s relentless efforts to collect on them, continue to haunt Americans years after names like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns faded into memory. Since the recession began in 2008, ...
Read More »Amazon is already reshaping the health care industry
Without having done much yet, Amazon.com Inc. is already transforming US health care — and not necessarily for the better. The mere threat of the online giant getting into the health business prompted the country’s two largest pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts Holding Co. — to join forces with two of its largest insurers, Aetna ...
Read More »Cyberattacks hit debt-market pricing at biggest Nordic bank
Bloomberg Nordea Bank AB will start pricing debt products to reflect threats to data as the scandal engulfing Facebook Inc. redefines corporate risk. Mathias Leijon, co-head of corporate and investment banking at Nordea in Stockholm, says his team has been thinking “a lot about this†risk, with a key question emerging as, “How do you include the cost associated with ...
Read More »Australian banks face squeeze as conduct probe crimps pricing power
Bloomberg A recent spike in funding costs is happening at the worst time for Australia’s big banks, as intense public scrutiny crimps their ability to pass on increases to customers. The banks are fighting to defend their reputations in the face of an inquiry into misconduct and mistreatment of customers. Two weeks into hearings in front of a Royal Commission, ...
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