Bloomberg For Roche Holding AG, collaborating with tech startups is no longer enough. Now it wants to own them. The Swiss oncology giant bought three tech companies and joined forces with another in the past eight months as it seeks to take advantage of a flood of data from patients and clinical studies. The most recent deal, a $1.9 billion ...
Read More »Layoffs arrive in Brexit Britain; and auto workers are up first
Bloomberg In his 50 years working in Britain’s car industry, John Cooper has survived plenty of upheavals. None is scarier than the prospect of Brexit. Being split off from their biggest market means the job cuts and production slowdown UK carmakers have imposed the past few months could be just a prelude to wholesale shutdowns. The shock is only beginning ...
Read More »Ugh – inflation is back
Anyone looking for good economic news will be disappointed by the latest inflation report, which showed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) advancing by 0.5 percent in January. By itself, this isn’t especially alarming — prices jump around month to month — but it has troubling implications for the future. To some economists, it suggests the possibility of another financial crisis ...
Read More »Enough lies: India’s banks get an ultimatum on bad loans
The Indian central bank is shutting down its halfway houses for debt addicts. In the process, it’s also throwing out an infuriating alphabet soup: CDR, SDR, S4A and their ilk. Lenders will now have a much cleaner—and stricter—system for dealing with distressed large borrowers. If they still try to hide bad loans, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will whack ...
Read More »South Africa’s bonds have no patience for time or space
Time and space are wonderful things — except South Africa doesn’t really have the luxury of either. The ruling African National Congress party are trying to smooth the end of President Jacob Zuma’s political career, and decided not to set a deadline for him to respond to their decision that he should leave office. An extended exit has the capacity ...
Read More »The gun business needs this gun-control measure
Two days before the horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people on February 14, Remington Outdoor Co. announced that it was filing for bankruptcy protection. Remington Outdoor is the world’s biggest gun company. In addition to Remington rifles, its brands include Bushmaster, Marlin and DPMS. It is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which ...
Read More »Japan keeps the right person at the helm of its central bank
It looks like one of the world’s best central bankers will get another term. Reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will nominate Haruhiko Kuroda for another term as head of the Bank of Japan. The decision to stay the course is just one more sign that things are going right in the Land of the Rising Sun. It’s ...
Read More »As China’s tourists go global, its firms follow
This month, 6.5 million Chinese will travel abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday. They’ll bring luggage, smartphones and a desire to use the same technological conveniences they’ve grown accustomed to at home. For China’s tech companies, that’s a potent combination — one that may help them finally compete in overseas markets. Just as foreign companies often fail in China, ...
Read More »How low will retail go? Look at the railroad
It’s hard to find anyone optimistic about the future of conventional retail as internet giants like Amazon continue to accumulate customers. But where’s the bottom? There is a helpful parallel — just not an obvious one — that might shed some light on the question. The best way to measure retail’s role in the economy while simultaneously accounting for population ...
Read More »What shaped stock market’s $3 trillion trauma – any guesses
Bloomberg Want a neat narrative? There isn’t one. Stocks buckled, $3 trillion was lost, then just as quickly, roughly half of it came back. Nothing quite explains every little twist and turn. Much of it remains a blur. But there are clues to be gleaned from the behaviour of buyers and sellers. Several key facts stand out. One: a very ...
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