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More than 40 years ago, Congress adopted the Community Reinvestment Act to ensure that banks would serve everyone in the areas where they do business, regardless of race or class. Now, the Trump administration is considering how it might reform this long-controversial law. There’s reason for concern about the administration’s intentions. Done right, though, an update could actually be a ...

After enduring something of a sudden trauma last week, many market participants now wish for a rapid return to calm. That’s understandable, but it may not be in their longer-term interest to simply revert to the highly unusual market conditions that prevailed before. Instead, they should hope for a new, less abnormal market paradigm with respect to asset-price volatility, correlations ...

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Boris Johnson traded barbs this week over how far the EU intends to push its integration agenda. In a speech on Wednesday, the UK foreign secretary accused the EU of seeking to create an “overarching European state.” Not true, Juncker responded: “I am strictly against a European superstate. We are not the United States ...

Amazon Go, the global retailer’s experimental cashier-free convenience store, opened last week to enormous fanfare. At its heart was a promise to eliminate everyone’s least-favourite part of the shopping experience: checking out. With ceiling-mounted sensors and cameras backed by what one presumes is impressive artificial intelligence, Amazon is able to track every interaction a customer has with a product. It ...

Indian banks are being hit with one disaster after another. They are already dealing with a bad-loan problem that’s close to a crisis—and which caused India’s largest bank to declare a quarterly loss for the first time since the beginning of the millennium. Some of the loans that have gone bad—such as those to the flamboyant liquor magnate Vijay Mallya—already ...

Bloomberg Don’t worry: Technology may come and go, but some things never change. In the not-so-distant future, cars will drive themselves and men may become obsolete (sorry, guys), but home will always be home. It’ll just be a heck of a lot smarter. Granted, some tech is better than other tech. No one needs a Wi-Fi-connected juice press that doesn’t ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s HomePod, the company’s first foray into speakers in a decade, costs $216 to build and generates thinner profit margins than other products like the Apple Watch and iPhone, according to analysis by TechInsights. Given the HomePod’s $349 price, that $216 cost suggests Apple is generating margins of about 38 percent, according to the product analysis firm. That ...

Bloomberg Mercedes-AMG GmbH debuted its latest collaboration with Cigarette Racing, the 515 Project One. The $2 million superboat has 3,100 total horsepower and can hit a top speed of 140 miles per hour. The look and colour scheme of the boat is based on the Mercedes-AMG Project One hybrid supercar developed from Formula 1; it’s the fastest, most advanced boat ...

Bloomberg In many ways, China’s Lunar New Year holiday is America’s Thanksgiving, Christmas and Independence Day all rolled into one. Millions of Chinese take planes and trains to make the journey home (or abroad) to visit family and friends. Copious amounts of food are shared and gifts are exchanged as people ring in the first days of the moon’s new ...

Bloomberg Credit Agricole SA is seeking to sell about 6 billion euros ($7.5 billion) of Italian non-performing loans bought from other institutions a decade or more ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The French bank is trying to offload its holdings in four different bad-loan securitizations, along with the Luxembourg-based entity that issued them, said the people, ...