Bloomberg Three former Nomura Holdings Inc. mortgage-bond traders accused of cheating their customers called no witnesses in their defense against fraud charges, betting that prosecutors’ evidence is too weak to convict them. Lawyers for the three traders — Ross Shapiro, Michael Gramins, and Tyler Peters — have said they will tell jurors that the prosecution failed to prove its case ...
Read More »Japan’s industrial production hits highest since 2008
Bloomberg Japan’s industrial output rebounded in April, hitting the highest level since 2008, as overseas demand continued to support the nation’s economic recovery. Industrial production increased 4.0 percent (forecast +4.2 percent) in April from March, when it fell 1.9 percent. Industrial production index rose to 103.8 in April, the highest level since October 2008. Output is forecast to fall 2.5 ...
Read More »Uber fires executive at center of driverless car legal fight
Bloomberg Levandowski joined the ride-hailing startup in 2016 after several years at Google’s autonomous driving project, which is now called Waymo. In February, Waymo sued Uber alleging that Levandowski stole trade secrets and patents from Waymo for the development of self-driving technology and brought them to Uber. Levandowski has invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify in the case, ...
Read More »Greece seeks to lure UK-based shipowners, brokers on Brexit
Bloomberg The Greek government wants to persuade shipowners and shipping-insurance companies based in London to move their European Union headquarters to Greece as the UK prepares to exit the bloc. “We’re in contact with five large ship-insurance brokers who are considering various EU member countries for the transfer of their headquarters,†Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroumblis said in an interview in ...
Read More »UK mortgage approvals fall to 7-month low
Bloomberg UK mortgage approvals fell to a seven-month low in a sign the housing market is slowing, though Britons are continuing to take advantage of low interest rates to take on unsecured debt. Lenders approved 64,645 home loans in April, the fewest since September and below the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Mortgage lending grew 2.7 billion pounds, the ...
Read More »Danish growth saved in Q1 by inventory build-up
Bloomberg Denmark’s economic expansion was saved in the first quarter of the year by a build up in inventories. Danish output expanded at a quarterly rate of 0.6 percent, twice as fast as estimated by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The annual rate was 2.2 percent, according to preliminary data from Statistics Denmark. Private consumption, which accounts for almost half of ...
Read More »Are Americans on the road to impeachment?
I am not a big or even a little fan of President Donald Trump. Many of his policies strike me as undesirable, some in the extreme. His background and temperament have not prepared him for the presidency. He is largely ignorant of many issues he must face. And yet, for all this, the idea of impeaching him and removing him ...
Read More »Singapore’s puny 1MDB fine won’t fool Credit Suisse
Tidjane Thiam got away with a fine of half a million dollars, or just 0.009 percent of what he paid the Americans late last year. Yet the Credit Suisse Group AG CEO won’t be fooled by Singapore’s apparent leniency. Tuesday’s gentle rap concludes a two-year investigation by the city-state into banks that, knowingly or otherwise, helped facilitate an elaborate scheme ...
Read More »The Fed’s glacial yield-flattening plan
The Federal Reserve will almost certainly take steps to start reducing its $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year. The central bankers made that clear in the minutes from their meeting. At first blush, this seems as if it would be bad for longer-term debt, which is yielding much less than it has historically in large part because of the ...
Read More »Ransomware and the NSA’s mission
The effects of this month’s global ransomware attack seem to be fading, fortunately. But a crucial question the incident raised is only getting more urgent. When it comes to online security, the U.S. government’s priorities — preventing terrorism and protecting cyberspace — are in permanent tension. Is there a way to resolve it? The National Security Agency (NSA) routinely seeks out ...
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