Tax amnesty windfall brightens Indonesia’s S&P upgrade odds

  Bloomberg After netting more than $10 billion in revenue from its tax amnesty program, Indonesia may be a step closer to winning a much-coveted investment grade from S&P Global Ratings. The nine-month amnesty drive, which ended on Friday, led citizens to declare 4,866 trillion rupiah ($365 billion) of assets hidden from tax authorities. The success may help Southeast Asia’s ...

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Correcting America’s ‘ailing’ health system

  Here’s a radical idea for reframing the health care debate on the ruins of the GOP’s half-baked plan: Let’s listen to doctors, rather than politicians. And let’s begin with a simple formula offered last week by the National Academy of Medicine: “Better health at lower cost.” Better and cheaper. It’s hard to argue with that prescription. Because the real ...

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Singapore takes on China over a surfeit of lemons

  After seeing investors in Singapore duped for years by misbehaving bosses, the city’s stock exchange is taking its fight for justice to mainland China, an exemplar of egregious corporate behavior in the post-Enron world. Singapore Exchange Ltd. said last week that its lawyers in the People’s Republic filed complaints with the authorities against Wu Xinhua, executive chairman and CEO ...

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Europe’s firm but fair approach to Brexit

  With talks on Britain’s exit from the European Union finally about to begin, one procedural issue looms large: Do the negotiations on three big subjects — exit terms, transitional arrangements, and a future comprehensive agreement on a UK-EU partnership — move in parallel or in entirely separate stages? Disagreement over this seemingly minor detail could sink the whole effort. ...

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Trump’s North Korea warning sparks concern

  Just days ahead of scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump said that US can act alone to deal with North Korea’s nuclear program if Beijing does not cooperate to put pressure on pariah nation. Trump and Xi are meeting on April 6-7 at Republican’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. North Korean threat and South ...

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Zombie companies threaten to eat Asia’s future growth

  Any horror aficionado knows that the only good zombie is a dead zombie. Don’t risk trying to bring one back to life. It’ll just come back to bite you. Apparently, policymakers haven’t watched enough B-movies. Worried about layoffs and soured loans, governments and banks across Asia continue to dole out cheap financing and other support to keep failing firms ...

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Tesla finally gets help in China. Is it too late?

  The $1.8 billion stake that Tencent Holdings Ltd. has bought in Tesla Inc. should give some confidence to other investors, despite the carmaker’s ugly balance sheet. But it’s far more important for Tesla’s future prospects than for its current needs: Without it, the company could end up a global afterthought in the race to build the next wave of ...

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Coal’s dirty Australian secret: It’s not coming back

  The world’s biggest coal exporter has a problem. Demand for the dirtiest fuel is on the wane. The International Energy Agency — which has tended to overestimate coal production, and underestimate renewables — doesn’t expect consumption to regain its 2014 levels until 2021. Investment in new mines is ‘drying up,’ according to its latest market forecast. That’s reflected in ...

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Europe stocks rise fifth day as pound falls on data

  Bloomberg European shares advanced for a fifth day, while the pound retreated at the start of a busy week that includes a meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump and culminates in the monthly US jobs report. The Stocks Europe 600 Index gained as much as 0.4 percent before paring the advance, while the euro was little changed after ...

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Taqa shares extend that defied record annual loss

  Bloomberg Shares in Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., the oil company known as Taqa, extended gains that drove them to a two-month high even after announcing a record earnings loss. The stock rose 7.7 percent to 0.56 dirham as of 10:32 a.m. in Abu Dhabi, adding to the previous day’s 13 percent advance. Trading volume was about 30 times ...

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