While markets have already expressed short-term preferences for the respective U.S. presidential candidates, the long-term impact is harder to gauge.
Tag: finance
BERLIN — Organized crime syndicates have long smuggled drugs and cigarettes. Their distribution strategy is so effective that police around the world have a hard time tracing the channels that allow their products to reach the black market. But could these crimes also be funding terrorism? Members of what is believed to be a criminal […]
No, it’s mostly not about censorship …
BEIJING — Chinese people watching American television series are exposed to an enviable image of an average middle class American family. Bound for a leafy neighborhood in the suburbs, a Chevrolet leaves the bustling city and rolls into the driveway of a wooden home on a quiet street. Two or three kids are playing on […]
In Geneva and other Swiss cities, people are cautiously optimistic that Britain’s EU-exit vote could spur investment, boost real estate and maybe even help local universities.
If the UK leaves the European Union, the members of the free market camp in the EU would be severely outnumbered.
TIANJIN — A stone’s throw from the highly polluted Bohai Gulf, the Tianjin eco-city is like a mirage. Its buildings, surrounded by trees, offer a rare green and airy setting in the surrounding industrial development zone, which is choked, for much of the year, in a blanket of smog. Public lighting is charged through solar […]
PARIS — No country has yet decided to send anyone to Mars. But private-sector initiatives reported by the media — and the global film industry — suggest that things could change within the next decade. If nothing else, such efforts are proof of our collective impatience to see a new stage of space exploration and […]
De Tijd, Oct. 14, 2015 “Belgians remain in control of big beer,” and “The biggest pint in the world is Belgian,” Flemish-language business daily De Tijd proudly writes on the front page of its Wednesday edition, a day after the world’s second-largest brewer SABMiller accepted a takeover proposal from Belgium-based No.1 beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev. […]
-Analysis- BEIJING — Included among Fortune“s recently-published Global 500 rankings of the top corporations worldwide are 106 companies from China, a new record for the country, and now second only to the United States in terms of representation on the prestigious list. But it’s imporant to note that the Global 500 rankings only reflect revenues […]
In countries that once invested in free public university systems, higher education is increasingly becoming an investment option turned over to the private sector. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Financial Times, April 15, 2015 The European Union announced plans Wednesday to charge Google with violating antitrust laws by using its dominant position in the search engine market to favor its own services over those of its rivals. The Financial Times had details of the expected action in its Wednesday edition, noting the EU’s move […]
TEL AVIV — When the coalition agreement is signed and the next Israeli government is officially formed as expected next month, it will have exactly 107 days to pass the state budget that will chart the country’s economic course. So even while the rest of the world may focus on the profiles of the incoming […]
A 6.6-billion-kilometer space mission flew with the spirit of Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral and some of the old continent’s other great achievements of vision and steadfastness.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, people have come to rely on the ability to do basic financial transactions anywhere. The downside is when cellular connection crashes.
-Commentary- BEIJING — Seeing a strategic opportunity to dilute the global monopoly of the three major credit rating agencies, China and Russia recently announced plans to establish a joint credit rating agency. The idea is that it would evaluate Sino-Russian cooperation projects, then eventually enter the international market. But there is a deep divide between […]
A Latin American call for the global soccer chief to step aside amidst ongoing corruption investigations. Yet even a Blatter-less FIFA would still have a long road to rectitude.
Credit cards, ratings agencies and currency supremacy are some of the battlegrounds where Beijing and Moscow are teaming up to take on the West.
Argentina’s former Minister of Education Susana Decibe asks if “Peronism” — that brand of Latin American politics named after the 20th century Argentine President Perón, and popularly associated with a unique mix of social justice and state paternalism — is to blame for the country’s current dysfunctional democracy. BUENOS AIRES — Argentina emerged from a […]
BELGRADE – Clean shaven, impeccably dressed in a dark suit and tie, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back in business. On Sept. 17, France’s former Finance Minister and disgraced head of the International Monetary Fund officially accepted a post as economic adviser to the Serbian government. DSK’s hosts in Belgrade had a hard time hiding how proud […]
–OpEd– SANTIAGO – After four long years in court, the 10 Chilean pharmaceutical executives prosecuted for colluding to raise the prices of 222 medicines can breathe easy. These business leaders from the companies Salco-Brand, Ahumada and Cruz Verde were in fact convicted, but the sentence amounted to a meager fine — the equivalent of $445,000 […]
Global Trade Alert has just published its 2013 report on international trade, and raised the alarm on “Protectionism’s Quiet Return.” In the cross-hairs of this free-trade advocacy group are the G20 countries, which have been taking more and more protectionist measures since the financial crisis broke out in 2008. From the anti-dumping EU measures on […]
BEIJING – China is busy in America’s backyard. Over the past five years, Chinese businesses have been expanding their footprint in Latin America in a number of ways, beginning with enhanced trade to ensure a steady supply of bulk commodities such as oil, copper and soybeans. At this year’s Boao Forum for Asia, for the […]
With his proposal to cut bonuses for European bankers, Belgian politician Philippe Lamberts has become public enemy No. 1 for Britain’s financial industry. Nothing could make him happier.
-OpEd- PARIS – Game over for the last of the European Marxists. Europe is getting ready to cap the size of bonuses for bankers. New rules would prevent bankers in European Union countries from receiving bonuses higher than their annual salary. This world first would put an end to the practice that allows these “workers” […]
AFP, WALL STREET JOURNAL, JAPAN TIMES (Japan) Worldcrunch TOKYO – Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said during a meeting that elderly people should “hurry up and die.” Taro Aso. Photo Sebastian Derungs “Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. You cannot sleep well when you think it’s all […]
WALL STREET JOURNAL, CNN, BLOOMBERG (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives has approved a Senate bill to avoid the American and global economy facing the dreaded consequences of the so-called “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts across the United States. Hailed as a victory for President Barack Obama, the […]
Lately, it seems like the whole world is finding fault with the French. Ratings agency Moody has downgraded France and the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the European Commission have all acknowledged that the country needs to undertake critical economic reforms to avoid decline. The so-called “Five Wise Men” […]
-Analysis- BEIJING – The “Made in China” export label is by now an integral part of the entire Chinese economy. With Japan as its fourth-largest trading partner, Bejing is starting to ask what weight the ongoing China-Japan islands dispute will have on the Chinese economy. China’s Ministry of Commerce reports that direct investment by Japanese […]
EUROPE 1, LE FIGARO (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – Unemployment has reached a new record high in the eurozone, with European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi saying Friday that the single currency would not recover until the second half of 2013. “We have not yet emerged from the crisis,” Draghi told France’s Europe 1 radio […]
LA STAMPA, LA REPUBBLICA, CORRIERE DELLA SERA (Italy) Worldcrunch ROME – Italy’s struggling economy appears to have at least one good shot at bouncing back: immigrant entrepreneurs. According to La Stampa, the businesses of non-EU immigrants account for 5.7% of Italy’s GDP. Confesercenti, the Italian association for small and medium businesses, says the number of […]
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Swiss Bank UBS Slashes 10,000 Jobs
LE TEMPS (Switzerland), THE FINANCIAL TIMES (UK) Worldcrunch ZURICH – Swiss bank UBS officially announced Tuesday it is cutting 10,000 jobs worldwide after losing $42 billion during the financial crisis. The Zurich based bank, which currently employs 64,500 people, is aiming to reduce its workforce by 2015, Swiss daily Le Temps reports. The bulk of […]
PANAMA CITY – Panama’s fiscal incentives are luring more and more people to its shores: multinationals, retirees in search of sun and investors seeking new opportunities. Real estate prices are ballooning into a mini Manhattan-on-the-Pacific. The latest notable arrival is PKB Privatbank, the first private Swiss bank to open a “banking center” in Panama City. […]
SÃO PAULO – Brazil is the most expensive developing nation for doing business and has costs similar to developed countries, according to a study by consulting firm KPMG. “Competitive Alternatives” is a regular KPMG report that compares the structure of costs for companies in different countries and localities, taking into account taxes, labor, rent, cost […]
THE INDEPENDENT, FINANCIAL TIMES (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – Martin Wheatley, the newly appointed chief financial policeman to the UK vowed on Monday that there will be no stone unturned in bringing corrupt bankers to justice in the City- London’s financial hub. Bad bankers warned: repent or go to jail ind.pn/QEdKg3 — The Independent (@Independent) October […]
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Why Living Rich Is Costing More And More
PARIS – The price of luxury products is skyrocketing. The quasi-hypnotic appeal of some brands and the increasing number of extremely wealthy clients throughout the world is enabling luxury brands to hike prices to stratospheric levels year after year. A pair of John Lobb shoes, a Kelly Hermès bag, a kilo of Petrossian Sevruga caviar, […]
In the face of the European debt and financial crisis, Hamburg-based economist Dirk Meyer has a “third way”: a system of parallel currencies. A professor at the Helmut Schmidt University of the armed forces, Meyer is convinced that in its present form the euro zone is simply not sustainable in the long term. He used […]