MOBSTERS, gangsters and bent cops have all been tried under America’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act. Might consultants be next? McKinsey, a management consultancy, is being sued under the law by Jay Alix, the founder of AlixPartners, a competitor in the field of bankruptcy advice. Mr Alix alleges that McKinsey knowingly misled courts […]
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UBER’s fleet of autonomous vehicles has been parked up since one of its self-driving cars struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona in March. That death highlighted once again the industry’s rush to develop self-driving cars. Waymo, a sister company of Google, plans to launch a robotaxi service in Arizona this year. General Motors […]
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LIFE insurance is among the oldest financial products. The Amicable Society, founded in London in 1706, charged members a set contribution and paid out annually to widows and children of those who had died in the previous 12 months. Today it is a vast industry: life and health insurers employ over 800,000 people in America […]
Read moreOn May 16th Callum Williams, our Britain economics correspondent, was named joint winner of the Young Financial Journalist of the Year at the Wincott Awards, an annual set of prizes for British journalists. Latest stories Surging numbers of Chinese people going abroad should be welcomed Step inside a gay bar for a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” […]
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SHOULD Europeans worry that China Three Gorges (CTG), a state-owned firm, wants to buy EDP, a utility that is Portugal’s biggest company? It is three years since one local banker, Fernando Ulrich, called Portugal “a Chinese aircraft-carrier in Europe”—back then, Chinese buyers were already snapping up stakes in “strategic” local companies as quickly as the […]
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IN A recent video Jeremy Sciarappa, a YouTuber, flips the lid off a red box in his living room to reveal a silver machine the size of a shoebox, whining noisily. The contraption is an Antminer S9, sold by Bitmain, a Chinese firm. Its job is to help validate transactions conducted in bitcoin, the world’s […]
Read moreCurrency, United States Finance
The final results of Iraq’s first post-Islamic State (ISIS) election, held last weekend, have revealed a shock win for controversial anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Now in a position to potentially determine much of the country’s future, the Shia leader, who has railed against both U.S. and Iranian influence, could dramatically change the landscape for major […]
Read moreCurrency, United States Finance
Two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050, the United Nations has projected, with India, China and Nigeria set to drive a surge in urbanization. Today, around 55 percent of the world’s population is thought to be living in an urban area or city, with that figure set to rise to […]
Read moreEuropean leaders said Thursday they will do their utmost to protect the region’s companies from the adverse effects of U.S. sanctions on Iran as they met at a European Union (EU) summit. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal will not only see sanctions re-imposed on Tehran, although the extent of […]
Read moreThe European Commission will take France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania and Britain to the EU Court of Justice for failing to respect air quality limits, the EU executive said on Thursday. The move follows a summit in January in which the Commission said it would get tough on member states that were still in breach […]
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