Beijing upped the ante with its latest deployment of anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems to fortified outposts in the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea. And it means China will likely soon send warplanes to the area, too, according to an expert on the region. “This should be seen as China […]
Read moreAmerican International Group shares sank more than 9 percent Thursday after the insurance giant posted a disappointing 30 percent decline in adjusted income. AIG is trying to turn around its main business, selling property and casualty insurance to corporations, but California mudslides, major winter storms and other natural disasters cost the insurer $376 million. Taking […]
Read moreIt was a better-than-expected quarter for Tesla, but CEO Elon Musk’s behavior is making him look unhinged, says one analyst. Consumer Edge analyst Jamie Albertine, who is bullish on Tesla and has a price target of $385, said the company’s financial results were in line with his expectations, but Musk’s behavior on Wednesday’s conference call […]
Read more[unable to retrieve full-text content] “DON’T panic yet,” advises the sandwich king of Ohio. Robert Grote is chief executive of JE Grote Company, a family-run firm in Columbus that is a global manufacturer of pizza-preparation machines, bacon-slicers and automated sandwich-makers. Since about half of its $60m or so of annual sales comes from outside America […]
Read moreJOHN LEGERE, the lion-maned boss of T-Mobile, made his wireless firm the fastest-growing carrier in America by cutting prices and giving customers better deals than AT&T and Verizon, which he relentlessly mocked on Twitter as retrograde behemoths. His personal brand as an industry maverick may have helped too. On April 29th he put that image […]
Read moreIN THE mining world the bout has the drama of a heavyweight title fight. In one corner is Ivan Glasenberg, billionaire boss of Glencore, the world’s biggest commodities-trading firm. In the other is Dan Gertler, an Israeli billionaire accused by America of corruption related to his dealings with Joseph Kabila’s government in the Democratic Republic […]
Read more[unable to retrieve full-text content] Blue-skies regulation AS BRITAIN’S prime minister between 2010 and 2016, David Cameron championed financial transparency, targeting anonymous shell companies as the getaway cars of tax-evaders and money-launderers. On his watch Britain became the first G20 country to commit to a publicly accessible register of company owners. Mr Cameron tried to […]
Read more[unable to retrieve full-text content] WARFARE has been transformed by drones. Using pilotless aircraft armed with precision weapons America can kill its enemies—in, say, the Hindu Kush or Syria—with a click of a mouse. There is a similar shift in economic diplomacy, where Uncle Sam has perfected new weapons that exploit its power over the […]
Read more[unable to retrieve full-text content] IT WAS not the sort of do-it-yourself activity that Castorama, a French home-improvement chain, usually promoted. The search engine on the firm’s website started offering customers puerile responses to their inquiries. Its auto-complete text function suggested such intriguing products as a “bollock hammer” or “cock sander”. It also returned offensive […]
Read more[unable to retrieve full-text content] AFTER just 18 days as Deutsche Bank’s chief executive, Christian Sewing had two tasks to perform on April 26th. The easy one, inherited from his ousted predecessor, John Cryan, was to report predictably glum first-quarter results. Net profit dropped by 79%, year on year, to only €120m ($147m). Harder was […]
Read more