THE story of China Merchants Group began in the 1870s. After its defeats in the Opium wars, the Qing government tried to learn from the West by adopting foreign technology and encouraging new commercial ventures, including China Merchants. The banking-to-shipping conglomerate, based in Hong Kong, has since evolved into one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises, […]
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[unable to retrieve full-text content] IT IS rare to see the words “Canada” and “world domination” in the same sentence. The country’s cannabis producers want to change that. With an eye on October 17th, the date on which recreational marijuana will become legal, medical-cannabis firms have been expanding at home and talking up their global […]
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[unable to retrieve full-text content] Here’s to carbon capture IN THEORY, the world has too much carbon dioxide. In 2015 the Paris climate agreement set limits on emissions of the gas to prevent global temperatures rising by more than two degrees Celsius above those of pre-industrial times. But in practice, makers of food and drink […]
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[unable to retrieve full-text content] Jeff dispenses more disruption FOR roughly a year speculation has been feverish: would Amazon, an online retail giant, muscle into America’s prescription-drugs market? On June 28th that uncertainty ended when it bought a small online pharmacy, PillPack, based in Manchester, New Hampshire, for about $1bn. When the deal is completed […]
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[unable to retrieve full-text content] Straight outta South Carolina THE menace to Americans from immigration of the wrong sort is immense, according to President Donald Trump. The list of items he wants to deter from crossing the border includes objects as well as people, and one in particular holds his attention. In trade terms, he […]
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[unable to retrieve full-text content] IT EMERGED on July 2nd that Hollywood may make “The King of Oil”, a film about Marc Rich, an American-Swiss commodities trader who became a fabulously rich fugitive from American justice. On July 3rd Glencore, the firm founded by Mr Rich, said America’s Department of Justice (DoJ) had requested documents […]
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Greece’s opposition party, New Democracy, is angry after the European Commission made comments that its leaders believe could potentially help the current government in an upcoming general election. It is a critical time for Greece, given that it is set to end its third bailout program in August. The future of the country after the […]
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Iran is threatening to dramatically ratchet up its response to the U.S., if President Donald Trump succeeds in halting crude sales from the Persian Gulf when sanctions snap back on the country. Shortly after the Trump administration reaffirmed this week its threat to punish companies that buy Iranian crude, President Hassan Rouhani warned Tehran could […]
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Some money managers are increasingly nervous about an upcoming recession amid higher interest rates and tighter credit availability. “It’s a classical late cycle story. So, when I was here last time, I said we were long and nervous. We are no longer long, we are increasingly nervous about this,” Roelof Salomons, chief strategist at Kempen […]
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President Donald Trump will meet NATO allies in Brussels next week, who will expect the U.S. leader to again go on the attack about insufficient spending on defense by other countries. Trump has time and again criticized member countries of the alliance that have failed to hit a target, agreed in 2014, to spend 2 […]
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