Why am I telling you this story? Because Israel is getting closer every day to wiping out any possibility of a two-state solution. Just last week, Netanyahu’s government pushed through the Knesset a shameful new law declaring that wildcat Jewish settlers who had illegally set up caravans on private West Bank Palestinian land, and erected their own settlement there, will have their settlements legalized, although the Palestinian […]
Submitted by Don Quijones via WolfStreet.com, Spain’s three biggest banks, Banco Santander, BBVA and Caixa Bank, have got off to a flying start this year having issued €8.6 billion in new debt, seven times the amount they sold during the same period of last year. The last time they rolled out so much debt so quickly was in 2007, the year that Spain’s spectacular real estate bubble […]
By Luke Baker | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday, their first meeting since the inauguration and one that promises to shape the contours of Middle East policy for the years ahead. On the agenda are some of the region’s most volatile issues: the war in Syria, the Iran nuclear file and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, […]
Dubai’s Emaar Properties intends to reopen its landmark Address Downtown hotel by the end of the year, some two years after the skyscraper was gutted by fire following an electrical fault, its chairman told Al-Arabiya TV on Tuesday. Mohammed Alabbar was speaking after the developer reported a 56 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profits, boosted by higher revenue from property developments as well as the performance of […]
After a day of chaotic communication, a stock sell-off and a $6.3bn writedown that may destroy one of Japan’s greatest industrial names, the Toshiba president’s bow of apology finally came. Satoshi Tsunakawa’s head nodded for just one perfunctory second on Tuesday. Most assume there will be much deeper, longer bows to come as Toshiba leads investors, customers, employees and Japan as a whole through the country’s first […]
As central bankers seek to wean markets off quantitative easing and exit the dangerous experiment of negative rates, they increasingly fret about the resilience of credit markets. How worried should they be? The US Treasury’s Office for Financial Research, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England have all issued warnings in their financial stability reports voicing concern over whether we might see fire sales that […]
BEIJING A court in southeastern China on Wednesday sentenced the former Communist Party boss of the northern province of Hebei to 15 years in jail after finding him guilty of corruption, the latest senior official jailed in a sweeping crackdown on graft. Zhou Benshun was the top official of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing and is China’s most important steel producer. He had earlier worked with one-time […]
A couple of years ago, in the midst of its bankruptcy proceedings, we posted a series of stunning pictures illustrating the “Death And Decay Of Detroit.” Once a beacon of America’s manufacturing prowess, a series of time lapsed pictures revealed how, in just a few years following the ‘great recession’ of 2008, the once vibrant metropolis became the poster child for urban decay. Unfortunately, at least according […]
TOKYO Shares in Toshiba Corp (6502.T) tumbled on Wednesday after the conglomerate said it would book a $6.3 billion hit to its U.S. nuclear unit and may sell more of its prized flash-memory chip business than planned to urgently raise funds. Scrambling for capital, Toshiba said it would consider selling most, even all, of its stake in the chips business – a decision that has investors questioning […]
SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, who has boasted of creating the “Berkshire Hathaway of tech”, has thrown himself into the world of private equity and hedge funds with a $3.3bn acquisition of US alternative asset manager Fortress Investment Group. The deal, which follows the Japanese group’s traditional focus on telecoms and internet, comes just as SoftBank is emerging as one of the world’s largest investors with the […]
Since then the barriers to peace have grown even more formidable, and attitudes like Mr. Gatshan’s more entrenched. Continue reading the main story When President Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, meet in Washington on Wednesday they are likely to discuss a change of tactics, relying on Arab states like Qatar to help secure a two-state solution, under which Israel and an independent Palestinian state would […]
When Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen testifies before a Senate committee on the state of the economy on Tuesday, there will be plenty tuning in who believe the epitaph for the three-decade rally in the bond market has been rightly written. US president Donald Trump’s plan to ramp up government spending and axe corporate taxes threatens to accelerate inflation, push up interest rates and widen the deficit […]
Major U.S. stock indexes established record highs on Tuesday, led by bank stocks after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said it would be unwise to wait too long to raise interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 91.43 points, or 0.45 percent, to 20,503.59, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 9.21 points, or 0.40 percent, to 2,337.46 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 18.62 points, or […]
Goldman Sachs shares shattered a 10-year record to reach a fresh closing high on Tuesday, buoyed by hopes that the Trump administration will bring a profit-boosting mix of higher interest rates, lower taxes and lighter regulation. All banks have rallied hard since November 8, when Mr Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House. But only a handful have done as well as Goldman, […]
The reaction to a strike at the world’s largest copper mine underlines the sharp reversal in fortune in one of the world’s key metals over the past four months. Copper has jumped 5 per cent in the past two days to a two-year high after a strike at the Escondida mine in Chile raised supply fears about a market that has been starved of investment. The dispute […]
Applications for Islamic car loans in the UAE grew significantly in 2016, with Islamic auto loan products occupying three of the top five spots on the year’s most-applied-for list, according to new data. compareit4me.com, the Middle East financial comparison site, said the number of users applying for Islamic car loans increased by 64.7 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year. Data gleaned from the company’s car […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. producer prices recorded their largest gain in more than four years in January amid increases in the cost of energy products, but a strong dollar continued to keep underlying inflation at the factory gate tame. Rising raw material costs are boosting producer prices across the globe, notably in China, which is the biggest source of U.S. imports. But economists still […]
The US economy and fiscal policy face an uncertain path under the administration of Donald Trump, Janet Yellen warned on Tuesday as she declared “monetary policy is not on a preset course” but said it would be “unwise” to raise rates too slowly. Testifying before Congress on Tuesday, the Federal Reserve chair painted a picture of an economy with accelerating growth, higher inflation and a robust labour […]
When Israel declared independence in 1948, Jordan, along with five other Arab states, attacked Israel, occupied Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, and drove out Jewish residents. Again, in 1967, Jordan attempted to wipe out the Jewish State, but this time, Israel forced the Jordanian army back across the Jordan River. While the government of Israel was ambivalent about whether to retain the newly emancipated areas, the settler […]
Greece is planning to appoint Rothschild to advise on its debts as the country attempts to end a long-running creditor stand-off and avert default. Government officials hope to finalise the appointment before a gathering of eurozone finance ministers on February 20 that has been described as the last chance for Greece’s lenders to overcome their differences before European attention shifts to general elections in eurozone countries. Unless […]
The UAE shall take quality-focused steps to create a supportive environment for innovation at a legislative level and for educational system, economic and media segments, says UAE Economic Minister Dubai, February 14, 2017 Engineer Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Minister of Economy chaired the seminar on innovation and the future of economy at the World Government Summit, a global platform dedicated to shaping the future of government […]
The Business Roundtable indeed “appears to have significantly softened its stance on disclosure of political activity,” said John Wonderlich, executive director of the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, which advocates for political transparency. The apparent shift, he said, “reflects a growing judgement that secret political spending violates our political norms and can create liabilities for businesses and their brands.” But David Keating, president of the nonprofit Center for Competitive […]
By Pamela Barbaglia and Edward Taylor | LONDON/FRANKFURT LONDON/FRANKFURT PSA Group (PEUP.PA) is holding talks with General Motors (GM.N) about buying its European Opel division, the French carmaker said on Tuesday, a deal which would increase competition for market leader Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE). The maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars is “exploring a number of strategic initiatives with GM with the aim of increasing its profitability and […]
A striking feature of global financial markets since the crises of 2007 and 2008 has been the high propensity of many wealthy private investors to sit out all the turmoil, holding cash in bank accounts rather than in riskier assets. Might that be about to change? The word among bankers in conservative Switzerland — the world’s largest centre for cross-border private wealth management — is that it […]
