Business Sense
Container Kingpin Sold to China
Stonecutters Island in Hong Kong used to be a favored habitat for poisonous snakes and eye-catching birds such as the white-bellied sea eagle. Thanks to Hong Kong’s rapid development, it is no longer so hospitable.
Financing Longevity
In 1965 André-François Raffray, a 47-year-old lawyer in southern France, made the deal of a lifetime. Charmed by an apartment in Arles, he persuaded the widow living there to make a deal: He would pay her 2,500 francs—then about $500—a month until she died, and in return she would leave him the apartment in her will. Since she was already 90, it seemed like a safe bet.
E-Commerce as a Jobs Engine? One Economist’s Unorthodox View
Retailing is dead. Sales clerks are losing their jobs by the thousands. The employment picture for young people with only a high school education is going to get even worse. And all this is happening because of Amazon and its ilk, which are driving the shift among consumers toward e-commerce.
The New Old: An Underrated, Underserved Market
‘There’s nothing wrong with bingo and chicken,” Tom Kamber said, but went on to explain that you won’t find either in the senior center he runs in Manhattan.
Pepped Up: Pensions, European-Style
THE story of the European Union is in part that of the steady accretion of power by its central bodies.
The Next iPhone Might Be…the iPhone
Apple has a new hit device, so popular that it has sold out across most of America and Britain. If you order it online, it takes six weeks to arrive. “Best Apple product in a long time,” one online review sings. Useful and, of course, slickly designed, it enjoys the highest consumer-satisfaction of any Apple product in history, according to a study by two research companies, Creative Strategies and Experian.
Struggling to Help Trade’s Losers
Brian Aunspach thought he had a job for life. After six years at a smelter owned by Alcoa, America’s largest aluminum company, his work was hard but the benefits decent. Warning signs came with crashing aluminum prices in the summer of 2015 and murmurs about unfair Chinese competition. Then reality hit: In January 2016 Alcoa announced the smelter’s closure. Around 600 people lost their jobs.
Blowout: Takata’s Bankruptcy Stems from Familiar Japanese Failings
Airbags are meant to make driving safer. For years, though, some made by Takata, a Japanese company, inflated with such vigor that shards of metal and plastic were launched at occupants of vehicles in even minor collisions, causing serious injury and in some cases death.
Modi’s India: The Illusion of Reform
When Narendra Modi became prime minister of India in 2014, opinion was divided as to whether he was a Hindu zealot disguised as an economic reformer, or the other way around. The past three years appear to have settled the matter.
The New General Motors: Smaller but More Profitable
The headquarters of General Motors towers over the other skyscrapers in Detroit’s city center, a reminder that the carmaker still rules the American market. GM’s domestic might increasingly contrasts with its position elsewhere in the world, however. Although most other carmakers see becoming ever bigger everywhere as the answer to the industry’s multiple challenges, GM is in retreat.
China Will Be Part of a Stock Index Provider, Opening the Door to Foreign Money
By Keith Bradsher & Alexandra Stevenson
Why Does North Korea Need So Many Missiles?
It is as if North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un wants to be seen to be flinging his explosive toys about with ever more abandon. In recent months his men have fired off missiles in one test after another, often with the young, overfed dictator gleefully looking on.
Europe’s Savior?
Florence Lehericy is a nurse, but she is now starting a new career as a parliamentary deputy for Calvados, in northern France. Jean-Marie Fiévet, a fire fighter, is joining her from a constituency in Deux Sèvres in the west.
The Fed and Mr. Phillips
That central banks cannot endlessly reduce unemployment without sparking inflation is economic gospel. It follows from “a substantial body of theory, informed by considerable historical evidence,” according to Janet Yellen, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Her conviction explains why, on June 14, the Fed raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, to a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
Allied Irish Banks Could Be Valued at $14.9 Billion in IPO
The Irish government announced a price range for Allied Irish Banks that could value the bank as high as $14.9 billion when it goes public this month—seven years after it was nationalized.
Terror and the Internet
THREE jihadist attacks in Britain in as many months have led to a flood of suggestions about how to fight terrorism, from more police and harsher jail sentences to new legal powers.
The Future of Air Control: Is Privatization the Next Step?
IN June 1956 a TWA Constellation collided with a United Air Lines DC-7 over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people on both aircraft. At the time it was the worst-ever airline disaster. Struggling with outdated technology and a postwar boom in air travel, overworked air-traffic controllers had failed to spot that the planes were on a collision course.
Four BRICs and a Great Wall
EMERGING markets have been through a great deal in the past four years. The “taper tantrum” in 2013, prompted by fears of a change in American monetary policy, was followed by the oil-price drop of 2014, China’s botched devaluation of its currency in 2015 and India’s botched “demonetization” of much of its own currency in late 2016, in which it abruptly removed high-value banknotes from circulation.
Nordstrom Family to Consider Ways for Taking Chain Private
By Michael Corkery & Michael J. De La Merced
Britain’s Vanishing Political Center
Today Britain finds itself in a different era. The vote for Brexit has committed it to leaving its biggest trading partner and snuggling closer to others, including a less-welcoming America. The economy has held up better than many feared, but growth is slowing and investors are jittery. The union is fraying again. Real wages have stagnated. Public services are stretched.