Sir Martin Sorrell leaves WPP in a sorry state
DURING his spectacular rise from London beancounter to the globe-trotting boss of WPP, the advertising powerhouse he created out of a backstreet wire-basket and trolley company, Sir Martin Sorrell was rarely sentimental. The man...
A potential merger between IAG and Norwegian should worry flyers
WHEN flag carriers such as British Airways (BA) ruled the skies, only the rich could afford to fly across the Atlantic. That was until Freddie Laker, a British entrepreneur, came along. His dream was...
Sir Martin Sorrell leaves the world’s biggest ad company in a sorry state
DURING his spectacular rise from London beancounter to the globe-trotting boss of WPP, the advertising powerhouse he created out of a backstreet wire-basket and trolley company, Sir Martin Sorrell was rarely sentimental. The man...
Coco bonds have not lived up to their promise
DURING the financial crisis, Western governments poured hundreds of billions of dollars into their banks to avert collapse. The search for ways to avoid future bail-outs started before the turmoil ended. One of the...
Tax cuts and higher interest rates help boost banks’ earnings
SO THIS is how normality feels. Between April 13th and April 18th America’s biggest banks reported a strong set of first-quarter earnings, with a helping hand from the taxman. Some are more profitable than...
Trump’s Tariffs Are Already Costing American Jobs
President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are already claiming their first American victims. But it isn’t Chinese duties causing the damage ― at least, not yet. It’s Canadian ones. Tariffs imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department on...
A Victorian survivor in fund management
WHEN the Foreign & Colonial Government Trust was launched in 1868, The Economist had its doubts. “The shape is very peculiar,” we worried, adding that “the exact idea upon which it starts has never...
Facebook Didn’t Seem To Care I Was Being Sexually Harassed Until I Decided To...
While his genius may be largely uncontested, Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of Facebook is badly adrift from reality. He paints the social media behemoth he founded in 2004 as a tool “to bring the world closer...
Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Destroying Its Unsold Assault-Style Rifles
Dick’s Sporting Goods won’t be returning their unsold assault-style rifles to manufacturers. Instead, the company says it’s chosen to destroy all of them. Dick’s announced in February ― following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida...
The SEC Just Made The Case For Divesting From Fossil Fuel Companies Much Stronger
The Securities and Exchange Commission has waded into the debate over what investors can do to stop fossil fuel companies from destroying the Earth’s habitable climate. And in siding with a major oil company,...
After a good run of growth, China’s economy braces for bumps
JUST a few years ago Wuhan, a sprawling metropolis in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, exemplified China’s economic woes. Municipal debt had soared. The most senior local official was known as “Mr...
In Los Angeles, Bitter Tensions Over Where To House The Homeless Rile Communities
LOS ANGELES — Tony Rosado sits in the silent back room of El Mercado with a giant stack of papers piled in front of him on a sturdy wooden table. The papers are part...
The shipping industry attempts to cap carbon emissions
ACROSS the river from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) headquarters in London protesters have pressure-hosed “IMO DON’T SINK PARIS” into the muck lining the walls of the Thames. The river bank is not the...
America’s chemicals industry is booming. But politics may get in its way
“THIS is what $3bn looks like.” So beams a manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPC), a petrochemical company jointly owned by Chevron and Phillips 66, both American oil firms. She throws open her arms...
British law firms seek similar across the pond
MOST of London’s “magic-circle” law firms are intrepid creatures. Over the past 20 years they have busily expanded abroad, opening offices everywhere from Antwerp to Yangon. But despite having hundreds of lawyers on the...
Kinder Morgan’s frustrated attempt to build an oil pipeline reflects badly on Canada
ALMOST all Canada’s oil and gas is landlocked, so getting it to market requires pipelines—lots of them. But building them requires skills more suited to circus artists than engineers. They must walk the financial...
Upstart meal-kit companies may need a new recipe for growth
FOR all the allure of televised fare like “MasterChef” and “Chef’s Table”, the reality is that many people are loth to rustle up anything more taxing than a bacon sandwich. Cue the recent emergence...
Deutsche Bank gets a new chief executive
THE supervisory board at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest lender, has been sounding out replacements for its chief executive for weeks. On April 8th it made its choice: Christian Sewing, an experienced insider. He starts...
The departure of the VW boss heralds a big shake-up
From dieselgate to Diess?MOST chief executives relish a jump in their company’s share price. But spare a thought for Volkswagen’s Matthias Müller as he watched the gauge of value leap by 4.5% on April...
American sanctions, and fears over Syria, roil Russian markets
ON APRIL 6th America imposed harsh new sanctions on Russia in response to its “malign activity” abroad. Rattled investors sent stocks tumbling when the Moscow exchange reopened on April 9th. The principal stockmarket index...
How developing countries weave social safety nets
SOUP kitchens serve the needy for free; restaurants serve the hungry for money. In parts of South Asia, eateries near mosques sometimes fall into a third category. They feed the poor sitting patiently outside,...
America’s gripes with China make a deal hard to imagine
Trade warriors at workAFTER weeks spent threatening tariffs on an ever-greater share of Chinese imports, President Donald Trump seems to be in a more conciliatory mood. On April 10th a speech by the Chinese...
Indian states squabble over how to share out federal cash
THE population of Uttar Pradesh is over 220m, enough to make the northern Indian state the world’s fifth-most populous country. But statistics still used by bureaucrats in New Delhi put it at less than...
America’s once-moribund chemicals industry is booming. But politics threatens to get in its way
“THIS is what $3bn looks like.” So beams a manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPC), a petrochemical company jointly owned by Chevron and Phillips 66, both American oil firms. She throws open her arms...
Kinder Morgan’s attempt to build a pipeline reflects badly on Canada
ALMOST all Canada’s oil and gas is landlocked, so getting it to market requires pipelines—lots of them. But building them requires skills more suited to circus artists than engineers. They must walk the financial...
The Libertarian Political Movement Is Dead
When a poor person steals from the rich, Mick Mulvaney calls it a crime. When the rich steal from the poor, he calls it capitalism. On Wednesday, the White House budget director appeared before the...
Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Ditches Facebook After Data Scandal
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is ditching Facebook. “Users provide every detail of their life to Facebook and ... Facebook makes a lot of advertising money off this,” Wozniak told USA Today via email. “The profits are all based...
Trump Proposes Slapping $100 Billion In New Tariffs On Chinese Goods
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday directed U.S. trade officials to identify tariffs on $100 billion more Chinese imports, upping the ante in an already high-stakes trade confrontation between the world’s two...
Twitter Has Suspended 1.2 Million Accounts For ‘Terrorist Content’
Twitter announced Thursday that it has suspended more than 1.2 million accounts since August 2015 to the end of 2017 for “terrorist content.” In the latest six-month reporting period, ending Dec. 31, Twitter permanently suspended...
TSMC is about to become the world’s most advanced chipmaker
MORRIS CHANG is preparing for retirement. After 30 years in the role, the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the island’s largest firm, will step down as chairman in June. He will hand...
Germany’s biggest lender is in the doldrums
JOHN CRYAN has spent almost three years on the thankless task of revitalising Germany’s biggest bank. Deutsche Bank’s shares fetch around €11 ($13.50) each. That is less than half their price when he became...
Chinese carriers are the new disrupters in air travel
ANYONE who doubts the ambitions of China’s airlines need only look over the plans for Daxing International Airport, which will serve Beijing after it opens in late 2019. It will be the world’s biggest...
Tesla is heading for a cash crunch
“WE ARE sad to report that Tesla has gone completely and totally bankrupt.” So tweeted Elon Musk, boss of the electric-car company, on April 1st. He even posted a picture of himself supposedly drunk...
The Facebook Apology Tour Continues
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know he’s super sorry. And for the most part it really does seem like he means it ― so long as apologizing and trying to earn back...
Spotify makes its stockmarket debut
WHEN Spotify, a music-streaming service, went public on April 3rd, its founder, Daniel Ek, rang no bells on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Rather than the “pomp and circumstance” of...
Saks, Lord & Taylor Hit By Payment Card Data Breach
By Jim Finkle and David Henry TORONTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retailer Hudson’s Bay Co on Sunday disclosed that it was the victim of a security breach that compromised data on payment cards used at Saks...
International Health Group Drops Partnership With Heineken Over ‘Beer Girls’
An international health organization has suspended its partnership with the Heineken beer company because of the controversial use of so-called “beer girls” to promote its products. The Global Fund launched a partnership in January with...
MyFitnessPal Security Breach Affects 150 Million Users, Under Armour Reports
Hackers breached MyFitnessPal, a popular calorie-counting app and website, and acquired private data from about 150 million users. Under Armour Inc., which owns the nutritional app, announced Thursday that an “unauthorized party” gained access to the...
There Are Psychological Reasons Parents Are So Obsessed With Target
In the face of the chaos and confusion that come with raising a family today, parents across America turn to a very specific place for sanctuary and relief. While it may not be fancy...
Trapped Inside The Monster Energy Frat House
A sixth woman has come forward to complain about sexual discrimination at Monster Energy, a male-dominated beverage company that appears to be plagued by a toxic work culture. The woman, Karen Simmons, a 50-year-old...
These Stock Photos Show Masculinity Is More Than Biceps And Beer
Stock photography is synonymous with outdated and ridiculous gender stereotypes. There’s women laughing alone with salad ― a viral meme that has morphed into women laughing alone with tablets ― and the many shots of...
Walmart Partners With Conservative Group To Remove Cosmo From Checkout Lines
Customers at some 5,000 Walmart locations around the United States will no longer see Cosmopolitan magazine among the publications for purchase in the check-out line. That’s because the retail giant decided to remove the magazine...
Wakandanomics
“THIS will require a quick lesson in global economics…bear with me,” says Erik Killmonger, the muscular villain in “Black Panther”, a long-running Marvel Comics series. In that saga and the recent film it inspired,...
Uber makes a tactical retreat from South-East Asia
BEING a commuter in much of South-East Asia requires reserves of patience. In city after city, bar Singapore, jams confine people in taxis for hours, or force them onto the back of motorbikes that...
Technology has upended the world’s advertising giants
IN BUILDING the world’s largest advertising company over the past 30 years, Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, has weathered two recessions and survived a global financial crisis. His firm nearly went bankrupt...
Mexico switches on its government-run wholesale mobile network
G-whizzJAWS dropped when earlier this year a White House memo argued that the American government should build and run its own 5G mobile network. The reason given was national security. The memo cited Huawei,...
Asia’s small open economies may suffer in America’s trade war
CHINA is the stated adversary in Donald Trump’s incipient trade war. But 30% of the value of the goods China exports to America is added elsewhere. If the row escalates, countries entwined in Chinese...
Getting a handle on a scandal
A POPULAR riff doing the rounds in tech circles is that, if data are the new oil, then Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica fiasco is the equivalent of Deepwater Horizon. That was the name of an...
Uber Halts Self-Driving Car Tests In California, Where It Didn’t Test Much Anyway
Uber will not renew its permit to test self-driving cars in California, a decision the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles discussed in a letter to the company on Tuesday. The permit is set to expire...
Elon Musk’s Estranged Father Has Child With Stepdaughter, Says It’s ‘God’s Plan’
Technology magnate Elon Musk apparently has a good reason for being angry with his estranged father: Errol Musk recently revealed that he had a child with his stepdaughter and he called the baby “God’s plan.” The...