Columns

Hadas: Big Notre-Dame gifts bring mixed messages

17 April 2019

When the Paris cathedral needed only invisible repairs, the government and billionaires weren’t interested. After this week’s big blaze, everyone is opening their wallets. That is often how charity works – a bit random and a little prideful, but better than not giving at all.

Holding: Investors ignore law of “stuff happens”

11 April 2019

Using fiascos like oil-well blowouts and tainted burritos to claim stock fraud is increasingly common in the United States, but misguided. Companies have a duty to disclose significant risks, not warn of unlikely mishaps. Arguing otherwise enriches lawyers at investors’ expense.

Hadas: Biased central bankers beat foolish ones

10 April 2019

President Trump’s pick of loyal supporter Herman Cain as a U.S. Fed governor is a bad idea. Not because of his partisan bias, since central banks are inherently political. But monetary policy is too poorly understood and unpredictable to be entrusted to amateur ideologues.

Cox: Danish capitalism is alive but not all well

4 April 2019

The Nordic economy is a model for U.S. leftists like Bernie Sanders. The White House argued in a much-dissed paper that living standards in the region are lower due to socialism. The reality is otherwise. But as Danske Bank’s woes suggest, there’s no such thing as utopia.

Hadas: What a new hip taught me about economics

3 April 2019

As the codeine wore off, I pondered the mass delivery of individualised care. My lessons: Adam Smith was wrong about specialised labour’s inhumanity, Karl Marx was mostly wrong about class conflict, Max Weber was right about bureaucracy and free markets can’t cure medical ills.

India Insight: The new rich face a wealth trap

1 April 2019

Mumbaikars are hitting the tippy end of the income stratosphere, investing in fine wine and foreign residency visas. Trophy assets like a top British football club can’t be far off. With this Chinese-style trajectory, Indians will have to avoid becoming the new dumb money.

Cox: Betonomics would have certain punk-rock edge

28 March 2019

U.S. presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke has yet to spell out his economic plan. Clues abound, however, in the ethos championed by his musical idol, the frontman of the punk rock band Fugazi. Think inclusive, ethical, consumer-friendly and small business over crony capitalism.

Hadas: Boeing undermined by too-positive thinking

27 March 2019

The aircraft maker’s hasty introduction of new software may have led to two fatal crashes. If so, the problem was probably not greed or lack of concern for safety, but something just as dangerous: overconfidence. As global banks learned in 2008, the worst sometimes does happen.

Holding: Time to put M&A cash cow out to pasture

26 March 2019

So-called appraisal cases have rewarded shareholders and deterred dodgy deals. But judges’ reluctance to set share prices, an expert-witness scandal and other trends have made them less lucrative. The HP-Aruba merger gives Delaware’s top court a chance to end the tactic.

Cox: Really, no one else will bid for Commerzbank?

19 March 2019

Berlin’s blessing of M&A talks with Deutsche may scare off interlopers. But Germany’s number two offers ING, UniCredit, Santander and others a unique chance to expand in the largest euro zone economy – and perhaps eventually move their HQs to Frankfurt to gain other goodies.