Features

Financial crisis mostly put “D” in dealmaking

18 September 2018

Many of the bank investments and takeovers inked as markets cratered a decade ago brought at least as much pain as progress to the instigators. Think JPMorgan buying Bear and WaMu. Breakingviews looks back at some of the flops – and a couple of high-flyers.

Guest view: Trump trade war threatens Korean peace

18 September 2018

Invoking national security to impose tariffs on car exporters such as Hyundai and Kia is myopic, argue the Korea Society’s president and a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul. As fresh talks with Pyongyang start, it’s worth remembering that politics cannot be divorced from economics.

U.S. Congress requires banking boot camp

17 September 2018

More than 60 pct of lawmakers were first elected after the 2008 financial crisis, and a good chunk after Dodd-Frank was passed. So the meltdown’s causes are lost on many, as is how banking works. With regulatory change on the docket, Breakingviews has drawn up a bluffer’s guide.

Review: The mess at the heart of economic theory

14 September 2018

Robert Skidelsky wrote a three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. His new book brings a Keynesian slant on the financial crisis, its antecedents and its aftermath. He argues against fiscal austerity. Fine, but the global economy is too complex for any simple diagnosis.

Guest view: Real rates matter more than inversion

13 September 2018

An inverted U.S. yield curve, with short-term interest rates higher than long-term ones, is seen as a recession warning. Myron Scholes and Ash Alankar of Janus Henderson Investments argue that monetary policymakers should worry more about the excess of yields over inflation.

Spectre of the late 1930s haunts Ray Dalio

12 September 2018

The Bridgewater founder made positive returns in 2008 when few other asset managers did. Today, he tells Breakingviews, he worries about the U.S. deficit and debt pressures that could soon go critical. The risk of populism and conflict sounds eerily like the pre-war years.

New York’s trouble: a total lack of tunnel vision

12 September 2018

The city’s commuters already know that its transport system is hanging by a thread. A halted project to build new tunnels underneath the Hudson river shows there are ways to make things better, but maybe not the will. Political squabbling is an obstacle, but not the only one.

Review: A land of milk and (plenty of) money

7 September 2018

"Moneyland" takes a trip to the world of super-rich super-crooks, where borders are for wimps, taxes for little people and laws don't matter. Oliver Bullough's urgent polemic is deeply reported and engaging, even if it spends more time on the problem than on potential solutions.

Guest view: Italy’s autumn of discontent

4 September 2018

Market tensions are rising as the government prepares for negotiations with the European Union over the country’s budget for 2019. However, both Italy and the euro zone are better placed than before to cope with turmoil, writes Fabrizio Pagani of Muzinich & Co.

Review: Barry Cohen is a hedge-fund Frankenstein

31 August 2018

The protagonist of “Lake Success,” Gary Shteyngart’s new novel, comprises equal parts of financiers like Paul Singer, Howard Marks and Mike Novogratz. Running from a Valeant-like scandal, he hits the road through America’s heartland in search of his moral compass.