Joe Biden tried to make the best of the fiscal truce he negotiated with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy late on Saturday, designed to prevent a potentially devastating default on US debt in little more than a week. “The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want,” the US president said.
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Green hydrogen has a seductive appeal. Done right, this zero-emissions energy source has the potential to penetrate many corners of our economies and be instrumental in the fight against climate change. It can be transported over long distances, stored for lengthy periods and some existing fossil fuel infrastructure such as gas pipelines can be adapted
As Saudi Arabia enjoyed an unprecedented oil boom in the 1970s, the monarchy turned to a handful of merchant family companies — mostly from its commercial capital Jeddah — to build the nation’s infrastructure. But almost 50 years and another oil windfall later, many have been sidelined by another cadre of businesses that have one
The troubles of the UK casual-dining sector are writ small in the English market town of Maidstone. Just a few streets apart, an outlet of Italian-American themed diner Frankie & Benny’s and a branch of Italian restaurant Prezzo have shut in the past six months alone. As consumers cut spending in response to the cost
Lazard’s appointment of Peter Orszag as chief executive begins a grand experiment for one of the world’s most venerable financial institutions, which is betting a former academic and Washington insider can revive its fortunes. Orszag made his name as a wunderkind economist with degrees from Princeton and the London School of Economics before serving in
Canada’s big five banks this week collectively set aside the most money for loan losses since 2020, as concerns about an economic slowdown and higher defaults in commercial real estate mount. The country’s top five lenders, which all reported earnings this week, logged a combined C$3.37bn (US$2.48bn) in credit loss provisions in the first three
US president Joe Biden has struck a deal with Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House speaker, that would avert a debt default looming in early June and bring relief to the global economy and financial markets. Biden and McCarthy reached the in-principle agreement on Saturday following days of tense, round-the-clock negotiations between the White House and
The New Development Bank, the Shanghai-based lender better known as the “Brics bank”, is in talks with Saudi Arabia on admitting the country as its ninth member, a move that would strengthen its funding options as founding shareholder Russia struggles under the impact of sanctions. The addition of the kingdom would reinforce ties between the
The White House and congressional Republicans were racing to seal a deal to avert a US debt default on Saturday as the high-stakes negotiations on a bipartisan fiscal pact dragged on into the weekend. After a late-night round of discussions ended without an agreement on Friday, negotiators for US president Joe Biden and Republican House
Scotland’s first minister has accused the UK government of undermining devolution and disrespecting his country’s parliament after London demanded that Edinburgh exclude glass from its planned recycling scheme. The dispute threatens to spark another constitutional fight between the administrations and jeopardises the viability of a scheme that the Scottish government insists is crucial to meeting
If Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emerges triumphant in Sunday’s run-off election in Turkey, he will owe his victory in part to the powerful patronage networks he has built across two decades of power. Out of his Justice and Development party (AKP), formed in 2001, has emerged a sprawling system of influence, support and state largesse that
Sky is set to cut hundreds of jobs across the UK as part of a strategic shift from satellite broadcasting to delivering television over the internet. The move follows sweeping job losses at broadband rivals such as BT, which this month said that up to 55,000 jobs, or 42 per cent of its workforce, would
The writer is director of policy, research and impact at the Trussell Trust, a charity that supports food banks and campaigns to end the need for them across the UK If you were to imagine a cost of living crisis that inflicts maximum damage on those least able to bear it, it would look very
Joe Biden’s top trade official and China’s commerce minister have held talks over economic and trade disputes, in the latest signs of tentative efforts to stabilise ties between the two superpowers. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai met Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Detroit on Friday.
Just as I keep buying Asian stocks despite losing money, a fortnight ago I remarried. No longer is it my skin in the game alone. And while I feel like the luckiest man alive, the risk profile of my portfolio has suddenly jumped inversely with my freedom. That is because the spread of possible investment
Warren Buffett’s long record of picking winners made him a welcome presence last month in Tokyo. A recent move to increase the stakes held by Berkshire Hathaway in five general trading companies has been hailed as a vote of confidence in the country’s long-ailing corporate sector. Buffett, who began accumulating stakes in the so-called sogo
US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has said the government could run out of money to pay all its bills on June 5, giving lawmakers a few more days of flexibility to strike a deal that would avert an unprecedented debt default. Yellen’s new estimate, released on Friday afternoon, came as the White House and House
Decades ago, Carl Icahn gained a formative insight from reading the American novelist Theodore Dreiser. The billionaire investor was absorbed by two of Dreiser’s novels, The Financier and The Titan, which chronicle the rise of industrialist Frank Cowperwood. In a decisive financial stand-off, Cowperwood’s adversaries plot to have a bank call in his large personal
The writer is a financial journalist and author of ‘More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy’ Deficits don’t matter. This quote comes not from some spendthrift European socialist but reputedly from the distinctly conservative Dick Cheney, vice-president of the US from 2001 to 2009. According to an account by former Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill,
When Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator for Rhode Island, was invited to a dinner at the culmination of the COP27 climate talks in Egypt last year, he was expecting to meet some American businessmen in the region. Instead, to his dismay, the dinner was co-hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, a powerful lobbying group
Stronger than expected US inflation and a bump in consumer spending have fuelled worldwide expectations that interest rates will go higher, as predictions about future monetary policy rapidly shift. The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation overshot expectations in April, data published on Friday showed, while US consumer spending rose last month and new orders