The latest coverage of the banking and financial sectors.
By S.A. Miller - The Washington Times
President Trump's breakthrough in trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping was cheered Sunday by top business executives who previously criticized the administration's get-tough tariff tactics. Published December 2, 2018
China has announced a 90-day suspension of tariff hikes on $126 billion of U.S. cars, trucks and auto parts following its cease-fire in a trade battle with Washington that threatens global economic growth.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has won a confidence vote by Conservative Party lawmakers that could have brought her leadership to an abrupt end.
China is moving to lower tariffs on cars, according to reports Tuesday, signaling progress on President Trump's get-tough trade stance toward Beijing.
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday postponed Parliament's vote on her Brexit divorce deal with the European Union, acknowledging that lawmakers would have rejected it by a "significant margin."
General Motors is fighting to retain a valuable tax credit for electric vehicles as the nation's largest automaker tries to deal with the political fallout triggered by its plans to shutter several U.S. factories and shed thousands of workers.
At a time of maximum tension in the U.S.-China relationship, news of the arrest last weekend of a top Chinese tech official in Canada managed to set off multiple shock waves Thursday, threatening to buckle global stock markets and wipe out a big chunk of the recent Wall Street gains President Trump is fond of trumpeting.
Stocks recovered in a late rally Thursday after nearly wiping out all gains for the year, capping a tumultuous trading day that reflected investors' persistent jitters over the U.S. trade war with China and fears of a weakening global economy.
Just five of the 565 companies in President Trump's business empire are signed up to use E-Verify, the government's best tool to weed illegal immigrants out of the workforce, according to a Washington Times analysis that suggests the president could personally be doing more on that front.
Skepticism mounted Tuesday about President Trump's impromptu trade agreement with the president of China, as Mr. Trump threatened new penalties against Beijing if the deal falls through. Stock markets plummeted.
For President Mauricio Macri, this weekend's Group of 20 summit was supposed to showcase a confident, booming Argentina. Instead, President Trump and other world leaders will descend upon a nation mired in social unrest and economic crisis.
German authorities searched the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and other offices on Thursday on the suspicion bank employees helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens to launder hundreds of millions of euros, in an investigation brought about from an analysis of online document leaks.
China specialists in and out of government are increasingly worried that President Trump will make major concessions to China during the Group of 20 economic summit in Argentina this week.
Leaving the European Union without a divorce deal could plunge Britain into its deepest recession in nearly a century, with the economy shrinking 8 percent within months as unemployment and inflation soar, the Bank of England warned Wednesday.
Is the Federal Reserve considering a pullback in its interest rate hikes?
President Trump threatened Tuesday to cut off federal subsidies for General Motors in response to the automaker's decision to shut down production at plants in Ohio and Michigan.
President Trump said Monday he's pressuring the CEO of General Motors to open a new factory in Ohio quickly following the automaker's announcement of plant closings in the Midwest, a business decision that could complicate the president's re-election bid.
Even though unemployment is low, the economy is growing and U.S. auto sales are near historic highs, General Motors is cutting thousands of jobs in a major restructuring aimed at generating cash to spend on innovation.
General Motors is closing a Canadian plant at the cost of about 2,500 jobs, but that is apparently just a piece of a much broader, company-wide restructuring that will be announced as early as Monday.
Retailers aren't just ushering the official start of the holiday season with the usual expanded hours and fat discounts on big TVs and toys.
All the stock market gains of 2018 disappeared Tuesday in a flurry of sell orders on Wall Street, where investors soured on tech stocks and fretted about trade war with China.
Japanese prosecutors were considering Tuesday whether to file formal charges against Nissan Motor Co.'s chairman Carlos Ghosn amid a probe into allegations he misused company assets and under-reported millions of dollars of income.
The United States has been at war with China since at least 1947-49, when Chiang Kai-shek, his extended family and the Chinese Nationalist regime were air and boatlifted from mainland China to Taiwan, this after Mao Zedong's Communist forces prevailed against Chiang's Nationalists. During the Korean War (1950-53), large scale military combat between U.S. and Chinese forces actually took place; however, since then the war has largely been an economic one, and the Chinese have beaten the United States badly.
Leaders of conservative groups affiliated with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch are urging President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to reach an agreement to eliminate tariffs as the leaders prepare to meet at a summit later this month.
British Prime Minister Theresa May will try to persuade her divided Cabinet on Wednesday that they have a choice between backing a draft Brexit deal with the European Union or plunging the U.K. into political and economic uncertainty.
Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent a flurry of tweets late Monday slamming Amazon for its planned split headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, saying residents are outraged over the billion-dollar company possibly getting "millions of dollars in tax breaks" while the local community is being neglected.
Arlington County, Virginia, and New York City on Tuesday won the sweepstakes for Amazon's second "headquarters," which promises to bring 25,000 jobs to each city over the next decade.
Amazon will reportedly announce as soon as Tuesday that it has officially decided on the Washington-area neighborhood of Crystal City and New York's Long Island City as its second and third headquarters.
We have many ways to measure how well public officials in all countries are behaving. Each year, various organizations provide country rankings as to how well countries are doing in maintaining economic freedom, restraining corruption, protecting civil liberties, including religious freedom, etc. One of the measures is the annual report by the World Bank on Doing Business. The 2019 report ranking 190 countries has just been released. The report investigates "the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it," including property rights and labor policies.
The communities said to be favored to become homes to a pair of big, new East Coast bases for Amazon are both riverfront stretches of major metropolitan areas with ample transportation and space for workers.
For kids growing up in today's cashless society, the piggy bank is going virtual.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California appears a lock to become the next chairman of the powerful Financial Services Committee. Ms. Waters is pledging to be a diligent watchdog for mom and pop investors, and recently told a crowd that when it comes to the big banks, investment houses and insurance companies, "we are going to do to them, what they did to us." I'm not going to cry too many tears for Wall Street since they poured money behind the Democrats in these midterm elections. You get what you pay for.
Former President Obama has been claiming credit for the Trump economic boom, saying he paved the way for President Trump's remarkable success. Not quite.
Americans up to their elbows in election alligators might have missed it: The great wall of Chinese trade just cracked. While voters were busy recalibrating the balance of power in President Trump's Washington, China pledged to make its markets more accessible to international business. Promises made are not always promises kept, but this may signal that the president's hard-nosed method of dealing with the most stubborn of global competitors is paying off. If daylight seeps through China's formidable trade barriers, it would be good news for Americans and, ultimately, the global economy.
Since the start of the Trump administration, trade has been front and center. The United States has begun raising tariffs and other trade barriers against both allies and economic competitors. In turn, America has been on the receiving end of retaliatory actions from a raft of trade partners.
After a yearlong search for a second home, Amazon is now reportedly looking to build offices in two cities instead of one, a surprise move that could still have a major impact on the communities it ultimately selects.
President Trump said he'll probably meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month at the Group of 20 nations summit in Argentina.
The Trump administration's campaign to pressure Iran is gaining momentum, as China -- Tehran's biggest oil customer and a supporter of the 2015 nuclear deal -- announced it has dramatically cut purchases from Iran and boosted oil imports from the U.S..
The Bank of England warned Thursday that Britain could suffer an economic shock if it crashes out of the European Union without a deal, saying it could cause gridlock at ports and an inflation-rearing fall in the pound that could require higher interest rates.
U.S. colleges and universities have received more than $350 million from the Saudi government this decade, yet some are rethinking their arrangements in the wake of the killing of a journalist that has ignited a global uproar against the oil-rich nation.
The good news is that the U.S. economy is now on track to grow more than 3 percent this year for the first time in 13 years. The bad news is that the economy would be growing even faster if it were not for policy mistakes.
The sizzling economy underpins President Trump's final blitz for Republicans in the midterms, with dire warnings that the jobs boom and higher wages will slip away if Democrats seize Congress.
Something great is happening in South America.
Beijing has long vowed to defy the revived U.S. sanctions, but this week a key Chinese export-finance bank and the country's largest state oil refineries indicated that they were pulling back from their business with Tehran.
As Washington prepares to reimpose harsh sanctions on Tehran's exports of oil, a major Chinese bank involved in the Islamic Republic's oil trade has reportedly announced it will stop accepting payments from Iran.
These are harrowing times for small investors. October is historically a turbulent month for stocks but don't panic. Equities remain an essential tool for accomplishing long term goals like a secure retirement.
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet at the G-20 summit in November, Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow confirmed on Tuesday.
No longer just a hallmark of science fiction films, robots are becoming an integral part of the 21st-century workforce. But rather than being bound by the traditional repetitive-motion tasks of manufacturing, this new generation of tech is flipping burgers, brewing coffee and tossing salads.
Long ago, but not very far away, I was a young presidential speechwriter in the Nixon and Ford White Houses. In 1974 a man named Alan Greenspan succeeded my dear friend Herbert Stein as head of the presidential Council of Economic Advisors. I remember the 1974 model Alan Greenspan as friendly, down-to-earth, extremely articulate and, above all, a clear, sharp thinker. Because of an 18-year gap in our ages, I also remember thinking of him as old at the time. He would eventually go on to distinguish himself as the second longest-serving chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006.
President Donald J. Trump is correct to criticize the Federal Reserve for being "crazy" with recent monetary policy that will further slow the economy. The stock market has taken some hits recently and one reason is Fed policies to tighten the money supply in a way that will make it harder for business access to capital that will help the economy grow.
China reported economic growth sank to a post-global crisis low as finance officials launched a media blitz Friday to shore up confidence in its sagging stock market.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Thursday that he will not represent the U.S. at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday that the best thing for Fed employees is to "put on earmuffs" and ignore presidential criticism.
Quietly, President Donald J. Trump is putting together one of the greatest performances on the economy and trade in modern presidential history. This is indeed happening quietly because both the actions and results of Mr. Trump's economic policies are grossly under-reported in the press.
The Trump administration's effort to root out leakers in the federal government bagged a top-level Treasury employee who was charged Tuesday with giving a reporter confidential information about suspicious financial transactions involving former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina and the Russian Embassy.
The U.S. took steps Wednesday to withdraw from a global system of postal rates that allows China and other countries to ship packages to America at a steep discount, costing U.S. taxpayers as much as $300 million per year and allowing a flow of illegal narcotics.
The Trump administration informed Congress on Tuesday that it intends to pursue new trade deals with Japan, the U.K. and the European Union.
A U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) judge recently did something extraordinary and virtually unprecedented. He found a patent valid and infringed, but recommended that there should be no remedy. This is an incredibly troubling development that should concern anyone who believes, as did the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, that patent rights are important for the advancement of the country.
What will it take to keep the planet habitable? According to some eco-warriors, all that's necessary is to end capitalism — the one economic system that has lifted billions from poverty and suffering.
This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the housing market meltdown that led to the Great Recession. Is another crisis looming around the corner?
For those on the left and right who were certain that Donald Trump's presidency meant the end of global free trade ... think again. Though President Trump's critics have dismissed the significance of the new Mexico and Canada trade deal, it's hard to deny it's a welcome advance for the economy on the entire continent.
He's back! President Obama has emerged from his supposed cloistered life to attack President Trump. Mr. Obama broke with a tradition apparently only modern Republican ex-presidents follow, which is not to speak ill of your successor.
This past week I asked a friend at the White House about how the president was holding up against the onslaught of media attacks. "They didn't even deliver a glancing blow," was the response. It wasn't for a lack of trying.
Elections have consequences is a maxim that's as true as ever, but it's a maxim that has lost some of its punch in a "can-you-top-this?" culture. The punditry insists, as always, that every election is the most important one of everybody's lifetime. It's hyperbole, of course, but it's also true that the 2018 midterms are very, very important. "It's the economy, stupid," is giving way to a maxim waiting for someone to coin: Immigration determines what kind of nation we'll be, and most Americans like the nation we already have.
On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that government workers who choose not to join a union cannot be forced to pay for the cost of collective bargaining. Predictably, opinions on the ruling split along political lines, with liberals disparaging the decision as a result of President Trump's appointment of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch while conservatives hailed the decision as a major victory against labor unions and the Democratic Party.
This past week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-proclaimed socialist, won the Democratic primary for a congressional seat in New York. Why would a sane person advocate a political movement that was responsible for well over a hundred million deaths in the last century, as well as untold misery? By her comments, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez revealed a couple of things about herself. The first is an ignorance of history — because it is unlikely that she really meant to be an advocate for a cause that often results in mass death and destruction — and that she is unable to think beyond stage 1, or the first order effect of a policy.
The left is quickly running out of excuses for why President Trump's economic policies have caused a boom — rather than the bust they predicted with such great certainty.
In the early days of the Internet, Despair.com came up with a popular series of "demotivational posters" that spoofed the motivational posters supposed to inspire office workers throughout the 1990s. (Like the kitten who just needs to "hang in there!")
For all the talk of America's decline, the United States offers the world one product that no country seems able to replicate — universally accepted money. If a multinational needs cash to drill for oil in Nigeria or rich Indians want to import BMWs, the dollar is often the currency contracted for payment.
Despite liberal hysterics, Republicans' recent tax cut raised top earners' share of America's tax burden. This seemingly "squared circle" is simply due to a fact true before the legislation and even truer after: Middle- and upper-income earners shoulder the overwhelming tax load. Equally obvious: Even so large a share is not enough for an insatiable left.
Freedom of the seas is critical to America's economic and political security, enabling the transportation of goods manufactured in the United States to other places around the world, and enabling Americans to obtain things otherwise unobtainable here, like bananas every day of every year. What would life be without the freedom to enjoy an occasional banana split?
President Trump is delivering a powerful message to global elites like the World Economic Forum. America First is about unmasking the cynical con the most privileged have played on ordinary working folk.
President Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday that the U.S. is guided by patriotism instead of globalism, rejecting the authority of world bodies.
China's "Belt and Road" global financing strategy is sporting its first serious potholes, as backlash from smaller nations across Asia mounts amid frustration over opaque and predatory lending practices.
Republican officials said Sunday it was disappointing to see both President Obama break the past example of recent ex-presidents by re-entering the political scene last week with a stinging rebuke of his successor, and for Mr. Obama to try to take credit for a burgeoning economy under President Trump.
Americans' consumer confidence rose in August to the highest level in nearly 18 years as their assessment of current conditions improved further and their expectations about the future rebounded.
Pot is hot -- the legal marijuana market in the U.S is expected to hit $11 billion in consumer spending by the end of 2018, and over $23 billion by 2022, according to projections from a new survey released Thursday.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) marked the granting of the nation's 10 millionth patent. Patent filings and issuances are at historically high levels, with more than 2.8 million active patents in the United States, which is both good and troubling news.
The White House said Tuesday night that President Trump will sign into law a sweeping overhaul of bank regulations "as soon as possible" to help boost the economy by spurring more lending from community banks to small businesses.
The Supreme Court decided in favor of employers Monday, ruling that they can enforce arbitration clauses in contracts and head off employees' attempts at class-action lawsuits.
A majority of Americans give President Trump credit for the strong economy, according a new poll published on Sunday.
Sen. John Barrasso credited President Trump and Republicans on Tuesday for changing policies to get the economy moving.
The federal government took in a record tax haul in April en route to its biggest-ever monthly budget surplus, the Congressional Budget Office said, as a surging economy left Americans with more money in their paychecks -- and this more to pay to Uncle Sam.
The Senate on Thursday approved former CIA Director Mike Pompeo to be the nation's next secretary of state, overcoming heavy resistance once again from Democrats to a top Trump nominee.
President Trump confirmed Thursday that Larry Kudlow will be his new economic adviser.
U.S. employers went on a hiring binge in February, adding 313,000 jobs, the most in any month since July 2016, and drawing hundreds of thousands of people into the job market.
In "Hamlet," Shakespeare pens one of the most familiar lines — and best advice — ever written. Before Laertes leaves for Paris, his father, Polonius, tells him: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be "
