Headlines
Americas
Grand Cayman is overrun with green iguanas
Blue is the new green THE CAYMAN ISLANDS, a British territory, does not tax companies. So Grand Cayman, its largest part, has more companies (106,000) than people (61,000). Its population of green iguanas greatly outnumbers both. There are perhaps 1.3m of them, more than 6,000 per square kilometre. The lizards, which can be up to 1.5 metres (five...
Colombia’s biggest corruption scandal gets more complicated
ON THE NIGHT of November 8th, Jorge Enrique Pizano’s wife found him lying on the bathroom floor in their house north of Bogotá, the capital, wrapped in a towel and breathing heavily. He died on his way to hospital. The cause was a heart attack, said forensic experts. Three days later, his son, Alejandro, who had returned from Spain for his father’s...
Why Latin American governments spend money badly
IN COSTA RICA’S rainy season, bright mornings yield with deceptive suddenness to tropical downpours. So it was on September 10th, when the country’s civil servants went on strike. They oppose a fiscal reform that raises some taxes and limits automatic wage increases. Universities and public offices were deserted. After blocking roads and a...
Canada debates a gun ban
WHEN A MAN with a rifle charged into Canada’s parliament in 2014, Michelle Rempel, a Conservative politician, was among the people who fled from a caucus room as gunfire rang out around them. Security guards killed the intruder, who had shot a sentry outside. Deeply unsettled by the attack, Ms Rempel pondered a friend’s claim that a ban on...
Water in California
THE FEDERAL government and the state of California seem to love suing each other, and have done so dozens of times in the past two years without causing anyone much damage. But President Donald Trump is now threatening to sue the state over control of water. This could harm a lot of people, because water is the source of the most contentious and...
Asia Pacific
Rachika A Sahay joins HSA Advocates as Partner in the New Delhi office
Rachika A Sahay joins HSA Advocates as Partner to further strengthen the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure and Corporate practices. She will be operating out of the firm’s New Delhi office. Rachika has over a decade of experience in handling a broad range of deals in the energy sector. She also has diverse experience in handling corporate transactions...
Japanese firms step up overseas M&A
Number of deals hits record in first half as smaller companies get into the game With SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son taking the lead, Japanese companies have been engaging in mergers and acquisitions at record levels. Japanese corporations made 339 overseas mergers and acquisitions during the first half of the current Japanese fiscal year, the highest...
Investcorp adds Deepak Parekh to International Advisory Board
Investcorp, a global provider and manager of alternative investment products, today announced that Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC Limited, Indian’s leading Financial Services conglomerate, has been appointment to Investcorp’s International Advisory Board. Mr Parekh has played a significant role in the development of the financial sector...
South Korea: Making up for lost time
After the impeachment of South Korea’s former president, Park Geun-hye, amid a far-reaching corruption scandal, the country was ready for change. South Korea’s new liberal president, Moon Jae-in, appears set to take on that challenge. Campaigning on a policy platform of job creation, corporate governance and labour market reforms, as well as promises...
Alibaba acquires majority stake In Indian ticketing startup TicketNew
Alibaba Pictures, the entertainment unit of China’s ecommerce major Alibaba Group, has acquired a majority stake in Chennai-based TicketNew for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, Alibaba will have four representatives on TicketNew’s board and the firm’s promoters will have two of their representatives. TicketNew founder and CEO Ramkumar...
Europe
Pinel Advocates expands further
Pinel Advocates is delighted to announce the recent addition of two new recruits to its Corporate and Commercial team. Both Roisin Hocking and Adam Diamond have joined as a Legal Assistants and will undertake a range of corporate and commercial work. Roisin joins Pinel Advocates from a larger Jersey law firm and brings employment and probate experience...
GGI (Geneva International Group) appoints Stefano Loconte as Global Chairperson of the Trust & Estate Planning Practice Group
GGI Geneva Group International, a worldwide alliance of well-established and experienced accounting, consulting and law firms that are committed to providing clients with specialist solutions for their international business requirements, has appointed Mr. Stefano Loconte (pictured) as Global Chairperson of the Trust & Estate Planning Practice...
Experienced Banking and Finance Lawyer Phillip Slater Joins Dorsey in London
International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP is delighted to announce that Phil Slater has joined the London office of Dorsey & Whitney as a Banking & Finance partner. Phil brings with him an expanse of expertise in relation to corporate debt finance across a broad range of sectors and financing disciplines having represented corporates...
European corporate and investment banks are gambling with their future
European corporate and investment banks (CIBs) have lost ground in recent years to American competitors. Beyond cyclical factors, this is due to an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment, the delay in banks restructuring and digitalizing their activities, as well as the rise of alternative financing. The European consulting firm Eurogroup...
Innovation boosts Europe's lead as global investment destination
78% of investors expect increased investment in Europe over next five yearsEurope’s perceived stability and commitment to sustainability declines Europe’s attractiveness as an investment destination is on the rise compared to 2017, as the majority of global investors are more likely to invest in both the EU and the UK after Brexit, according...
Mena
8 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Congo in Area Facing Ebola Outbreak
Supported by8 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Congo in Area Facing Ebola OutbreakImageA United Nations peacekeeper from Tanzania on patrol this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo.CreditCreditJohn Wessels/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy The Associated PressNov. 15, 2018Eight United Nations peacekeepers and at least 12 Congolese soldiers...
Dorothy Cheney, Who Studied Primates Up Close, Dies at 68
Dorothy Cheney, Who Studied Primates Up Close, Dies at 68ImageDorothy Cheney with baboons at the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. Her research there included insights into the hierarchical nature of baboon societies.By Neil GenzlingerNov. 14, 2018Dorothy L. Cheney, whose careful research into how primates live and communicate revealed the surprising...
U.N. Lifts Sanctions on Eritrea, but Keeps Somalia Arms Embargo
U.N. Lifts Sanctions on Eritrea, but Keeps Somalia Arms EmbargoImageFrom left, President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia and President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed of Somalia last week in Ethiopia.CreditCreditEduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy The Associated PressNov. 14, 2018UNITED NATIONS —...
How to Date a Lot of Billionaires
ImageKiran and Jyoti Matharoo in the Consort Bar at Toronto’s Omni King Edward Hotel.CreditCreditTara Walton for The New York TimesHow to Date a Lot of BillionairesJyoti and Kiran Matharoo sought fame on social media by flaunting what nature — and men — gave them. Then they got locked up abroad. Kiran and Jyoti Matharoo in the Consort...
Car Bombs Kill at Least 20 in Somalia’s Capital
Car Bombs Kill at Least 20 in Somalia’s CapitalImageSecurity officers fleeing the scene of an explosion in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Friday.CreditCreditFeisal Omar/ReutersBy The Associated PressNov. 9, 2018MOGADISHU, Somalia — Four car bombs exploded outside a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday afternoon, killing at least 20 people...
International
Across the West powerful firms are becoming even more powerful
ONE BRIGHT morning earlier this year your correspondent travelled from New York to the University of Chicago to attend a conference on the threat to prosperity posed by monopolies. The journey began with an alarm beeping on a handset made by Apple (which has a 62% market share in America), then a bumpy taxi ride to the airport paid for using a piece...
Which American industries are most in danger of monopoly?
HOW CAN you identify the hotspots in the economy where competition might be a problem? The Economist has tried to answer this question with a series of filters which we have applied to the top 500 firms in America. The process is designed to narrow down where trustbusters may want to look more closely. Existing competition doctrine is not helpful...
Dynamism has declined across Western economies
A BIG PROBLEM when attempting to tell if competition has weakened is that experts have stopped trying to answer the question. In the 1930s industrial economists viewed an uncompetitive industry as one in which a few firms had a large share of output and prices were high or quality low. Roll forward 80 years and competition regulators take refuge behind...
Technology firms are both the friend and the foe of competition
ONE OF THE few things that most people in the West agree on is that there is some kind of problem with the big tech firms. Here is a list of common complaints. They have high market shares and concentrated ownership so that tycoons mainly benefit from their growth, cause addiction, censor free speech, do not censor free speech, are infiltrated...
Western governments need a plan for reinstating effective competition
EVER SINCE the financial crash of 2008-09, capitalism has not been working well. Ordinary people sense it and so do the elites, who have prospered through the West’s lost decade. The symptoms are lower growth, less dynamism and greater inequality. Damagingly, this has led to a widespread belief, particularly among young people, that the system...