Top Five Corporate Scandals of 2018: Episode I-CBS and Les Moonves
More good economic news in the U.S. this week, with first-time jobless claims falling to 613k, a decrease of more than 150,000 from a week earlier and the lowest level of the pandemic. ...more
HP has officially rejected Xerox’s enhanced takeover bid, again calling the offer “too low” and decrying its “disproportionate[] benefit” for Xerox shareholders....more
In the internal battle between keeping China off balance and keeping Wall Street happy, the White House has decided once again to focus on the latter, walking back the latest tariff escalation by postponing promised...more
A volatile August on Wall Street has insiders asking whether we should be taking our cues from 1998 or 2007. With that in mind, our financial term of the week is “countercyclical capital buffer,” a wonkish special for you...more
Saudi Aramco’s mega IPO plans are back on, and while valuation and other stumbling blocks remain, the kingdom is hoping to raise billions via the public offering as early as next year....more
HSBC chief John Flint is out just 18 months after he assumed the role as head of the London-based bank, likely due to clashes with Board Chair Mark Tucker and the lender’s focus on expanding in China. HSBC also announced it...more
The White House strongly hinted yesterday that it will consider delaying the rapidly approaching March 2 deadline to reach a trade deal with China, “saying the United States might not impose higher tariffs on Chinese goods if...more
The White House is reportedly considering easing some tariffs on Chinese markets “as a way to calm markets and give Beijing an incentive to make deeper concessions in a trade battle that has rattled global economies.” The...more
After a brutal Tuesday, the White House tried to take advantage of yesterday’s market day off to run some damage control “and ease concerns that [the] trade truce with China was already floundering.” I suspect we’ll find out...more
On Wednesday, the Census Bureau reported that median household income in the US reached just over $61k—a level it described as “statistically indistinguishable” from its pre-crisis level in 2007. Lots more here on the numbers...more
Less than a day after the Journal reported that CBS and the Redstones are nearing a deal to resolve their many differences, we’ve learned that CBS chief Les Moonves—facing an investigation into alleged sexual harassment...more
The FBI and OCC have each launched inquiries into pricing practices within American Express’s forex unit with an aim to determine “whether the foreign-exchange international payments department misrepresented pricing to...more
The Journal is breaking news this morning that American Express has been raising forex prices on customers for years “without notifying customers in a bid to boost revenue and employee commissions”....more
Despite recent signs that both sides were backing off of the brinksmanship moving the US and China towards a protracted trade war, the White House unveiled plans on Tuesday to move ahead with tariffs and other “punitive...more
More trouble for Wells Fargo, as news emerged yesterday that some employees in the company’s business banking wholesale unit “altered information on documents related to corporate customers” without customers’...more
The latest from the Redstone/CBS dispute, with news late yesterday that even as Shari Redstone is “moving to block CBS Corp.’s efforts to strip her family of voting control”, a Delaware judge has temporarily blocked her from...more
The long-standing unease between CBS and the Redstone family bubbled over into a “corporate declaration of war” yesterday, with CBS suing controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and her family’s holding company to prevent (or...more