Category: News

Mat Beren and his friends used to drive by the vast greenhouses of southern British Columbia and joke about how much weed they could grow there. Years later, it's no joke. The tomato and pepper plants that once filled some of those greenhouses have been replaced with a new cash crop: marijuana. Beren and other formerly illicit growers are helping cultivate it. The buyers no longer are unlawful dealers or dubious medical dispensaries; it's the Canadian government. On Oct. 17, Canada becomes the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace. Uruguay launched legal sales last year, after several years of planning. It's a profound social shift promised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and fueled by a desire to bring the black market into a regulated, taxed…

U.S. stocks posted their worst loss since February on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average finishing the day down more than 800 points. The losses were widespread as bond yields remained high after steep increases last week. Companies that have been the biggest winners on the market the last few years, including technology companies and retailers, suffered steep declines. The Dow gave up nearly 828 points, or 3.15 percent, to 25,600. The Nasdaq composite, which has a high concentration of technology stocks, tumbled 316 points, or 4.1 percent, to 7,422. The S&P 500 index sank 95 points, or 3.3 percent, to 2,786, its fifth straight drop. That hasn't happened since right before the 2016 presidential election. Every one of the 11 S&P 500 sectors finished down for the day. Microsoft dropped 5.4 percent to…

The Treasury Department has issued new rules on foreign investments into American companies that will give the government more power to block foreign transactions on national security grounds. The rules represent the latest escalation in an intensifying economic conflict between the United States and China. It will implement a program for tougher reviews of foreign acquisitions that Congress approved this summer. The new regulations will require foreign investors to alert a Treasury-led interagency committee to all deals that would give the foreign investors access to critical technology covering 27 industries, including semiconductors, telecommunications and defense. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the new rules will "address specific risks to U.S. critical technology." ...

Dark, dirty and slow, Zimbabwe's trains, like much else in the impoverished southern African country, have seen better days. Once the preferred mode of transport for most Zimbabweans, the state-run rail service mirrors the decline in the country's economic fortunes during the last two decades under the leadership of former President Robert Mugabe. Gilbert Mthinzima Ndlovu, a veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war and a security guard at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) for 35 years, yearns for the old days when trains were full and arrived on time. "Times are different now as we have few passengers," the off-duty Ndlovu told Reuters as he rested in a badly lit first class cabin during the journey from the capital Harare to his home in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city. Now…

Last month, Patrick Ho, a former Hong Kong official fighting foreign bribery charges in New York, thought he had finally received a break. In a dramatic move in the high-profile bribery case, prosecutors on Sept. 14 dropped all criminal charges against Cheikh Gadio, a former Senegalese foreign minister they had accused of helping Ho bribe African officials. Arguing that the government's move undermined its case against Ho, Ho's lawyers urged a federal judge in New York to release their client from a federal jail.  But the presiding judge, Loretta Preska, wasn't buying it. She dismissed the motion, Ho's fifth unsuccessful request for bail. And prosecutors said Gadio has agreed to cooperate, expressing confidence that his testimony against Ho will strengthen their case.  "(Far) from weakening the case, Gadio's testimony will…

Ireland's finance minister boosted budget day spending for the second year in a row as the government warned of economic "carnage" if neighboring Britain crashes out of the European Union without a divorce deal. Having already pre-committed 2.6 billion euros ($2.99 billion) on increased public sector and planned infrastructure spending for next year, Paschal Donohoe, in Tuesday's annual budget speech, almost doubled the remaining pot to 1.5 billion euros to dish out on further tax cuts and spending increases. The state's fiscal watchdog warned ahead of the budget that the booming economy did not need such additional stimulus. But with an election potentially looming and the fast-growing economy exacerbating deficits in areas such as housing, a scrapping of a reduced VAT rate for the hospitality sector mostly funded the extra…

China promised Tuesday not to weaken its currency to boost exports during a tariff fight with Washington and rejected U.S. concern about the yuan's sagging exchange rate as groundless and irresponsible. Beijing has no intention of using "competitive devaluation," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang.   A U.S. official told reporters in Washington the Trump administration is concerned about the weakening yuan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's trip to Indonesia for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.   The tightly controlled yuan has lost almost 10 percent of its value against the dollar this year. That prompted suggestions Beijing might weaken the currency to help exporters that face punitive U.S. tariffs of up to 25 percent.   However,…

Foreign companies have been flocking to Vietnam. Earlier this year, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms Warburg Pincus added banking and logistics to its Vietnam portfolio, pushing its total investment into the country over the $1 billion mark. Auto players like JAC Motors of China, as well as Kamaz, the largest truck maker in Russia, have recently turned to Vietnam. The Southeast Asian country is seeing money pour in from all over the globe, whether it’s Indonesia’s Gojek in ride-hailing, or Qatar's Ooredoo in telecommunications.  With a trade war rippling across the Pacific and fears of interest rate contagion in emerging markets, much of Asia looks bleak. So why is the economy in communist Vietnam such a bright spot? Stability is key Gross domestic product is forecast to…

Malaysia may introduce new taxes and sell assets such as land to pay down debt, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Tuesday, as his administration struggles with liabilities of around 1 trillion ringgit ($240.67 billion). Mahathir, who unexpectedly won a general election in May, has blamed the previous administration of Najib Razak for taking the country into such heavy debt, including that of the 1MDB state fund, which is the subject of corruption and money laundering investigations in Malaysia and other countries. The government is also looking for new sources of revenue to make up the shortfall it is expected to face after scrapping an unpopular goods and services tax just weeks after the Mahathir-led Alliance of Hope coalition was elected to government. "We may have to devise new taxes…

American Airlines is telling employees to think twice before rebooking stranded customers on rival airlines, and regular economy-class passengers are the most likely to suffer when there are long delays or canceled flights. A new policy at American directs airport agents not to rebook economy passengers on competing airlines — with no stated limit on how long they must wait for a seat on another American flight. A manager can make exceptions in a few cases, such as people flying to a wedding or funeral and those who would be stranded overnight with no hotel room. Agents can still put economy passengers on American’s international partner airlines, but that won’t help customers flying within the U.S. By contrast, American told agents in late September to help the airline’s best customers…

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded this year's Nobel Prize for economics to Yale University's William Nordhaus and New York University's Paul Romer. The Academy said Nordhaus and Romer "have designed methods for addressing some of our time's most basic and pressing questions about how we create long-term sustained and sustainable economic growth." Nordhaus was awarded the prize "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis".  In the 1990s, he created a model describing how the economy and the climate affect each other on the global stage, according to the Academy. Romer was recognized "for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis."  The Academy said Romer's research is the first to model how market conditions and economic decisions affect creation of new technologies. Nordhaus, who earned his Ph.D.…

For the first time, researchers have been able to track the amount of Chinese investment in Australia.  From the purchase of large cattle properties to residential real estate, the scope of Chinese money has led to fraught discussions about the scale of foreign influence in Australia. The results of the research may have some surprises for some Australians who have been wary of China's influence and the size of Chinese investments in their country. The comprehensive new database shows how much Chinese investors are pouring into Australia. Between 2013 and 2017 the figure was more than $28 billion (U.S. dollars).Most of the money was spent on mining projects and real estate, although increasingly larger amounts are being invested by the Chinese in tourism in Australia. Academics from the Australian National…

Last-minute changes to a new North American trade deal sank U.S. hopes of making Canada and Mexico allow higher-value shipments to the countries by online retailers, such as Amazon.com, a top Mexican official said on Friday. The revised pact was set to double the value of goods that could be imported without customs duties or taxes from the United States through shipping companies to Mexico. But Canada's adoption of a more restrictive threshold during its efforts last month to salvage a trilateral deal prompted Mexican negotiators to follow Canada's lead, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Friday. The final version of the trade agreement will insulate retailers in both countries from facing greater competition from e-commerce companies like Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc. "It was the solution liked much more…