China sanctions five US defence firms over Taiwan arms sales

Regulator Ofgem has given three companies permission to force-fit prepayment meters in homes.

Not many Americans know their net worth. That’s understandable, given our propensity to measure financial success by how much we earn. A recent report by The Washington Post found that the middle half of Americans have a net worth between $27,000 and $659,000. And roughly 1 in 12 U.S. households have a negative net worth,…

Business & FinanceGovernment 14 December 2023, 5:25 am 1 minute Reuters exclusively reported that Austria is seeking to have Raiffeisen Bank International, the biggest Western bank in Russia, struck off a Ukrainian blacklist in return for signing off fresh European Union sanctions on Russia, said two people familiar with the situation.  Market Impact Raiffeisen’s presence…

After a few years of hefty pay increases, American workers can expect solid but not spectacular raises in 2024. On average, companies are planning for salary increases of 4% in 2024, according to a December survey of more than 1,800 employers by advisory firm Willis Towers Watson. That is down from the 4.4% raises that…

“Close to 96% of the net worth of the promoters of India’s wealthiest families is parked in trusts,” said Rishabh Shroff, partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, a Mumbai law firm. “These structures are increasingly attractive to wealthy business families, to shield their assets and insulate their businesses from insolvency, family or creditor disputes.”

Big banks held up well in 2023, even though the Federal Reserve continued to raise interest rates at a fast clip. Reports on fourth-quarter bank earnings, which start this week, should show how the banks’ customers fared in the harsher rate environment.   So far, households have continued to spend and borrow, despite higher borrowing costs,…