A week after a train loaded with crude oil from North Dakota exploded in downtown Lynchburg, Va., dumping 30,000 gallons of oil into the James River, the Department of Transportation announced two moves to try to keep this from happening so frequently. It's doubtful that either will make much of a difference in preventing what's become a major safety hazard in the U.S.
The Japanese government has long banned most weapons exports. That policy helped buttress Japan's pacifism, but it also hindered the growth of the country's defense industry. Because it couldn't sell parts overseas, Japanese defense companies missed out on chances to develop fighter jets, tanks and other weaponry with the U.S. That's changing.
Manufacturing employment is falling almost everywhere, including in China. The phenomenon is driven by technology, and there's reason to think developing countries are going to follow a different path to wealth than the U.S. did—one that involves a lot more jobs in the services sector.
Just as KFC's China sales began to improve, the spread of bird flu is once again threatening the chicken restaurant's recovery, this time ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday, typically a busy period for the chain. The New Year begins on Friday, Jan. 31.
Chinese companies are on a North American buying spree, investing $14bn in the U.S. last year, a record high, says a new report by New York's Rhodium Group.
Since the end of World War II and the birth of the modern global economy, business leaders have come to accept an iron law: International trade always expands faster than economic growth. Between the late 1940s and 2013, that assumption held true. Trade grew roughly twice as fast as the world economy annually, as fresh markets opened up, governments signed free-trade pacts, new industries and consumers emerged, and technological advances made international trade cheaper and faster. Now this iron law may be crumbling.
Why the pessimism about the economy? Last Monday, we learned that U.S. factories are expanding at their fastest pace in more than two years, capping the manufacturing industry's best six-month period since the recession ended in June 2009.
With almost 28 percent unemployment and a lingering recession that's wiped out one-fourth of their country's economic output, it makes sense that Greek consumers plan to trim their Christmas spending by 12.8 percent this year. What's more surprising is that the average Greek budget for holiday gifts, food, and drink is €451 ($608)"”more than the €399 average in Germany, the country that has borne much of the cost of a Greek bailout.
Brick-and-mortar retailers are sweating online competition this holiday season, perhaps more than ever. But it's all upside to UPS. The shipping giant is cashing in both on internet shopping and old-school retailers trying to mimic Amazon.com - shipping inventory around the country in an incessant supply-chain shuffling.
It doesn't feel so long ago that brick-and-mortar retailers were rushing to develop online stores. Now that evolution often happens in reverse: Retailers start online and migrate to the real world, where customers can touch, taste, and try on their goodies.
