Frightening fact: Every Republican president since World War II has been in power during at least one recession.

Billionaire Carl Icahn, who bet $US1 billion on a Trump rally hours after his election victory, will advise the President-elect on rescinding "excessive regulation".

Morgan Stanley will pay $US7.5 million to resolve US Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the firm improperly used customer cash to lower its borrowing costs.

It's a place synonymous with conflict and is now on the front line of Britain's divisive push to leave the European Union.

The European Commission has charged Facebook with misleading it during its WhatsApp takeover, threatening a $247m fine.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde escaped punishment and kept her job on Monday despite a conviction on negligence charges over a state payout made while she served as France's finance minister in 2008.

In backing her, the fund's executive board avoids the task of having to select a new managing director.

​The US wants Credit Suisse to pay up to $US7 billion for its role selling toxic mortgage securities in the GFC. The bank says No.

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was found guilty on Monday of criminal charges linked to the misuse of public funds during her time as France's finance minister, a verdict that could force her out of her post.

Ireland has accused the European Commission of exceeding its powers and interfering with the EU member's national sovereignty over tax affairs in ruling that Apple owes Dublin billions of euros in taxes, saying it had failed to give proper reasons for its decision.

• COMMENT

You can read James Packer's sell down and impending exit out of the Macau market many ways.

Killing four empty hours at Guangzhou airport waiting for a China Southern connection to Sydney may not be everyone's idea of fun. For Gina Capella, it was a no-brainer.

The 29-year-old internet celebrity "said he didn't want to live a life like mine", says Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin.

• COMMENT

If only the billionaire investor had taken his own advice on how to capitalise on the US housing collapse.

Australia may have tougher laws aimed at recouping more tax from multinationals, but that won't stop the incoming US President Donald Trump to tell us to "get stuffed" in the fight for more revenue, a KPMG tax expert says.

• COMMENT

Even after Trump's upset victory last month, China's appetite for the country's favourite companies is growing.

The pact between Russia and other non-OPEC nations to curb oil production, alongside OPEC nations, is the first in 15 years.

Iran signs a $US16.6 billion deal to buy 80 Boeing passenger jets, the biggest US contract since the Islamic Revolution 37 years ago.

Casino stocks including Melco Crown have rebounded after the government of world's largest gambling market placed restrictions on ATM withdrawals that weren't as harsh as expected.

More than $4 billion in Australian tax is being shifted by Australian-based multinationals into the world's 15 worst corporate "tax havens" each year, Oxfam says.

The bad news for James Packer's gaming empire, Crown Resorts, just keep coming, with the company's share price falling as much as 8 per cent on Friday amid concerns gamblers in Macau may soon have less cash to splurge.

​McDonald's Corp said on Thursday it would move its international tax base to the United Kingdom from Luxembourg after coming under increased scrutiny from European Union regulators over its tax arrangements in the small country.

If you thought that the European Union coming down hard on tech-giant Apple was the end of secret tax deals, you're wrong.

A new breed of nuclear reactor designed by engineers from the millennial generation has gained the support of both billionaires and the United Nations agency overseeing the industry.

YouTube, defending itself from attacks by record labels and artists, said it passed on more than $1 billion in sales to the music business in the past 12 months.

The President-elect's plan to put a 35 per cent penalty on products made overseas would drive up the prices of his daughter's clothing line.

Passing on a family business to heirs, whether they are involved or not, can be a very knotty dilemma, rife with disagreements, lawsuit, jealousy, estrangements, you name it.

For once, the pollsters were right - and it's bad news for financial markets.

President-elect Donald Trump warned U.S. companies that moving manufacturing to other countries would be a "very expensive mistake" as they will face heavy new taxes.