• ANALYSIS

US withdrawal from a long-planned trade deal creates a political and economic vacuum that China is eager to fill.

Bermuda has joined the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's fight against multinational profit shifting.

• COMMENT

The Davos elite has enjoyed its private jets and outsize influence over economic policies for decades. That fortune may not persist.

• COMMENT

On April 6, 1917, the US officially entered World War I. Just six weeks short of 100 years later, Donald Trump is being sworn in. Thus ends the "American Century".

​Former Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn refused to tell German lawmakers when he first learned about systematic exhaust emissions cheating but said it was no earlier than VW has officially admitted.

Bill Gates warned at the World Economic Forum on Thursday that a new form of terrorism could be coming, and we are not prepared for it.

• COMMENT

Fines that could wipe out a year's profits. A grovelling public apology from the chief executive. Immeasurable damage to the reputation of what was one of Britain's most prestigious companies.

America should brace for a final blow-off surge in stock markets akin to the last phase of the dotcom boom or the "Gatsby" years of the Roaring Twenties, followed by a cathartic crash and day of moral judgment, according to a Nobel prize-winning economist.

Actor Matt Damon appeared to give President-elect Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt Wednesday (Swiss time) over whether he will help break the cycle of global poverty that arises from lack of safe water and sanitation.

• COMMENT

History is replete with examples of populist authoritarian policies that produced short-run benefits but poor long-run outcomes.

While Chinese President Xi Jinping defended globalisation at the World Economic Forum in Davos, US companies say his government is not practicing what he preached.

​Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $US7.2b ($9.5b) to the US Justice Department for having 'contributed directly' to the global financial crisis.

​Chinese President Xi Jinping offered a vigorous defence of free trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday in a speech that underscored Beijing's desire to play a greater global role as the United States turns inward.

• COMMENT

When is a company considered privately owned? There's ownership, and there's control.

The world's chief executives are shrugging off worries around global volatility and are increasingly confident their businesses will grow in the next year.

In a protest to show that Switzerland's new rules on Swiss-Made are too lenient, a luxury watchmaker has built what it calls a 100 per cent Swiss timepiece, composed only with locally produced natural resources, such as a strap of cowhide rather than alligator leather, plus a more unusual ingredient: cheese.

Income inequality is so now lopsided that eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world.

A small Australian pharmaceutical company is raising eyebrows in Washington DC and with the US media after it was linked to powerful players in Donald Trump's inner-circle.

"I want to make a good impression and want to be more handsome."

• Opinion

Wall Street's biggest banks are in a bright spot after years of massive layoffs and pay cuts. The same cannot be said for the largest asset managers.

• COMMENT

Pharma investors and companies need to stop assuming Republicans can rein Donald Trump in and prepare for the policy fight they thought they'd mostly be able to avoid for at least four years.

US President-elect Donald Trump said pharmaceutical companies were "getting away with murder" in what they charged the government for medicines, and promised that would change, sending drugs stocks sharply lower on Wednesday.

Volkswagen took a major step toward resolving one of the darkest chapters in its history Wednesday, pleading guilty to an emissions-cheating scandal and agreeing to pay $US4.3 billion ($5.8 billion) in criminal and civil charges as the US announced charges against five new individuals.

Donald Trump plans to transfer all his business assets into a trust and putting his two sons in charge, a Trump lawyer said.

Beijing's sustained efforts to tackle excess steel production capacity has sent steel and iron ore futures in China upwards for a third day in a row to hit their strongest mark in three weeks.

Jack Ma got plenty of good press out of his meeting with the President-elect.

Toyota will invest $US10 billion ($14 billion) in the United States, company president Akio Toyoda says, days after US president-elect Donald Trump criticised its planned factory in Mexico.

Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer plans to leave the board if the sale of its main internet assets to Verizon is completed, while the investment company that will be left will change its name to Altaba.

It's best known as the maker of M&M;’s, Snickers and Dove, but a $10.5 billion deal will make pet care Mars' biggest business.