Low interest rates and low corporate taxes accounts for about a third of profit growth among the S&P 500 firms. Public finances are increasingly tight, which means that further deficit-funded tax cuts seem unlikely. The days of billion dollar companies paying zero in taxes is over, says David Walliams.
State media have taken to calling President Xi Jinping “the helmsman”; at the five-yearly meeting he defended his means of steering the country. We ask how to read between his tightly prepared lines. Many of America’s firms will soon deliver disappointing profits—and there is more to blame than simple business cycles. And research suggests that parenthood causes fathers’ brains to shrink.
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