10 The EconomistJune 29th 2019
The world this week Business
Tensionsinthealliance
betweenRenaultandNissan
wereondisplayatthelatter’s
annualshareholders’meeting,
thefirstsincethearreston
financial-misconductcharges
ofCarlosGhosn,whoranthe
alliance.Nissan’sinvestors
directedmostoftheirireat
Jean-DominiqueSenard,
Renault’schairman,whohas
pushedfora fullmergerwith
Nissanandhadthreatenedto
scupperchangestoits
governance(Renaultowns43%
ofNissan).Atthemeeting,Mr
Senardadmittedthattherela-
tionshipbetweenthetwo
companieswasina badstate.bmwsaidit wouldhave 25 new
fullyelectricorhybridmodels
onthemarketby2023,two
yearsearlierthanexpected.
Europe’scarmakersare
acceleratingtheirplansfor
cleanervehiclesinorderto
complywithstrictereurules
oncaremissions.A golden opportunity
Eldorado Resortsagreed to
buy Caesars Entertainmentin
a $17.3bn deal that creates
America’s biggest casino
company. Caesars, which
counts Caesars Palace, Bally’s
and the Flamingo, all in Las
Vegas, among its assets, is the
bigger of the two. It had faced
calls from Carl Icahn, an activ-
ist investor, to put itself up for
sale to cut costs. Eldorado has
no properties in Vegas, but it
does own the Tropicana in
Atlantic City.The latest blockbuster deal in
the drugs industry saw AbbVie
stumping up $63bn for
Allergan, best known for
Botox, a skin-smoothing treat-
ment popular with the more
mature clientele. AbbVie is
hunting for new sources of
sales as the patent protection
on Humira, its bestselling
inflammatory treatment, will
expire in America in 2023.
Separately, Bristol-Myers
Squibb’smerger with Celgene,
valued at $90bn when it was
announced in January, was
delayed until at least the end of
this year as it works to over-
come antitrust concerns.In its first week as a publicly
listed company, Slack’sshare
price slipped below the $38.
at which it closed on the first
day of trading. The office-
messaging service opted for a
direct listing of its existing
stock on the New York Stock
Exchange rather than an ipo
(through which new shares are
issued), because it didn’t need
to raise fresh capital, according
to Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s
chief executive.Jerome Powell raised concerns
about the world economy,
warning that the “global risk
picture has changed”, and that
there was “greater uncertainty”
over trade. The comments
from the chairman of the
Federal Reservebolstered
those who are betting on the
central bank reducing interest
rates in July. Mr Powell also
stressed that the Fed won’t bow
to pressure in its decision-
making. In his latest outburst
Donald Trump, who wanted
the Fed to cut rates this month,
tweeted that it “doesn’t know
what it is doing” and is behav-
ing “like a stubborn child”.Financial regulators respond-
ed coolly to Facebook’s plan to
launch a global digital curren-
cy, to be called Libra. Mark
Carney, the governor of the
Bank of England, said thatLibra could become “systemic”
and would “have to be subject
to the highest standards of
regulation”. Randal Quarles,
the head of the Financial Sta-
bility Board, which advises the
g20, warned that the use of
“cryptoassets” deserves “close
scrutiny”. Their comments,
along with several others,
suggest that Facebook will
have to jump many hurdles to
get Libra up and running.The publicity surrounding
Libra helped boost the price of
cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin
traded above $13,000, its high-
est level in 18 months, re-
kindling fears about a bubble
in the market.America’s Supreme Court
overturned a long-standing
ban on trademarksthat use
“immoral” or “scandalous”
words on the grounds that it
violated the right to free
speech and had been imposed
unevenly. The case was
brought by the owner of a
clothing line he brands as fuct
(Friends U Can’t Trust).Netflixis to lose the rights to
broadcast the American ver-
sion of “The Office” because
nbcUniversal, the sitcom’s
producer, wants to run it on its
new, yet-to-be-named stream-
ing service from 2021. “TheOffice” is Netflix’s most pop-
ular show in America. With
rival streaming channels in the
works from Disney, Warner-
Media and others, Netflix faces
the prospect of losing more
content made by other compa-
nies, which, despite the plau-
dits for the media it produces
in-house, accounts for the bulk
of users’ viewing time.A gripping yarnAn industry report suggested
that the global market for
spandexis expanding, with
sales set to reach 1m tonnes by
the end of 2020. The main
reason is that demand for
sports “shapewear” has
stretched beyond the rich
world to the emerging-market
middle class. Invented in 1958
by a chemist in Virginia, the
spandex industry is now
highly elastic, with China
accounting for 75% of the
world’s production.