Bloomberg Businessweek-Europe Edition 9/25/2017

Asia Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the leader of Myanmar, defended a military crackdown on Rohingya, the country’s Muslim minority. As Rohingya fled burning villages, the United Nations labeled as ethnic cleansing what the Myanmar government called attacks on insurgents. ● Google introduced Tez, a mobile payment app, in India. It will compete with SoftBank and Alibaba’s Paytm. ● Toshiba sold its chip business in a deal valued at $18 billion. The group of buyers—which includes Apple, Bain Capital, and Dell Technologies—beat out Western Digital and Foxconn Technology. ● “I do not believe Americans would be willing to pay such a high cost for something that will be useless for them.” Iran President Hassan Rouhani said there would be a swift reaction if the Trump administration scrapped its nuclear deal with…

The very first thing any college freshman learns in Economics 101 is the law of supply and demand. When people desire more of something but its availability is limited or constrained, its price goes up. There may not be another economic rule more basic and logical. Yet Japan, that land of eternal economic mystery, is apparently defying this most sacred principle. The problem is wages. Japan’s labor market is the tightest it’s been in decades. The unemployment rate has sunk to only 2.8 percent, the lowest in 23 years, while the number of available jobs compared with applicants has reached levels not seen since the early 1970s. Add in an aging, shrinking workforce unable to generate many reinforcements, and simple mathematics leads to the conclusion that wages should be increasing—based on current…

“Pop, pop, pop, pop—it’s a sound I’ll never forget.” That’s how Representative Mike Bishop of Michigan described the scene in June when a gunman attacked members of Congress practicing for a baseball game in suburban Washington. That sound allowed some people at the scene to take cover—yet Bishop and his fellow Republicans now seem prepared to pass legislation that would make it harder for anyone similarly threatened to have warning. A bill working its way through the House would remove silencers from the list of devices regulated by federal authorities under the 1934 National Firearms Act. In addition, it would weaken regulations against transporting firearms across state lines and buying armor-piercing bullets. Currently, anyone wishing to purchase a silencer must submit fingerprints and a photograph for a background check and pay a $200…

For the better part of a decade, the skies have grown increasingly hostile to jumbo jets such as Boeing Co.’s 747 and Airbus SE’s A380. Now the fuel-efficient planes intended to replace those behemoths are also encountering resistance. Interest in Boeing’s 777X, a revamped version of its biggest wide-body set to begin deliveries in 2020, is flagging. And in recent weeks, United Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. together have scratched 41 orders for the Airbus A350-1000, a twin-aisle plane designed to carry about 370 passengers, leaving Airbus with only 171 orders for the model. “We’re seeing sluggish demand” for the biggest planes, Steven Udvar-Házy, chairman of U.S jet-financing giant Air Lease Corp., said on a conference call in August. “So we’re staying away from that segment of the market.” The…

A bankruptcy filing can spell the end for many businesses. But Toys “R” Us Inc. isn’t going anywhere, at least not if the makers of Barbie and Transformers have their way. The toy chain filed for bankruptcy-court protection on Sept. 18, the latest in a string of specialty retailers felled in the online onslaught led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Toys “R” Us had been hobbled by more than $5 billion in debt from its $7.5 billion leveraged buyout in 2005, which required more than $400 million a year to service. Yet the operator of about 1,600 stores globally will likely survive, because Mattel, Hasbro, MGA Entertainment, and other manufacturers need the last remaining toy chain to keep breathing. They’re eager to keep whatever remaining leverage they have against…

Four doctors from Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., showed up at parent company Community Health Systems Inc. in May with a message for Chief Executive Officer Wayne Smith and his board. Physicians were in widespread revolt, they said. Facilities were cash-strapped and crumbling. Powerful locals wanted CHS to reinvest or leave. The doctors urged Smith to sell the eight-hospital Lutheran Health Network to their physician group, which already owned a 20 percent stake, and an investor partner, for $2.4 billion—triple CHS’s current market value. The combative 71-year-old CEO denied authorizing cost cuts in Fort Wayne and demanded the names of those who did, say people in the meeting. The board refused the offer, and rather than pursue the budget-cutters, Smith fired Lutheran’s CEO, who’d sided with the doctors. The standoff over…