Citigroup Inc. recommended stocks in Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong as manufacturing companies gain in an inflationary environment amid global economic growth.“Higher inflation and higher rates benefit growth- sensitive markets, such as Korea and Taiwan and general asset plays like Hong Kong,” according to a report by Citigroup analysts led by Markus Rosgen. “Inflation shifts profits from consumption

Sara Lee Corp. received a takeover bid from Apollo Global Management LLC, Bain Capital LLC and TPG Capital that is higher than the food company’s current share price of $18.70, said three people with knowledge of the matter. The offer gets close to the $20 a share that Sara Lee’s board is seeking, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the process is private. JBS SA, the Bra

Prices paid to Australian producers rose less than forecast in the fourth quarter, recording the smallest increase in a year as a stronger currency lowered the cost of imports. The producer prices index advanced 0.1 percent in the October-December period from the prior quarter, when it gained 1.3 percent, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney Monday. The median estimate of 19 economists surveyed

Korea lost two great women writers in less than three years. Park Wan-suh, who died of cancer Friday at the age of 79, will be buried in a Catholic cemetery in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, today. We are doubly saddened by her death as it so quickly followed the departure of Park Kyung-ri in May 2008. The passing away of the two Parks who were loved by their contemporaries not only as the writers of

A group of opposition lawmakers left for Washington, D.C., Monday to stage a campaign against the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement which awaits ratification by the two countries’ legislatures. They are accompanied by some members of the radical Minjunochong (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions), a farmers’ association and a few other civic groups on the trip.These politicians include Rep. Chun Jun

The Diet opens its ordinary session today. The results will greatly influence the fate of Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet. By his recent Cabinet reshuffle, Kan has made it clear that he will give priority to unified reform of the tax system ― which would include a consumption tax hike ― and the social welfare system as well as to Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a r

When independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut announced Wednesday that he wouldn’t seek a fifth term, there was hardly a wet eye in the house. It’s hard to find anybody, conservative or liberal, who has nice things to say about Lieberman, who is so disliked in his home state that the threat of competition from a former pro-wrestling promoter was apparently enough to scare him away from the 20

If a corporation is a “person” under the law, does it get the kinds of “personal privacy” protections real people enjoy ― just because the adjective personal derives from the noun person?AT&T claims it does.But if that’s what federal law means, it will be one more way in which corporate interests trump those of ordinary Americans.Here’s why: Corporations will be able to use the federal Freedom of

On the most important domestic issues of the day, our two political parties don’t merely lay out competing arguments; they inhabit alternative realities.The chasm was apparent over the last few days as the House of Representatives churned relentlessly toward its vote to repeal President Obama’s health-care law. The two-day debate, carried out in a marathon series of two-minute speeches, remained c