BEIJING (AFP) -- Beijing is planning a mega-merger of chemicals giants Sinochem and China National Chemical Corp. in a massive deal that would reshape the chemicals industry, Bloomberg News reported Friday. The companies together would control assets worth more than $100 billion, it said. The deal comes as authorities attempt a vast restructuring of China's economy intended to weed out inefficient, debt-saddled firms by forcing them to combine with healthier rivals or face bankruptcy.But the tra

Using both languages of the parents helps children from multicultural families to identify as Koreans, research revealed Sunday. “Many multicultural families in Korea seem to believe that sticking to the Korean language and Korean culture helps their children better adjust here and develop a Korean identity. But our findings tell otherwise,” said Woo Young-kyeong, a senior researcher at Korea Internet and Security Agency, and Kim Eun-ha, a professor at Dankuk University, in a paper published in

South Korea’s economy involving the capital market averted shocks in September as the Federal Reserve again delayed its policy to raise the key interest rate. But the US monetary issue still remains a big uncertainty for the local market.Further, two more external factors are aggravating uncertainty at the start of the fourth quarter: the crude oil issue centered on production in the Middle East and the Deutsche Bank woes in Europe.Earlier this week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Count

The Federal Reserve has held interest rates at near zero for so long that many have forgotten that near-zero rates are not normal. And when we finally do return to normal, there’s going to be a very large bill to pay.To help hold interest rates so low for so long, the Fed has increased bank reserve balances by 20,000 percent over the past decade, flooding financial institutions with enough reserves that borrowing money, literally, costs almost nothing. The Fed’s target interest rate, the federal