North America

ExonMobil’s CEO Rex Tillerson went overnight from dark-horse candidate to president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of State. If confirmed, Tillerson might prove to have the toughest position in the new cabinet as he wrestles with strife around the world and a new relationship with Russia.

Justin Trudeau's government wants to boost infrastructure spending, but without using tax dollars, so it's establishing a bank to attract private money. 

Tim Sloan, new CEO of Wells Fargo, will likely close branches and seek growth online, but even that may not be enough to help the San Francisco-based bank change direction in the wake of its cross-selling scandal. 

Caterpillar, the US-based leader in the machinery and engine industry, announced that in January Doug Umpleby, a longtime Caterpillar executive, will succeed Doug Oberhelman as the company’s CEO. He will be challenged by slow growth worldwide. 

US: Heather Bresch, the CEO of Mylan, an American pharmaceuticals company, finds herself at the center of one of the biggest pharma controversies in recent years: price-gouging.

Will bringing in an outsider revive the brand with fresh insight or cause it to stumble on the turns?

In potentially the biggest foreign corporate takeover ever by a German company, Bayer seeks to buy Monsanto for 62 billion. Werner Bauman gets into agribusiness.

Jennifer Tory, group head, personal and commercial banking at RBC, discusses the bank’s ongoing quest to blend its digital and physical channels for clients.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has a change of heart regarding US sanctions against her country. 

The EU hit Apple with a tax bill, but it's not the only company in regulators' sights. McDonalds, Facebook, Google and Amazon are being called on the carpet about tax practices too.

HUMAN RESOURCES | Performance appraisals drive everyone nuts, but many US companies are doing them more often. 

US | Wal-Mart’s decision to buy Jet.com, a fast-growing e-commerce company, for $3.3 billion is being viewed as a shrewd move for both companies—one that strengthens their ability to compete with Amazon. 

Frontier Markets Report: Cuba
Obstacles and contradictions mar Cuba’s environment for foreign direct investment, but its market offers a wealth of opportunity.

Aaron Brickman, senior vice president for strategy and development at the Organization for International Investment (OFII), a nonprofit trade association, also founded SelectUSA, a federal program to promote foreign direct investment in the US. He visited Global Finance to discuss the state of FDI worldwide.

A squeeze on earnings and a rise in funding costs have persuaded many US companies to commit less cash to buying back their own shares this year.

US | When Microsoft bought LinkedIn, the deal was structured to leave the networking site to grow and develop somewhat independently. The question is, how independently? 

Capital Markets | Fixed Income
US companies are rushing to borrow in European bond markets. They’re taking advantage of low interest rates on euro-denominated issues after the European Central Bank’s decision to start buying investment-grade corporate bonds in June—part of its economic stimulus program. Last year already set a record for corporate borrowing in Europe’s bond markets, where rates are significantly lower than in the US.

Trends | Inversions
The US Treasury Department’s recent rules against corporate inversions are intended to stop “serial inverters.”

The US Treasury’s latest measure to keep US companies from reincorporating in lower-tax countries is its strongest effort yet to halt so-called “inversions,” and could have far-reaching consequences for multinationals.

US: At 42, he is a former banker, a former bailout czar and a former politician. He wants to persuade the public, from Wall Street to Main Street, that large banks pose a risk to the economic system. The risk is too high, he says, and must be eliminated—surely not a minor feat, not even for one of the presidents of the mighty Federal Reserve.