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Reuters  FRANÇOIS-HENRI PINAULT is defying predictions. As the son of François Pinault, one of France's richest and most controversial businessmen, he was generally assumed to be a fils à papa, the son of a powerful father whose main qualification was his surname. But since 2005, when he…

By MARK LANDLER JENA, Germany — For those seeking the elixir that has given new life to Germany’s economy, a visit to this ancient university town in the eastern part of the country would be a good place to start. Jena is booming these days, as local companies like Jenoptik,…

By ERIC DASH Citigroup has long carried the mantle as the world’s biggest bank in the world’s financial capital — big deals, big ambitions and in the last few years, big costs. Now, with expenses growing nearly twice as fast as revenue, Citigroup is intent on cutting…

"Was immer du schreibst...schreibe kurz, und sie werden es lesen,schreibe klar, und sie werden es verstehen,schreibe bildhaft, und sie werden es im Gedächtnis behalten..."Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), US-amerikanischer Journalist und Verleger

By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER BACAU, Romania — To get around the chronic labor shortages hampering this traditional textile center and in other industries across Romania, Sorin Nicolescu, who runs a clothing factory, came up with an original solution: import 800 workers from China.…

Training to Be Old By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH AT 55, Frank Mendizabal has no immediate plan to leave his executive job at the Weyerhaeuser Company. And his finances are in good shape for when he does. But he is haunted by a statistic he heard at a company retirement planning session last…

By NORM ALSTER ENERGY investors are going to have a hard time duplicating their success of the last five years. The Energy Select Sector SPDR, an exchange-traded fund that tracks a diverse basket of energy stocks, returned 17.7 percent, annualized, in the five years through March,…