The Week in Business: A Trump Deal in Limbo

What’s Up? (Sept. 4-10)

Trump Media Flails

The social media venture of former President Donald J. Trump, who has long trumpeted his deal-making skills, has an uncertain future after a twist in its planned merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Trump Media Technology Group was supposed to have merged with the company by Thursday. But federal investigations and scrutiny from securities regulators have bogged down the merger, and when Thursday came, Digital World scrambled to get the shareholder votes for a one-year extension of the deadline. When it failed to get the necessary support for the extension, the company unexpectedly adjourned and postponed the vote, then said it would pay nearly $3 million to buy itself three more months to carry out the merger, leaving Trump Media in limbo. On Friday, Trump Media blamed the Securities and Exchange Commission for its troubles, saying the agency “needlessly delayed its review” of the proposed merger.

A Big Rate Increase in Europe

Compared with other central banks around the world, Europe’s has been slower to use interest rate increases as a tool to curb inflation, but it is beginning to act more aggressively. Last week, policymakers at the European Central Bank lifted its three key rates three-quarters of a percentage point, the biggest increase in more than two decades. This large move was more or less expected, since new data released the week before showed the annual inflation rate for the eurozone rising to a record 9.1 percent in August, up from 8.9 percent in July, the previous record. (Estonia is the eurozone country with the highest rate of inflation: 25.2 percent.) But the central bank also warned that there would probably be a “substantial slowdown” in the economies of countries that use the euro because of rising energy prices and the looming prospect of steep cutbacks and even rationing of gas this winter.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/business/the-week-in-business-trump-media.html