, Columnist
UBS’s ‘Chinese Pig’ Apology Shows Who’s in Charge
The swift climbdown is a sign of how much the bank has at stake in China.
Apologizing.
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It may have seemed a perfectly innocuous choice of words to the economist as he composed his daily commentary on the state of global financial affairs. Within hours, one sentence landed UBS Group AG, the world’s biggest wealth manager, in the center of a media storm and prompted a groveling retraction.
At issue was Paul Donovan’s Morning Audio Comment. He entitled Wednesday’s note “VERY NORMAL INFLATION,” a play on Donald Trump’s use of capital letters in a tweet on the beauty of VERY LOW INFLATION. In it, the economist opined on the rise in Chinese consumer prices, a gain he attributed to sick pigs.