Business News at a Glance

Yale’s Endowment Grew 12.3 Percent, Beating Harvard’s but Not Some Others’

Yale University’s endowment, the world’s second largest, grew 12.3 percent in the most recent fiscal year, to $29.4 billion, slightly better than the 11.3 percent it achieved in the previous year, officials said Monday. Yale announced its results three days after Harvard University said its endowment, the world’s largest, had grown 10 percent, to $39.2 billion, in fiscal 2018, which ended June 30. But like Harvard’s, Yale’s performance trailed results at prominent rivals like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose endowment gained 13.5 percent, and the University of Pennsylvania, which experienced a 12.9 percent increase.

GE Ousts Chief Just Over a Year After Picking Him to Lead Turnaround

When John Flannery was named chief executive of General Electric last year, he said he would rethink the troubled business “with speed, urgency and no constraints.” He sharply cut expenses and devised a plan to sell off large parts of the industrial giant. But that was not enough. On Monday, GE announced that it had replaced Flannery with H. Lawrence Culp Jr. The switch stunned analysts, since the industrial giant traditionally measured its leaders’ longevity by the decade. It also underscored the depths of problems at GE, which was considered the model of effective corporate management not long ago.

Trump Hails Revised NAFTA Deal as a Trade Promise Kept

President Donald Trump hailed a revised North American Free Trade Agreement as a victory for everyone on Monday, saying his get-tough approach to trade was bringing results. Trump portrayed the new agreement as the fulfillment of a campaign promise to terminate NAFTA, saying he had made good on his plan to rip up “the worst trade deal ever made” and help American businesses and workers. The president attributed the breakthrough with Canada and Mexico to his use of tariffs and suggested that would continue to be part of his playbook as he tries to force concessions from other trading partners.

Venezuela’s Crisis Imperils Citgo, Its American ‘Cash Cow’

Tankers with Venezuelan crude sail up to the Citgo refinery, while tankers carrying fuels processed in the refinery head down to the Gulf of Mexico for delivery. That two-way traffic makes the refinery a lifeline for the besieged Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro — a role now in jeopardy. As a subsidiary of the government-controlled oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, Citgo has been mortgaged to raise money. The production of the parent company has been hard hit by the country’s turmoil. It is struggling to meet more than $1 billion in payments due in the next couple of months.

Pfizer’s Departing CEO Will Be Known for the Deals He Didn’t Complete

Ian Read is stepping down as Pfizer’s chief executive. Read helped reshape one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. Through deal-making, he focused the company on its core business like vaccines. But his tenure may be best remembered for two deals he failed to strike that made Pfizer a target for criticism over taxes. His pursuits of AstraZeneca, the British drugmaker, and Allergan, the Botox manufacturer headquartered in Dublin, failed. Neither deal was born solely out of necessity. Instead, the bids were meant in large part to help Pfizer move its corporate headquarters abroad — and shrink its tax bills.

Hobbled by Budget Cuts, the IRS Brings Fewer Tax Fraud Cases

Tax evasion is at the center of the criminal cases against two associates of the president. Their efforts to avoid paying the government has given rise to a question: How were they able to cheat the IRS for so many years? The answer, researchers and former government auditors say, is simple: The IRS pursues fewer tax evasion cases. Last year, the IRS’ brought 795 cases in which tax fraud was the primary crime, a decline of almost a quarter since 2010. Starting in 2011, Republicans in Congress repeatedly cut the IRS’ budget, forcing the agency to reduce its enforcement staff.