In the months before the collapse of auto-parts conglomerate First Brands, founder Patrick James was busy creating a new business group in Europe. The entrepreneur spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a large plastic-components provider in France, an interiors business in Austria, and a sealings specialist in Germany, according to people familiar with the deals, even as cash was running out at First Brands, the Wall Street Journal reported. The idea: to replicate the U.S. company’s rapid growth through acquisitions in Europe.

The United States and Switzerland announced a framework trade agreement on Friday that includes Washington slashing its tariffs on imported Swiss products to 15% from 39% and a pledge by Swiss companies to invest $200 billion in the U.S. by the end of 2028, Reuters reported. The United States and Switzerland, joined by Liechtenstein, aim to conclude negotiations to finalize their trade deal by the first quarter of 2026, the White House said in a statement. U.S.

The United States said on Thursday that it will remove tariffs on some foods and other imports from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador under framework agreements that will give U.S. firms greater access to those markets, Reuters reported. The agreements are expected to help lower prices for coffee, bananas and other foodstuffs, a senior Trump administration official told reporters, adding the administration expected U.S. retailers to pass on the positive effects to American consumers.

A Chinese-born businessman that the United States and China say ran one of Southeast Asia’s largest scam compounds was extradited to China to face charges of money laundering and other crimes, three years after he was arrested in Thailand, the New York Times reported. The businessman, She Zhijiang, arrived in the Chinese city of Nanjing from Thailand on Wednesday. He would be one of the highest ranking figures linked to the scam industry to face charges in China, which launched a mass crackdown this year to rescue people trafficked to work as scammers in Southeast Asia.

Canada’s latest insolvency data shows household financial strain continuing to climb, WealthProfessional.ca reported. New figures from the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy report a 4.8% year-over-year increase in consumer insolvencies in Q3 2025, reaching 36,256 filings and marking the highest quarterly total since 2009 and the third-largest since tracking began in 1987. Filings also rose 3.3% from the previous quarter. Wesley Cowan, licensed insolvency trustee and vice chair of CAIRP says these numbers reflect real financial pain affecting Canadian households.

A proposed $3-million settlement has been reached against several former “directors and officers” at Laurentian University for the “alleged misuse and depletion” of the university’s retiree health benefit funds, leading to their cancellation during Laurentian’s insolvency, Sudbury.com reported. The directors and officers in question include several former presidents and senior administrators at Laurentian, including several who weren’t even around during Laurentian’s 2021-2022 insolvency restructuring, as well as some former board of governors members.

Two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea's Lee Jae Myung met and announced they had resolved months of negotiations over tariffs and security issues, the two sides have yet to release any agreement on paper, Reuters reported. South Korean officials say the delay appears to centre on discussions over their request for Washington's blessing to build a nuclear-powered submarine, which Lee raised publicly when he met Trump on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific forum in South Korea last month.

When Patrick O’Connell picks up the phone these days to help Prince Edward Islanders in financial distress, he’s hearing a familiar concern: the rising cost of living, which is driving people deeper into debt, CBC.ca reported. O'Connell, a licensed insolvency trustee for P.E.I. with Allan Marshall & Associates, said many of the Islanders he speaks with are struggling to make ends meet as everyday expenses continue to climb. He said last month was the busiest his firm has ever been on the Island, handling more insolvency files on P.E.I. than ever before.

European business sees a far greater impact in 2026 from U.S. tariffs and other trade tensions than in 2025, when front-loading mitigated the consequences, a survey by BusinessEurope showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The survey found that trade tensions were likely to pull 2025 gross domestic product down by 0.03 percentage points for the euro zone, the EU and a broader group of European countries. For 2026, the negative impact was likely to be 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points, with the euro zone faring worst.

President Trump’s tariffs are starting to take a big bite out of Canada’s economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.S.’s second-largest trading partner is flirting with recession, unemployment has risen to its worst non-pandemic levels in almost a decade, and business investment has stalled. A country that sends three-quarters of its exports to the U.S., Canada has proven uniquely vulnerable to Trump’s tariffs on automobiles, steel, aluminum and lumber. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said the U.S.