President Donald Trump’s decertification of the Iranian nuclear deal is a mistake. Yes, its supporters have exaggerated the agreement’s benefits — but on balance, the world is better off with it than without it. In the near term, the decertification doesn’t really change much. The deal will remain in effect while Congress considers re-imposing sanctions on Iran, in effect killing ...

Five or six years ago, with the hangover from the Great Recession still dominating the national conversation, macroeconomic policy was all the rage. Now, it’s an afterthought, with issues like health care, trade and energy taking center stage. But behind the scenes, macroeconomists have been rethinking the basics of how they approach their discipline. The Peterson Institute for International Economics, ...

Could the end of the petrodollar be in sight? Moves by China to set up its own crude futures contract and invest in Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, are leading some to think so. Beijing will compel the Saudis to trade oil in yuan, CNBC quoted High Frequency Economics founder Carl Weinberg as saying last week. Crude contracts ...

Now that US politicians know that Facebook is unable to stop malicious actors from using it to influence public opinion, the social network is doing its best to avoid tougher regulatory treatment. It shouldn’t be able to get off so easily, though: It must admit it’s really a media company and accept legal liability for the material it publishes. As ...

Bloomberg The dollar strengthened and Treasury yields rose after traders added to bets on higher US interest rates, while the S&P 500 Index climbed towards a fresh record. US equities were bolstered by IBM’s forecast for its first sales growth in five years and better-than-estimated earnings at Abbott Laboratories. Oil gained amid signs of declining US stockpiles. The Stoxx Europe ...

Reuters Petrochemical shares dragged down Saudi Arabia’s stock market on Wednesday while Dubai real estate developers were actively traded after two of them reported third-quarter earnings. The Saudi index fell 0.7 percent as 12 of 14 listed petrochemical producers dropped, with Yanbu Petrochemical down 1.9 percent. Most have yet to report third-quarter earnings and will do so in the next ...

Bloomberg Canada’s banking regulator released final rules that will make it tougher for borrowers to take on uninsured mortgages, adding to a growing list of measures to rein in the nation’s housing markets. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions announced measures targeting borrowers in the uninsured mortgage market. A mortgage doesn’t need to be insured if the borrower ...

Bloomberg India’s bonds are poised to rally after a three-month slide as the central bank is set to resume cutting interest rates, according to Canara Robeco Asset Management Co. A 25-basis-point rate cut is a ‘high probability’ for the December policy meeting, says Avnish Jain, head of fixed income at the Indian joint venture of Dutch asset manager Robeco Groep ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc will be forced to relive a turbulent period in its 252-year history as former executives line up to testify at a London investor trial over its decision to take over the ailing HBOS Plc in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis. Around 6,000 retail and institutional investors sued the bank for $800 ...

Bloomberg If you’re the chief executive of a Wall Street firm whose fortunes have been tied to fickle trading markets, it helps to have a Plan B. For James Gorman, that’s Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management division, which produced nearly half of the firm’s revenue in the third quarter, the most in six reporting periods. For Lloyd Blankfein at rival Goldman Sachs ...