Opinion

  Mark Buchanan Humans have a terrible track record of predicting financial crises in time to fend them off. Some computer scientists think that algorithms might help. Given the right information, some crises can be foreseen. In “The Big Short,” Michael Lewis told the story of the scattered few who saw the imbalance growing in the mortgage market and profited ...

  Largely described as a power in long-term decline, the Russian military under President Vladimir Putin has embarked on a military modernization programme that may be gaining the envy of some in Washington. Putin has invested billions, supported by revenues during the 2004-2014 period when oil prices were high. These efforts have led to impressive improvements within Russia’s conventional forces ...

  In a bid to revive its flagging economy, China has gone back to its old ways, with rapid credit growth sparking a pick-up in the “old economy” sectors of construction, housing and manufacturing. However, keeping the good times rolling by delaying reforms could yet bring bigger problems for the world’s second-largest economy, according to analysts. On Friday, Asia’s economic ...

A new Cybersecurity Act will be tabled in Singapore’s parliament next year, Singapore’s minister for communications and information, Yaacob Ibrahim, announced on April 11. According to Yaacob, the bill is aimed protecting the country’s critical information infrastructure. The bill will empower the year-old Cyber Security Agency (CSA) to “manage cyber incidents and raise the standards of cybersecurity providers in Singapore,” ...

  There are sometimes good reasons to be worried about the U.S. national debt. The debt has to be serviced, and that requires collecting taxes, which distort the economy. If government debt gets so large that the only way to avoid a default is to hold down interest rates forever, those low rates can eventually have negative effects on the ...

  As President Obama visits Saudi Arabia, here’s a surprising snapshot of what young Arabs think: They’re scared about the IS and terrorism; they yearn for more freedom and gender equality; they fear that the Arab Spring has made life worse; and they’re increasingly sceptical about the role of traditional religious values. If these Arab reactions seem similar to what ...

  The world is holding its breath ahead of epochal event on April 22 at the United Nations in New York, where global leaders are expected to sign the landmark Paris accord adopted at a UN summit in December last year to limit global warming. The day, interestingly, is also World Earth Day. The event will be closely watched by ...

  Mark Whitehouse Being poor in the U.S. can be expensive. Judging from the latest inflation data, it’s becoming more so. Overall, inflation isn’t much of a problem in the U.S. For the past several years, the Federal Reserve has been struggling to get its preferred measure of consumer-price inflation up to its target of 2 percent — and many ...

  Cambodia’s National Assembly has adopted a Law on Trade Unions but labor groups, human rights advocates, and opposition politicians warn that it could be used to stifle the workers’ movement in the country. Despite the delay in its passage caused by protests, the bill was unanimously approved by the members of the ruling party without amendment. The draft law ...

“Let the ship sail and bring the Golden Fleece,” said China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) Chairman Xu Lirong on April 8, after the state-owned shipping giant sealed a deal to purchase the Greek port of Piraeus, southwest of Athens. Beyond the romantic evocations of Greek heroes such as Jason and the Argonauts, this “made in China” golden fleece amounts to ...