Opinion

From arsenic and lead to mercury and cadmium, discarded electronic gadgets generate hazardous waste that can be fatal. To tackle the health and environment threats these pose, many countries have put laws into place. Singapore and the Scandinavian countries are showing the way. India is the newest member to join the ‘Safe E-Waste Disposal’ club. It has proposed rules that ...

Risk assets such as stocks, corporate bonds and bank loans have been trading in a wide and volatile range, taking investors on a roller-coaster ride up and down, including most recently a rally of about 10 percent in U.S. equity markets. This phenomenon is likely to continue in the short-term, so here are eight characteristics of this financial environment: Pronounced ...

Astronomer Fred Hoyle famously quipped in 1982 that the odds of a simple living thing assembling itself from inanimate chemicals were as slim as the chance that a tornado passing through a junkyard would leave in its wake a Boeing 747. The statement reflects the 20th-century understanding that even pond scum was composed of cells of mind-boggling complexity. Today biologists ...

Technically speaking, the U.S. State Department is the foreign policy arm of the United States. But increasingly, the U.S. Defense Department has taken a leading role in conducting foreign policy on its own: primarily through providing security assistance to countries around the world, sometimes contrary to State’s recommendations. This will come as no surprise to Central Asia watchers, who have ...

After spending hundreds of billions of dollars over the past two decades acquiring oil, natural gas, coal and other mineral resources around the global, food-related sectors are becoming the new favorite of China’s overseas investment. It is estimated that over the past five years, China’s overseas food-related M&A topped $20 billion. This includes Shuanghui International’s $4.7 billion takeover of American ...

If Mark Fields’ theory is correct, his industry faces novel challenges. His theory about the changing role of driving in Americans’ lives is one reason Ford Motor Co. now describes itself as an “automotive and mobility company.” Fields, Ford’s CEO, remembers a time when, on the day a teenager became old enough for a driver’s license, he or she made ...

There is a consensus that the attacks in the Belgian capital on Tuesday may not have a long-term impact on EU markets, but should such assaults continue unrestrained they could result in hitting some key sectors such as travel and tourism. Belgium’s main stock index ended more or less flat on the day of attack and rose 0.2 percent on ...

Bloomberg Acclaimed Brazilian actor and director Claudio Botelho is used to enthusiastic audiences. But bringing the house down mid-performance was not in the script earlier this week, when Botelho — who is currently on stage playing a theater troupe impresario — turned to the audience and ad- libbed a few quips about a “crooked former president” and a “thieving president” ...

Most economists are tempted to rely on incremental analysis to explain the spread of negative interest rates and their implications for the global economy and markets. This is understandable, yet the inclination to focus primarily on marginal changes could be overly partial and even misleading — especially for market participants who must navigate the unintended consequences of sub-zero yields, including ...

China and the United States are almost finished with negotiations over a key investment treaty, former Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said on Wednesday. If successfully concluded, the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) could substantially increase Chinese and U.S. investments in each other’s markets. A BIT between China and the United States has been in the works for eight years. In ...