Opinion

On Monday, Malaysia’s defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein suggested if reports that China is placing military assets in the Spratlys are true, it would force the Southeast Asian state into a “pushback” against China. “If the reports we’ve received from various sources regarding the buildup and placement of military assets in the Spratlys are true – this forces us in a ...

London’s future status as the financial capital of Europe is a key factor in the debate about whether the UK should leave the European Union. It would be a mistake for either side of the argument to underestimate quite how aggressively London’s competitors would attempt to wrest trading revenue away from the UK capital should the June 23 referendum vote ...

Economic reforms are much like New Year’s diet resolutions: easily announced and easily forgotten. So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the pronouncements that have emerged from China’s National People’s Congress — pledges to slash overcapacity, open up the financial system, accept lower growth — echo unfulfilled promises from previous Party gatherings. Still, China prides itself on being different. The ...

A little more than a decade ago, Hong Kong was the world’s busiest port. Giant vessels competed to get into the city’s berths, waiting to load and unload containers filled with goods manufactured just over the border in China’s factory towns. Back then, Hong Kong still expected that its freewheeling commercial culture could change China for the better. And trading ...

There’s no subtlety about Democrats’ tax plans. Between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, details differ, but the central themes are identical: Soak the rich. To hear Democrats tell it, the country’s main budget problem is that the rich don’t pay their “fair share.” If they did, the fiscal outlook would brighten. We can now test this proposition, because the Clinton ...

The decision of Bank of Japan (BoJ) to keep monetary stimulus unchanged sent mixed messages to the stock markets, with Tokyo shares closing down 0.68% after the announcement, while the yen strengthening against all its 16 major peers. The yen’s reaction on Tuesday threw the ball in the court of Japan’s central bank chief to convince the market of the ...

Is Donald Trump benefiting, at least in the short term, from the focus on protests and violence at his rallies? If so, his ability to deflect attention from his rivals’ substantive attacks on him has worked again. From the beginning, we’ve talked about the Red Queen race: Trump must do increasingly outrageous things to maintain his dominant share of press ...

In the debate over climate change, there is one group you don’t hear much from: economists. The failure of climate economics to make a difference in the public discussion about climate policy should be a concern for the profession. Climate economists are just as worried as anyone about the prospect of global warming. A recent survey by the Institute for ...

Japan and its two decades of economic stagnation seem as if they’re about to have company. The International Monetary Fund and OECD both seem prepared to lower their global growth forecasts for the coming year because of what they see as a continuing slowdown in the global economy. Foreign Affairs even devoted its most recent issue to surviving a slow-growth ...

The simplest reading of the protests that swept Brazil on Sunday is that Latin America’s largest nation is clamoring for regime change. The 3 million or more people who filled the streets and parks of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and dozens of other Brazilian cities turned out to say they’re fed up with the relentless corruption scandal that has ...