Opinion

At her most recent press conference in December, Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen had this (abbreviated) exchange with ABC News reporter Rebecca Jarvis. Jarvis: Historically, most economic expansions fade after this long. How confident are you that our economy won’t slip back into recession in the near term? Yellen: … I think it’s a myth that expansions die of ...

The UK has never been so divided as it is now over a controversial deal struck by British Prime Minister David Cameron with the European Union regarding the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Cameron thinks the agreement has given the UK a “special status”. The UK is almost evenly split over Brexit. The latest opinion poll, by TNS, found ...

The last surge in growth in China, taking place in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, was fueled by risky lending and high levels of investment. The fallout from that lending was high debt, often nonperforming loans, and slowing growth. At present, China’s public and private debt-to-GDP ratio weighs in at 232 percent, higher than in most countries at ...

The CFA Institute in its annual sentiment report surveys individual and institutional investors to determine what they are anxious about. You might be surprised to learn that about one-in-three is greatly concerned about another 2008-09 type financial crisis: Investors revealed a growing anxiety about the state of global finance. Almost one-third of investors feel that another financial crisis is likely ...

Abu Dhabi / EMIRATES BUSINESS Fool-proof communication channel could be a key to any organisation’s success. In a bid to achieve this while offering local corporates customised solutions, UAE-based cyber security firm DarkMatter has introduced innovative voice and chat application for iOS and Android. The application provides end-to-end secure communications, based on the latest advancements in cryptography, cryptographic implementations, and ...

At a recent business conclave in Mumbai in the context of the “Make in India Week,” CNN’s famed foreign affairs commentator Fareed Zakaria made an innocuous suggestion to India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the course of an interview. “Another area of job creation which strikes me,” said Zakaria, “is not quite ‘Make in India’ but ‘Visit India.’ ” Citing ...

China recently announced that it is relocating 9,110 villagers to make way for a giant telescope that — among other tasks — will search for extraterrestrial life. Once the unlucky residents are gone, the government will get down to the real business of the world’s largest radio telescope: attracting the scientific talent necessary to transform China’s economy. That won’t be ...

As the world’s equities markets are buffeted by bouts of intense volatility, analysts have started uttering a chilling phrase: bear market. China’s markets have entered this territory, and the US might not be too far behind. That possibility invariably leads to speculation that the declines are harbingers of worse to come, in other words, a recession. This question has attracted ...

It’s economists versus the stock market. Economists generally don’t forecast a recession anytime soon. The stock market does — or at least that’s one plausible interpretation of its recent roller-coaster behaviour. Who’s right? We’ll know in a few months. Meanwhile, the dispute highlights the incomplete nature of the present recovery, which has lasted a long time but, to millions of ...

The proposal to freeze oil output at January levels by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar is a silver lining for the market and crude producers, as it signifies a genuine attempt to reverse sharp slide in oil prices that has pummeled economies, markets and companies. While the deal is preliminary, it’s the first significant cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC ...