Opinion

  As if the pandemic and rising inflation weren’t enough, Europeans face another source of wintry discontent: an energy crisis. A supply crunch has caused the price of power to hit record highs, just in time for the coldest season. It also risks exacerbating a worrying situation in Ukraine. With Russia massing forces on the border, Europe’s dependence on Russian ...

  The year we are leaving behind (and good riddance, most of us would happily say) was one long reminder of both the miraculous possibilities afforded by science and the critical importance of sound policy by elected officials in times of crisis. In the year ahead, Britain’s leaders can draw from the lessons of earlier pandemic policy and lean on ...

The great rotation in consumer spending continues. When the world shut down in 2020, we bought what we needed to stay home: Pelotons, pets, sweatpants and sourdough starter. In 2021, our shopping reflected reopening: We put on lipstick again, whitened our teeth and swapped loungewear for chinos and dresses. Most consumer, retail and luxury groups had a pretty good year. ...

To envision the future of crypto, I keep trying different analytical tools. This time around the concept of relevance is focality, by which I mean the part of the system at which consumers direct their attention. Focality could determine whether crypto ushers in an era of dystopian inequality, or whether most of its benefits accrue to broader society. That all ...

Watching Vladimir Putin at his year-end press conference, one is tempted to ask What is the Russian president’s future plan. Here is a man leading a country that in the last few months has amassed tens of thousands of soldiers and advanced military equipment on Ukraine’s border, now asserting that it is Ukraine which is planning an invasion of Russia. ...

  Are pipelines built to threaten democracies, or befriend authoritarians? Judging by the responses to Russia’s two biggest gas export projects, it depends where you are. In Europe, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, intended to double Moscow’s direct export capacity into Germany to 110 billion cubic meters a year, has become caught up in geopolitical rivalry over eastern Europe. Approval ...

  There will be fresh kicks under the Christmas tree after all. Three months ago, Nike Inc raised the alarm on the supply chain crisis: It warned that shoppers might not be able to find the sneakers they wanted in the run up to the holidays. It offered some reassurance that the worst may be over. As it announced its ...

  Good investment banking jobs are disappearing. Much of the business has been long replaced by machines and computer algorithms. Almost all equity trading is now done electronically. Even high-yield corporate bonds, an opaque corner of the market where orders from wealthy clients are often placed over lavish meals, are being disrupted. In the US, 37% of these transactions are ...

China’s push for global supremacy is playing out in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, but also in the quieter coercion that Beijing practices every day. The latest target of this pressure is Lithuania, which is paying an economic price for snubbing China diplomatically. The case is a reminder that the democratic world must either unite against Chinese ...

  A few months ago, it looked like a cascading global power crunch was about to turn back the tide of the energy transition. In China, shortages of coal drove prices of solid fuel to 1,908.20 yuan per metric ton ($299.29), leading to power cuts and industrial shutdowns as generators refused to sell fixed-tariff power at a loss. In Europe, ...