Opinion

North Korea test-fired yet another ballistic missile on Sunday in a stark defiance of United Nations sanctions and US warning that a policy of patience was over. It was a new ground-to-ground medium long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12. It came days after South Korea’s newly elected president Moon Jae-in vowed to engage with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The missile …

At a victory rally for France’s young new President Emmanuel Macron outside the Louvre last week, I was struck by the generational gap between the candidate and his most animated supporters. Most younger people in the crowd looked relieved but far from overjoyed; the most visibly enthusiastic among them were of West African or Arab descent. And when Macron took …

It was fun while it lasted. For a few quarters, it seemed as though the bond-trading business was back in force, with trading volumes accelerating to records on the heels of a flood of new debt sales and more uncertainty about the US economy. Most of the big US banks enjoyed better-than-expected earnings in the first three months of the …

The trans-Atlantic flight could soon become a gadget-free zone if U.S. officials press forward with a security ban on laptop computers and other larger electronic devices on airline flights from Europe. Carriers are bracing for operational chaos at European airports after the Department of Homeland Security said last week it might expand to Europe a ban imposed in March on …

Globalization has gotten a bad rap. The Trump White House associates it with all manner of economic evil, especially job loss. The administration has made undoing the damage a central part of its economic strategy. This will almost certainly fail and disappoint, because globalization’s ill-effects have been wildly exaggerated. A new report shows why. It comes from the Peterson Institute …

There’s growing evidence that China is finally scaling back its epic borrowing binge. That’s important for a lot of reasons, not least for reducing risk and avoiding a financial crisis. The question is whether the government can sustain the pain. Regulators in Beijing are well aware of the risks that excessive leverage poses, and have tried many times over the …

Since President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, the White House has offered an evolving series of rationales for the decision. Trump himself offered a new one on Thursday — several, actually — but he didn’t exactly clarify things. In an interview with NBC News, after making the implausible claim that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had …

The US banned in March laptop and tablets in cabin baggage on flights originating from eight countries, impacting global hubs including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul. It applied also to any electronics devices larger than smartphones. The action affected major carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines. The measure includes 10 international airports in seven Middle Eastern countries …

Just about everybody assumes that China will overtake the US as the world’s indispensable economy. One factor, however, could slow its seemingly relentless march and cast doubt on China’s prospects for becoming an advanced economy: faltering productivity. Sure, China is advancing daily in wealth, technology and expertise. But nothing is inevitable in economics. As costs rise and the labor force …

Greece is considering tapping the capital markets for the first time in three years. Let’s hope its second attempt to regain market access goes more smoothly for investors than its first. A bond sale in July or September is being considered — if a deal on debt relief is reached, and the European Central Bank adds Greek debt to the …