Opinion

For the past decade, political, economic and cultural ties between China and Taiwan have withered under the strain of an increasingly assertive Beijing and a Taipei that refuses to bend under its will. Yet one part of the relationship has held together well: The pragmatic businesspeople on both sides toiling behind the scenes to help each other make money while ...

Before the arrival of safe and effective vaccines, dealing with Covid-19 in Europe was dominated by fear, uncertainty and blunt tools like lockdowns and travel bans to keep hospitals from being overrun. Countries with blanket curbs such as Austria and Denmark — whose leaders self-identified as “first movers” — wore their strict social-distancing rules like a badge. This fear is ...

Best Buy Co Inc’s post-pandemic slowdown has officially begun. And unfortunately for its investors, there are clear signs the electronics retailer’s troubles might just be getting started. The company reported revenue of $11.91 billion for the quarter ended in October, slightly above the $11.69 billion median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, and roughly flat compared with last year. Revenue ...

It’s hard to follow the news without encountering scary-sounding reports about inflation. They’re often based on broad inflation measures like the consumer price index, which has risen 5% or more year over year for six consecutive months since May, the longest such streak since the early 1990s. The implication, if not the explicit message, is that the cost of everything ...

The credit markets are no place for discerning investors these days. US junk bond and leveraged loan sales have surpassed $1 trillion in 2021, an unprecedented amount for a calendar year. Loan funds have experienced inflows during all but two weeks this year, bringing the S&P/LSTA Leveraged Loan Price Index close to an all-time high, and year-to-date issuance of collateralised-loan ...

Lobbyists for Samsung Electronics Co pulled off a fabulous deal. Taylor, Texas won the right to host the South Korean giant’s latest semiconductor factory, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. Locations in Phoenix and Upstate New York also vied to host the new plant. Phoenix recently enjoyed its own economic victory, besting Oregon as the site of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s ...

To snag some of this year’s Black Friday deals, a car won’t do you much good — try an ocean liner. Plenty of would-be holiday gifts are still at sea, caught up in a mess of global shipping delays. But shoppers who can’t find what they’re looking for this week may have another savings event to look forward to. Call ...

After a long time, the balance of power in the world of money is shifting. Amazon.com Inc’s decision to stop accepting purchases made with Visa Inc’s UK-issued credit cards from next year shows that Big Tech is flexing its muscles against established financial networks. Some policy makers must already be thinking, “This is why we need sovereign digital cash — ...

“Fundamentally,” President Biden said as he nominated Jerome Powell for another four years as the world’s most powerful central banker, “we need stability and independence at the Federal Reserve.” He’s probably right about that. The problem is that the need for stability — and for avoiding shocks for the markets, and for independence — cuts across the desire to exert ...

President Joe Biden has taken to saying that the Democrats’ “Build Back Better” legislation will reduce inflation. This spin isn’t just unconvincing. It underscores the absurdity of the Democrats’ political project. The first weakness of Biden’s argument is that the timing is all wrong. The White House issued a prepared statement from Biden claiming that “17 Nobel Prize winners in ...