Opinion

US manufacturers hired 60,000 people in October, double economists’ estimates and the most since June of last year. It was a robust showing, led by automakers. But payrolls in the sector are still down by almost 300,000 since the end of 2019, even as many large industrial companies are reporting sales above pre-pandemic levels. Last month’s recruitment success will only ...

Arrangements for Hong Kong’s first legislative election under a revamped system are leaving little to chance. There must be competition — but not too much, and of the right kind. Meanwhile, the anti-corruption agency has warned against calls to cast blank ballots or abstain from voting — two of the few ways left for people to register disapproval of a ...

Did India’s political leaders learn anything from the deadly second wave of Covid-19? Hospitals in the capital, New Delhi, are once again overwhelmed with patients and the health authorities don’t have beds for them. The disease has changed — dengue, not coronavirus — but the dysfunction remains the same. For the country that wants to be the pharmacy to the ...

There are dozens of ships anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, imperiling global supply chains and holiday gifts. Also imperiled? The safety and well-being of the seafarers working on those ships, many of whom haven’t touched land in more than a year due to pandemic-era restrictions and the backup of vessels vying for berths in clogged ...

Pavlov would be lovin’ it. The man who used metronomes, buzzers and harmoniums to explore involuntary reflex actions would be in his element observing the beeps, chirps, plinks, pulses, tings and swooshes that command us — to say nothing of our faux-friendly commands to Alexa, Bixby, Cortana and Siri. (Hey!) The latest front in branding’s battle for our attention is ...

What exactly do the likes of BlackRock Inc and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board see in the unprofitable Indian payments startup heading for the country’s biggest-ever initial public offering? A simple answer: the raw power of data. Paytm, formally known as One97 Communications Ltd, has signed up BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and CPPIB together with the sovereign wealth ...

As President Joe Biden won another legislative victory — namely, the $550 billion infrastructure bill — it’s worth asking what its success says about American politics. Mostly it’s good news, whether or not you agree with the policies of the Biden administration. The most enduring truth is that the median voter theorem, as social scientists refer to it, continues to ...

Boris Johnson likes to quote Latin picked up from his study of the classics. He should know the tale of the Roman general who, upon entering his city in triumph, was reminded, “hominem te memento” — you are a mere mortal. But after a crushing election victory over the Labour party in 2019 and a ruthless elimination of his internal ...

As the automobile industry evolves toward an electric future, incentives will be a big driver of the transition — not just potential tax credits to accelerate demand, but investor behaviour that helps shift automakers’ priorities. Manufacturers are going to try to ramp up spending on future electric models while maintaining profit at a level acceptable to their shareholders. That will ...

If a stock market is a mirror of a society’s state of mind, then the US is feeling exuberant right now. But in China, it is all about trepidation. Investors there are worried the government is going to mess things up. Both economies face the same set of problems: Supply chain disruptions, inflation pressures, the threat of rising interest rates. ...