Opinion

  It’s not often that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns of a risk to global financial stability at its spring meeting in Washington, and almost immediately evidence jumps out of a bank earnings report in Mumbai. That’s what happened on Wednesday. The IMF released analysis showing an alarming buildup of vulnerable corporate debt — the kind where operating profit …

  In the 21st century, human misery has become something of a growth industry. Conflicts have driven the number of displaced people to an all-time high; last December, the United Nations launched a record appeal for humanitarian aid; three months later, citing impending famines in several African countries, it said the world faced the “largest humanitarian crisis” since the UN’s …

  Venezuela is teetering on the verge of total collapse. Anger is growing with President Nicolas Maduro who has utterly failed to meet people’s most basic needs. Hundreds of thousands in Venezuela cannot get access to food. Economic crisis is only getting worse. Inflation is out of control and government has no cash to import food and medicine. No wonder, …

  A leaked European Union paper outlining the bloc’s initial negotiating position in Brexit talks hints at a clever zero-sum strategy. The EU’s main goal is to deter other potential exiters and offload all the anxiety about the truly important issues in the divorce on the UK alone. The paper (actually called a “non-paper” in EU parlance because it’s still …

  Any good arson investigator can spot areas of higher concentration of an accelerant at the scene of a fire. In the conflagration sweeping bricks-and-mortar retail, it’s likely that history will designate the accelerant as the newly appointed head of the first major chain to start closing profitable stores in large numbers: Macy’s chief executive, Jeff Gennette. The future of …

  Silicon Valley tech companies have good reason to be concerned about President Donald Trump’s plans to review the H-1B visa program, which has been crucial in providing them access to foreign labour. It wouldn’t be such a big deal, though, if they didn’t put their offices in such expensive places. The valley’s biggest employers each host thousands of workers …

  With the exception perhaps of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., first-quarter earnings at US banks are booming, powered by gains in fixed-income trading. But if you think that’s cause for celebration among job seekers in Asia, you’d be wrong. Beyond digital banking, the region’s hiring thermometer is set to deep freeze. It’s a reflection of the broader slowdown in investment …

  Everyone ‘knows’ that Americans have soured on free trade and globalization, as President Trump keeps saying. But don’t tell the folks at Gallup. They’ve asked the same survey question since 1993: Do people see trade as an ‘opportunity’ or as a ‘threat’? The latest poll, conducted in February, found that 72 percent see trade as an “opportunity” and only …

  Donald Trump talks a good game on infrastructure but so far there’s been precious little action. Not so in supposedly sclerotic Europe, where Italian toll-road operator Atlantia SpA is mulling a multi-billion euro deal with Spanish rival Abertis Infraestructuras SA, Bloomberg reports. Sure, toll roads won’t win any prizes for sexiness. But it’s a good time to be in …

  With her decision to call an election in June, Theresa May becomes the second consecutive UK prime minister to take a gamble with Brexit. Her decision need not prove as disastrous as David Cameron’s, however — especially if she runs the right kind of campaign. May has reason to ask voters for her own mandate as leader of the …