Opinion

Two years ago, a failed initial public offering made WeWork Inc the poster child for startup excess and corporate governance failure. Today, the shared-office provider finally joins the public markets, having completed a merger with a blank-check firm, BowX Acquisition. Its shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the ticker is, of course, “WE.” This has been ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a handful of financial institutions will take an ambitious proposal to end Southeast Asia’s coal addiction to the COP26 climate talks. They want to speed up the shift away from the dirtiest fossil fuel by buying out coal-fired power plants and closing them early, while fostering green alternatives. Good news, considering the ADB only ...

Cryptocurrency has so far failed to sweep away government-issued money, or to bring about the broader revolution that its most ardent enthusiasts envision. But what if the underlying technology could be harnessed to transform traditional fiat currencies — for example, by making them much easier and cheaper for more people around the world to use? This goal might be attainable ...

The supply chain has huffed and puffed, but it hasn’t knocked industrial demand down — at least not yet. A dangerous combination of logistics logjams, widespread parts shortages, hiring difficulties and rising inflation had threatened to make this earnings season a particularly ugly one for the manufacturing sector. Those pressures are real; they’re taking a bite out of margins and ...

Intel Corp’s future is looking a bit grim. The chipmaker posted worse-than-expected sales results with adjusted revenue of $18.1 billion in the quarter ended in September, up 5% compared with the prior year, and below the $18.24 billion median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. While earnings for the quarter came in above estimates, that was overshadowed by a disappointing ...

AT&T Inc’s turnaround — an exacting mission that has involved selling nearly everything acquired under its former chief executive officer — is finally showing signs of working. But this long-awaited progress on the business front comes as the Dallas-based wireless giant’s public image takes a bruising. It has come to be seen by some as the corporate villain behind both ...

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea is vilified in the US and parts of Europe as a Russian plot to ensnare European gas buyers. It’s not. It’s the final link in a 30-year project to divert Russian oil and gas exports away from transit routes across former Soviet neighbours. From a Russian ...

Move over Greta Thunberg, step aside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here comes Boris Johnson, reborn as eco-warrior and genial host of the United Nations COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. At the UN General Assembly a few weeks ago, the UK’s shape-shifting prime minister announced his conversion to the cause of saving the planet: “My friends, the adolescence of humanity is ...

Tesla Inc hosted an earnings call that can only be described as normcore. With CEO Elon Musk absent — as telegraphed last time — it was left to several other executives, led by CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, to bring the sizzle. Or rather, to studiously avoid it. The headline numbers were good anyway, providing room for a relatively humdrum event by ...

Who says inflation is bad? Rising prices are helping some consumer giants deliver their strongest growth in years. But look a little farther ahead, and this could be as good as it gets for them for a while. Inflation in everything from coffee to packaging is accelerating. Ultimately, it’s shoppers who will have to pay. And when further price increases ...