Opinion

Infosys Ltd’s incoming CEO Salil Satish Parekh faces three choices: He can create a more valuable company, return cash to shareholders, or kick the can to a new set of owners. Unlike his predecessor, who got into a messy skirmish with the company’s still-powerful co-founders, Parekh will have some latitude to choose his strategy. For one thing, he has the …

Akzo Nobel NV boss Thierry Vanlancker has the chance of a second stab at a jumbo chemicals deal with US peer Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. He should grab it. Axalta’s negotiating position has been weakened after it started talks with Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings Co. Ltd. last month, having already entered into discussions with Akzo about a possible all-share merger. …

Might this be China’s new Venezuela? Beijing’s frenzied drive to create a modern Silk Road puts Pakistan front and center, much as Venezuela was once a target of lending by China Development Bank as the nation sought to secure oil supplies. Of the $6 billion to $7 billion of current development projects in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic …

Almost daily, newspapers in the US, Europe and China release eye-catching headlines about China’s technological advances and economic prowess. The accomplishments are real. But they’re not necessarily evidence of Western failure or Chinese invincibility. In touting such achievements, commentators too often overlook the structural factors that have shaped them. Economists now recognize just how much of economic interaction is driven …

“Why did the market go up today?” “There must have been more buyers than sellers.” That piece of circular logic is a sort of laconic joke among traders, equivalent to saying: “I have no idea.” Naturally, prices will only rise if the enthusiasm of buyers outweighs the fear of sellers. At the same time, it captures a worthwhile nugget of …

By now, most people who read about economics have heard about the empirical revolution in the field. An economist used to be someone who spun theories out of reasonable-sounding assumptions to tell stories about why the world works the way it does. Nowadays, economists still have to understand theory, but their day-to-day work involves combing through data and crunching statistics. …

The most commonly cited reasons for the surge of interest in passive investing products are fee savings and skepticism about the ability of active funds to outperform. Most likely, these two factors explain a dominant part of the record flow into an ever-widening range of these investments, including mutual funds and ETFs. But they may not be the only reasons. …

With all this love for bitcoin, spare a thought for the little guy. Despite a plethora of new coins coming online in the past year, and the emergence of ethereum as an alternative cryptocurrency, bitcoin is still sucking up most of the oxygen. Without a doubt, the new coins’ sponsors owe a debt of gratitude to bitcoin for blazing a …

Enshrined in the Constitution, the census is among the federal government’s most fundamental responsibilities. It is also one the government is perilously close to flunking, unless Congress and the administration act now. The decennial census is arguably the most important data set the government produces. It determines how many representatives each state sends to Washington, who sends them there, and …

An influential new recruit has joined the chorus of bitcoin skeptics. The chief investment officer of UBS, the world’s biggest wealth manager, says it’s too risky to be added to the firm’s portfolios — and his assessment is relatively mild. Others have called it “the very definition of a bubble” and even “a fraud.” Those stronger terms are justified, especially …