Opinion

It appears that the results of the partisan Arizona recount of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County is actually going to show a larger lead for President Joe Biden than the real count showed. The non-experts who conducted this farce were expected to roll out their results, but some have already leaked out. This doesn’t confirm anything. It can’t. ...

Andrea Orcel is making Italy’s bank bosses nervous. Chief executive officer of UniCredit SpA since April, he has been overseeing its mooted acquisition of the best bits of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena — a move that unsettles the status quo in the old-school world of Italian banking. It may well touch off a new season of mergers and ...

Walt Disney Co keeps trying to tell investors that its growth in streaming-TV subscribers realistically isn’t going to be a perpetual straight shot upward but more like a zig-zagging line quarter to quarter. They won’t listen. Netflix Inc knows how Disney feels. Shares of Disney dipped after Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek said that various challenges — not least the ...

People can be just the worst borrowers, failing to pay what they owe especially if defaulting doesn’t cost them their house or their car. That’s why credit cards charge eye-watering interest rates and late fees. It’s also why cards and other unsecured consumer debt cause the biggest losses for banks during major downturns — and why central banks assume that ...

As a second act, it doesn’t quite match up to the promise of the original. At last year’s United Nations General Assembly, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to reduce his country’s emissions to net zero by 2060 and hit peak pollution by 2030. That was a genuinely striking commitment from a country that had long chafed at pollution controls. At ...

The Anglosphere seems happy to write off France’s fury over Australia’s canceled $66 billion submarine contract as a mix of sour grapes and electoral theater. Paris has recalled its ambassadors to the US and Canberra, canceled events and called on European partners to invest in defense. In response, US President Joe Biden has offered a telephone call, UK Prime Minister ...

As summer fades, China’s consumers have grown increasingly cautious. Strict Covid measures are one reason; another is a recent government crackdown on everything from property markets to private tutoring. Retail-sales growth slowed to 2.5% in August from a year ago, much lower than analysts had expected. Restaurants and other service businesses faced even steeper declines. Yet China hasn’t totally lost ...

It’s been less than two weeks since President Joe Biden said the federal government would throw its weight behind new Covid-19 vaccine and testing mandates for corporate America. And there are already signs of progress. Last week, Biden hosted some of the country’s top business leaders at the White House to discuss the push. Afterward, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and ...

Hong Kong has had its first taste of the remodeled electoral system that China designed for the city. As an exercise in competitive politics, the vote had all the suspense and spontaneity of a Soviet military parade, though with fewer people. All the same, Beijing has reason to be satisfied with the outcome. The ballot was to fill about a ...

After European governments sought to do “whatever it takes” to protect people from the economic effects of pandemic lockdowns, politicians are once again taking out their checkbooks to help consumers — this time to ride out a post-reopening jump in energy prices. France will hand out 580 million euros ($682 million) to help poor households cope with rising costs ahead ...