Opinion

  On the eve of their first-ever meeting this week, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has one great advantage over US President Donald Trump: He knows what he wants. By contrast, US policy towards China looks confused and contradictory. Until and unless this changes, not much progress will be made on critical issues in the most important bilateral relationship in the …

  The Russian subway bombing, which killed 14 people, was the worst terrorist attack in a major Russian city in years. The suspected bomber has been identified as Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, 22, a Russian citizen born in Kyrgyzstan. It drew wide condemnation from Russia’s friends and foes. The UAE strongly condemned the terrorist bombings and expressed its full solidarity with Russia …

  Turmoil continues for small currencies on Europe’s periphery: The Czech Republic finally may be about to drop the koruna’s peg to the euro, and Iceland is looking for a currency to use to value the krona. The agony of these decisions may give central bank governors an illusion of control, but currency pegs appear to be outliving their usefulness. …

  The kind of company you work for makes a big difference to your chances of getting raises, new research has found. This adds to growing evidence that what goes on inside firms matters beyond their walls. Researchers have shown that company-level differences have become large enough to influence national productivity growth and overall wage inequality. The new study suggests …

  One of the world’s largest reserves of low-grade, dirty coal is located roughly 250 miles west of Karachi, Pakistan in the Thar Desert. Discovered in the 1990s, it remained largely untapped until last year, when Chinese financing underwrote a $3.5 billion project to exploit it. The investment is part of a larger Chinese energy plan for Pakistan that includes …

  President Donald Trump has released a budget plan for federal discretionary spending (which doesn’t include interest on the national debt or entitlement programs like Social Security). It has a few things to like, but it’s alarming for its deep cuts to U.S. government support of science and technology. Although Trump’s document is titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to …

    As an international tax-evasion probe ensnares Credit Suisse Group AG, the bank says it has a “zero-tolerance” policy that’s more than just talk. Its weekend charm offensive flagged cash invested in compliance and risk controls, as well as business sacrificed by weeding out irregular clients. But whatever happens in this case, it’s likely that the cost of transparency …

  Last week’s bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Co. is yet more evidence, if anyone needed any, that the economics of nuclear power are not good. Like coal, nuclear energy can’t compete against cheap natural gas and ever-cheaper renewables. Unlike coal, however, nuclear energy is a crucial tool in the fight against climate change. So the public subsidies that benefit the …

  The dust-up over Gibraltar is a prelude to how bumpy the road to Brexit deal would be. The rocky 2.6 square mile enclave has been a British territory for the last three centuries. But Spain has long sought to regain control of Gibraltar, an area of 32,000 people on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Now Gibraltar, which …

  US President Donald Trump has warned that discussions with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Florida this week will be “very difficult”, in large part because of disagreements over trade. But before Trump can shrink America’s lopsided trade deficits—with China or anyone else—he must first recognize what’s driving them. Unlike in the past, most deficits today have little to …