Opinion

  I’m taking you on a nostalgia trip. Remember the olden days (2016), when it seemed outlandish investments in technology startups were a thing of the faraway past (2015)? Snap out of it. Just look at the headlines of the past few weeks. China’s on-demand ride king Didi Chuxing is considering a $6 billion investment backed by SoftBank. Airbnb finalized …

  Given the usual speed of economic reform in India, it’s remarkable that the biggest change in years might actually start on schedule. “Start,” though, is the operative word. If the country’s new national goods-and-services tax does go into effect in July, which looks more likely now that Parliament has passed the requisite legislation, that will be worth celebrating. The …

  As the debate over Russian scandal rages, Trump aides are volunteering to testify to Congress without even being asked for. First it was ex-Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in January for misleading the White House about his conversation with Russian envoy Sergei Kislyak, offered to testify if granted immunity. Flynn initially lied to Vice President …

  With the bankruptcy this week of Westinghouse Electric Co., the future of big nuclear power plants in the US isn’t looking good at all. But maybe, just maybe, there is hope for something smaller. Westinghouse, which was acquired by Japan’s Toshiba Corp. in 2006, has been building the only nuclear power plants currently under construction in the US: two …

  BlackRock shook the world of active management when it announced that it had fired five of its 53 stock pickers. BlackRock will also move $6 billion of the $201 billion invested in traditional active management to quant strategies. The announcement may not sound earth-shattering, but it augurs a larger trend: Traditional active management is dying, but perhaps not for …

  Airlines operate in such a brutally competitive market that it’s sometimes tempting to view them as an undifferentiated group. The most richly valued of the big three US carriers, United Continental Holdings Inc., trades on a forward price-earnings ratio of 9.8; the cheapest, Delta Air Lines Inc., is on 8.7. The clustering is even tighter in China, where Beijing-based …

  President Trump has been trying since early this month to deflect the FBI and congressional investigations of Russian covert action by asserting that he had been a victim of improper US surveillance. His argument got little traction until last week, when Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., made the case for him. Nunes declared that intelligence about Trump associates had been …

  Just as Britain’s prime minister began proceedings to exit the European Union, lawmakers in India approved the creation of an economic zone that’s been 17 years in the making. A nationwide goods and services tax (GST) would, as early as 1 July, change the way your hotel bill in Mumbai reads. Mine, from a business trip earlier this month, …

  South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has a choice: It can help President Jacob Zuma, or it can help the country. Its survival as a respected national force depends on doing the latter. Support for the ANC has fallen amid charges of corruption and incompetence. Now Zuma is embroiled in a struggle with his finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, and …

  Israeli Cabinet approved first Jewish settlement in West bank in 20 years, the latest blow to any peace prospect in Middle East. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was alarmed by Israel’s decision to build a new settlement. Guterres has consistently stressed that there was no Plan B for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace and security. Israel …