Opinion

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s bet that adoring crowds on Independence Day would help him out of a tough spot didn’t quite go to plan. Tens of thousands did turn out in Sao Paulo and elsewhere, decked in the green-and-yellow flag. He responded with now-familiar attacks on the electoral system, his opponents and the Supreme Court, vowing he would never go ...

The Federal Reserve has met the historic challenge of navigating the world’s largest economy through a pandemic. But as the central bank prepares to reduce its emergency Covid stimulus, finding the next normal — for monetary policy, markets and the economy — will be its greatest test yet. In achieving a robust recovery, the latest round of quantitative easing, the ...

Last week, China’s top media regulators rolled out a directive prohibiting “sissy idols and other deformed aesthetics.” Their targets were the highly stylised, gender-bending young men who’ve defined Chinese pop culture for more than a decade. In the eyes of President Xi Jinping, these celebrities pose a threat to the masculine revitalisation of the Chinese nation. Like cram schools, celebrity ...

The surreal nature of international travel in the Covid era was beamed live around the world last weekend. In the opening minutes of a soccer match in Sao Paolo between Brazil and Argentina, play ground to a halt when public-health officials walked onto the field to remove several Argentine athletes over an apparent breach of a 14-day quarantine (mandatory for ...

Nothing says the European summer is over and business is restarting like a blowout sovereign bond sale. The inaugural green bond launch for the Kingdom of Spain certainly fits that bill. The 5 billion-euro ($6 billion) 21-year deal received orders well over 10 times what was on offer. Investors just cannot greenify their portfolios quickly enough. But this is just ...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc doubtless wants every initial public offering it’s involved in to go well. But the US investment bank has a lot riding on one in particular: the potential London listing of Petershill Partners. This vehicle for owning stakes in private-equity firms could be a hot property. Even so, Goldman would be ill-advised to push IPO investors to ...

An ancient Mesopotamian tale tells of a servant in Baghdad who meets Death at the marketplace. Terrified by Death’s menacing expression, he takes his master’s horse and flees to Samarra. Later, the master sees Death and asks why she made a threatening gesture to the servant. Death replies that it was only a start of surprise. “I was astonished to ...

From the price action, you’d think that fossil fuels are back in business. Since breaking above $100 a metric ton in May, the price of coal at Australia’s Newcastle port — a benchmark for Asia, which consumes about three-quarters of the world’s soot — has gone almost vertical, hitting a record $173.10 a ton. The key regional contract for liquefied ...

For many Guineans, the scenes that played out were a blast from the not-so-distant past: A military officer in dark glasses and fatigues on television dissolving the government and the constitution, unauthenticated videos of a disheveled-looking, apparently overthrown president, gunfire on the streets of Conakry. The trouble for the West African nation is that the failure to make the most ...

The UK IPO market in 2021 doesn’t naturally conjure positive thoughts. In March, a government-sponsored review said sweeping reforms were required if London was to stay relevant to high-growth companies considering initial public offerings. Weeks later, food delivery firm Deliveroo Plc, the listing that was meant to herald a new dawn for a modernised market, crashed on its debut. Yet ...