Opinion

  Perhaps no other piece of economics jargon has caused as much confusion as the term “strong dollar.” The phrase suggests patriotic strength, of the USA riding roughshod over its economic rivals. In reality, dollar strength just means purchasing power — a stronger dollar lets US residents and businesses buy more things from overseas, while a weaker dollar helps them …

  Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao has negotiated a partial retreat from a tough situation in India on reasonable terms. Given a bloody price war brought on by a new rival, the deal to join forces with Idea Cellular Ltd is smart even though Colao has ceded control without getting a premium. Vodafone Group Plc and Idea said on Monday that …

  Presumably at the insistence of the U.S. administration, the latest statement from the Group of 20 big economies conspicuously dropped the standard promise to “avoid all forms of protectionism.” It’s worth pausing to understand why that promise was ever worth making, and honoring. The reason is surely not that governments always keep their word. For years they’ve been backsliding …

  At last, the much heralded date for UK to file divorce papers to leave European Union has been announced. British Prime Minister Theresa May will invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the formal process of leaving the EU, on March 29. It will start the clock on two years period, during which to complete the most important negotiation …

  The prospect of a halt to the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program at the end of the year removes a powerful bulwark against rising government borrowing costs. Together with the rise of anti-euro parties in Europe, it has also spooked investors. Now, perhaps it’s time to resuscitate the old idea of centralizing bond issuance by all euro members. Spanish …

  It’s not often that we hear updates from Asia’s cybersecurity companies. That’s because there aren’t very many of them. NEC Corp. announced on Monday it will set up a security operations center in California under its Infosec Corp. affiliate. The initiative adds to teams in Japan and Europe, allowing NEC to run a “follow the sun” operation, similar to …

  China’s Communist government has never shown much concern for the privacy of Chinese citizens. If you have something to hide, the thinking goes, we probably need to know it. In one form or another, surveillance and monitoring have evolved into a well-honed form of social control. And as a result, neither companies nor consumers have traditionally had very high …

  Among the memorabilia in Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein’s office is a fragment of the Wright brothers’ first airplane. But the most intriguing items may be two small plastic satellites on sticks that can be maneuvered to simulate a dogfight in space. Space is now a potential battle zone, Goldfein explains in an interview. The Air …

  Coming soon to a portfolio near you: Chinese bonds. Like it or not, fixed-income securities from the mainland’s vast, opaque and increasingly default-prone debt market are about to go more global. The good news is that Beijing has been paying attention to international investor concerns over the way the notes are sold and traded. Premier Li Keqiang said that …

  If you think it will be hard for the US Federal Reserve to normalize monetary policy, spare a thought for the European Central Bank. The euro zone’s monetary guardians have said they will continue to buy 60 billion euros a month in government and corporate bonds until the end of 2017. Headline inflation is running at 2 percent — …