Opinion

  A strange thing is happening in Hong Hong’s publicly traded Chinese stocks. Chinese banks, roundly shunned by global investors, are winning the popularity contest among mainland investors buying through the Shenzhen-Hong Kong and Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connects. According to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., daily purchases of Hong Kong shares via the two links are up 41 percent this year, …

  A friend recently asked me whether women’s entry into the workforce has been good for men. I couldn’t give him a clear answer, because it’s a complicated question. Overall, the answer is yes, but the change hasn’t been equally good for all men. Those who have successfully adapted their family structure and social norms to the new economic realities …

  We are now deep in the era of political shocks. One electorate after another has expressed its anger with mainstream parties and technocratic elites by favouring political outsiders and know-nothing anti-incumbents. But what explains the appeal of demagogues once they start governing and reveal themselves to be exponents of chaos? The widespread disorder predicted last November, when Prime Minister …

  Europe’s tale of two rescue funds is morphing into a worrying saga. The outlook for the region’s original crisis bailout vehicle, the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), to raise sufficient long-term funds to do its job is getting trickier. Despite last week being a pretty decent one for bond issuance, the EFSF stayed on the sidelines. Meanwhile, its more-popular …

  Over the last decade, WikiLeaks has heedlessly published sensitive diplomatic cables, classified military files, secret trade documents and politically explosive emails. Last week, it dumped thousands of new files it says are from the Central Intelligence Agency. If authentic, as seems likely, it may prove the most destructive disclosure yet. Most of the new material relates to tools used …

  UK Parliament gave Prime Minister Theresa May the power to trigger Article 50, a formal process to withdraw from European Union. She is expected to send the letter to begin the process by the end of March. European Union Bill reached UK Parliament to be discussed after House of Commons and House of Lords battled over the bill’s contents, …

  Jordan Weissmann, a writer at Slate, has an interesting article about Republican proposals to replace entitlements with private savings accounts. He says that these programs are big giveaways to money managers, who would collect hefty management fees. Weissmann says that the GOP is ‘trying to rewrite the social contract in such a way as to maximize the profits of …

  In selecting AIA Group Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Tucker as its new chairman, HSBC Holdings Plc has gotten the right guy. Let’s hope the bank’s rather insular culture gets him. To understand why HSBC has gone outside its fold for the first time in its 152-year history, take a look at AIA’s profitability. The insurer’s stock has more …

  It’s never smart to keep hungry people waiting for their food. They turn ‘hangry.’ No one has mastered this idea better than Chinese takeout restaurants, which have put a premium on speed ever since they emerged in the 1800s. That’s when a wave of Chinese immigrants came to the US and opened up cheap and cheerful restaurants catering to …

  Rex Tillerson is off to an agonizingly slow start as secretary of state. That matters, because if Tillerson doesn’t develop a stronger voice, control of foreign policy is likely to move increasingly toward Stephen Bannon, the insurgent populist who is chief White House strategist. Tillerson’s State Department has been in idle gear these past two months. He doesn’t have …