Opinion

  A strange and circuitous path led Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn towards his fateful telephone contact in late December with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and the flameout of what had been a distinguished military career. Military and intelligence colleagues who served with Flynn describe him as a brilliant tactician whose work in the shadowy Joint Special Operations Command a decade …

  Chief executives from retailers including JC Penney Co., Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. went to Washington on Wednesday to implore President Trump not to follow through with pledges to tax stuff sold in the US but made abroad. Lobbying from companies against the so-called border adjustment tax (BAT) might not be enough to sway Trump, who based much …

If the scandal surrounding Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, were merely about whether he broke the law, it would be over. The controversy persists because it calls into question Flynn’s judgment and credibility — and by extension, that of Trump’s administration. Last December, on the day the U.S. enacted sanctions against Russia for interfering in the U.S. presidential …

  And lastly it came. Samsung’s Group de facto leader Jay Y Lee was formally arrested over his alleged involvement in massive corruption scandal. It is believed that Lee, scion of the South Korea’s richest family and vice chairman of Samsung’s Electronics, gave bribes worth $36 million to President Park Geun-hye and her close friend, Choi Soon-sil, to help win …

  Seasonal demand dynamics are looking up for oil prices. But there are downside risks to U.S. natural gas: Higher oil prices are an incentive for more shale oil drilling, which increases the level of associated natural gas production when there is weakening seasonal natural gas demand. Technicals for natural gas prices have also weakened, and shale oil drilling is …

  The Ulf-man cometh. And it’s all rather underwhelming. Ulf Mark Schneider, the new chief executive of Nestle SA, has laid out what is ultimately a more sensible course for the world’s largest food company. As expected, he’s ditched the strict adherence to an organic sales-growth target of 5 to 6 percent. This year, it’ll be more like 2 to …

  When UK voters decided last June to leave the European Union, global investors anticipating the opposite result wiped out billions of pounds in the currency market. Sterling plummeted a record 8.05 percent to a 31-year low. It’s been seven months since those British voters narrowly rejected the view of prime ministers, presidents, finance ministers, business leaders and economists that …

  Economists are increasingly turning their attention to the problem of monopoly. This doesn’t mean literal monopoly, like when one utility company provides all the power in a city. It refers to market concentration in general — when an industry goes from having 20 players to having only 10, or when the four biggest companies in an industry start taking …

  Part of Warren Buffett’s mystique is his fondness for a good value. He still lives in an Omaha house he bought in the 1950s. Buffett’s license plate at one point read “Thrifty.” When it comes to Apple Inc., however, Buffett’s firm isn’t exactly plucking from the bargain bin. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. first disclosed a $1 billion stake in Apple …

  Is Europe heading back to financial mayhem? Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras warned this week that it might be. Any further delay in reaching agreement between Greece and its creditors, he said, risked a new recession and a fresh crisis of confidence across the euro zone. Maybe that’s a little alarmist — but he’s right about one thing. …