Opinion

  President Donald Trump says he wants to reduce the regulatory burden on the finance industry. But by taking aim at a new rule on retirement advice, he’ll most likely add to that burden — and harm many small investors at the same time. In the US, saving for retirement can be a perilous endeavor. “Free” advice often isn’t. Advisers …

Trump’s executive orders have rattled United States and many capitals around the world. The Republican billionaire seems to have fallen for campaign-style rhetoric, which was meant to gain votes. But he continues to shoot from the hip undermining the US values and diplomatic gains with many countries so far. And Iraq is one of such cases. It is the prerogative …

  The UK government is mulling whether to support a 1.3 billion pound proposal to build a tidal lagoon in South Wales. It should stop dithering and subsidize the project to help meet the country’s green energy goals, produce cheaper power, and establish Britain as the world leader in technology that harnesses the power of the tides to generate electricity. …

  Intesa Sanpaolo SpA is one of the few Italian banks that could accurately claim to be strong, profitable and shareholder-friendly. It’s curious, therefore, that CEO Carlo Messina seems intent on jeopardizing that record with a strategically questionable and poorly-communicated tilt at Assicurazioni Generali SpA, the country’s largest insurer. Even if a bid fails to materialize, he will have to …

  The Uber boycott sparked by the company’s refusal to join an anti-Trump strike poses a question many US businesses will have to answer: Do they openly stand with those of their customers who abhor the president’s policies or does it make more business sense for them to stay neutral? The #DeleteUber movement appears to be something of a disaster …

  At their post-Civil War apogee, 19th-century Republicans were the party of activist government, using protectionism to pick commercial winners and promising wondrous benefits from government’s deft interventions in economic life. Today, a Republican administration promises that wisely wielded Washington power can rearrange commercial activities in ways superior to those produced by private-sector calculations in free market transactions. According to …

  The issue of what the UK does or doesn’t owe the European Union risks becoming a landmine in the Brexit negotiations. Britain should pay what it legitimately owes for EU services it signed up to. Divorce is never cheap. But by seeking to maximize payment, and by making payment a precondition for the rest of the talks, the EU …

  Economists have come to rival even journalists and politicians in lack of public esteem. That might be partly because so many economists seem as interested in journalism and politics as in advancing their science. But there’s also a deeper problem: Far from advancing, the science of economics has been going backwards. Economists tend to be either practitioners or theorists. …

  North Korea allegedly carried out a ballistic missile test on early Sunday. But there was no confirmation from Pyongyang. The US Strategic Command reported that it was a medium- or intermediate-range ballistic missile. Japanese government confirmed that the missile fell in seas between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Kim Jong Un, the reclusive leader of the pariah state, warned …

  When it comes to robots displacing humans from the job market, government bureaucrats are generally not what springs to mind. The recent McKinsey report on the future of jobs estimates the automation potential of administrative jobs at just 39 percent, far less than the 73 percent potential for accommodation and food services. And yet the public sector is one …