Opinion

  President Trump’s slash-and-burn actions in his first week have been dramatic, but dangerously lacking in a consensus of support, even within his own administration. The risks were evident in the collapse of a planned meeting with Mexico’s president and in Trump’s embrace of torture tactics rejected by his secretary of defense and CIA director. Trump’s ‘tweet from the hip’ …

  Indian bank investors are in for a rude shock, and one that’s got little to do with the chaos unleashed by demonetization. The fault lies in shareholders’ own expectations, which, in Morgan Stanley’s words, are driven by “institutional memory.” The top three Indian private-sector lenders by assets — ICICI Bank Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd. — …

  With Britain poised to quit the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May needs all the friends she can get. That helps explain her visit to White House, President Donald Trump’s first from a foreign head of state. The question is, what’s in it for him? Like so much else in the Trump era, this rapprochement is both unpredictable and, …

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring most citizens from seven mainly Muslim Mideast and East African nations from entering the US. The nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia won’t be able to enter the US for at least 90 days. The order will deny visas to Syrian nationals and halts the processing of …

  Nearly a decade after the global financial crisis, the recovery remains disappointing and nothing — neither massive fiscal stimulus, nor record-low rates, nor generous injections of liquidity by central banks — seems to be helping. Policymakers from Washington to London to Tokyo all seem to agree there’s only one answer left: structural reform. Everywhere there’s talk of amending tax …

  Tesco Plc’s move to acquire cash-and-carry wholesaler Booker Group Plc is a bid by Britain’s biggest grocer to tackle a serious problem that faces all of the nation’s big supermarkets. It’s also a cunning succession plan. The deal makes strategic sense. Tesco can transform some of the excess space in its big hypermarkets into Booker distribution centers. It’s not …

  Some bold and simple policies have merit; Friday’s executive order that temporarily bans the citizens of certain countries from coming to the US, and stops indefinitely the entry of Syrian refugees, is not one of them. As designed and implemented, there are genuine doubts about the order’s effectiveness in meeting its stated objective of preventing terrorism. It also risks …

  “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.” — President Donald Trump, January 20. Washington is not a swamp. Since at least the days of Jimmy Carter, presidential politicians have run against Washington, …

  Russia was one of the best trades of 2016 by a country mile. A strengthening ruble supercharged foreign interest in domestic Russian government bonds, pushing yields down to around 8 percent from 12 percent in mid-2015. Contrary to appearances, there’s still some room to run. There’s a realistic chance that inflation will cool to the Russian central bank’s 4 …

  Not surprisingly for a president whose slogan is “America First,” Donald Trump has expressed deep skepticism about the United Nations. Nevertheless, his appointment of a skilled and popular politician as the new US permanent representative stands to help make the UN a more effective forum for advancing US interests. It will be South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s job to …