Opinion

Some good news for the luxury industry: There’s no sign of all that revenge spending running out of steam. Despite pandemic restrictions still gripping many parts of the world, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE reported remarkable performance. The world’s biggest luxury goods group said sales rose 32% in the three months to March 31, compared with 2020. It’s a ...

As the late Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck memorably put it, “In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.” And yet that’s never kept economic populists from passing new rent curbs. One of the most radical such attempts, watched by cities all over the world, was enacted ...

The Biden administration’s new sanctions on Russia matter more for what they say than for their economic impact. They say that this president, unlike his predecessor, has no illusions about the challenge Russia poses — nor about the kind of strategy that will be required to confront it. The new measures call out Russian interference in the 2016 and 2020 ...

US investors may call it the “Uber of Southeast Asia,” but the world’s largest SPAC merger is about much more than just hailing cabs in Singapore. The soon-to-come Nasdaq listing of Grab Holdings Inc is America’s introduction to super-apps and the sell-you-everything mind-set of Asia’s tech giants. Think of them more like real estate companies, only the territory they’re battling ...

The pandemic forced employers to embrace flexibility in working location, but a related concept — flexibility of working hours — is far from being the norm. As big firms encourage staff back to the office, pressure for adjustable work schedules could mount. Many bosses want staff back on site, and many employees will want to return. The benefits of easier ...

Last week, India recorded almost 170,000 Covid-19 cases, a record for the country since the start of the pandemic. The day before, India crossed a different kind of milestone: Vaccinating 100 million people. It is this seesaw of despair and hope that India rides today, battling the outbreak with a healthcare system operating on the brink even as its pharmaceutical ...

The litany is shamefully familiar, but needs repeating until lawmakers finally pay attention. More than 100 Americans die from gun violence each day — some in massacres that seize the national headlines, most in quieter tragedies that don’t. No other country in the developed world endures gun carnage on such a scale. This drumbeat of senseless misery and the persistent ...

President Joe Biden’s economic plans promise to split the US economy between industries that increase productivity and industries that provide mass employment. This is a reasonable response to the pressures the US is facing from changes in technology and the global economy. But it also risks creating social divisions between the people who work in the two types of industries. ...

India’s beleaguered blockchain industry has finally got some solid support to ensure its survival, with an influential industry evangelist evoking the vision of a billion smartphones acting as gateways to the brave new world of decentralised finance. In this world, Wall Street’s capabilities will be available to everyone, according to angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, formerly the chief technology officer at ...

Credit Suisse Group AG’s incoming Chairman Antonio Horta-Osorio inherits a firm reeling in both financial and reputational terms from its entanglements with Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital. There’s one decision that shouldn’t take long for him to make: Freeing the Swiss bank’s asset management unit to take advantage of the current hot market for money management firms. The division ...