Opinion

Xiaomi Corp’s plans to move into electric vehicles are big, bold and brave. They’re also entirely in keeping with the smartphone company’s business model of developing a brand rather than the hardware it sells. After announcing earlier this month that it will join the long list of those wanting to make cars, the Beijing-based company put a price tag on ...

Which part of the US wealth distribution saw its net worth rise the fastest over the past year, five years and decade? No, not the top 1%, according to the distributional financial accounts published last month by the Federal Reserve. The rich had a great run, but they didn’t even come close to the percentage gains in real wealth seen ...

The almost theatrical massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border in recent days, which some researchers have described as the heaviest since 2015, brings home to Western leaders an uncomfortable truth: If Russia had the appetite for a major military operation, Ukraine would be at its mercy. Putin the opportunist, who seized a moment of confusion in 2014 to ...

The Hong Kong government’s proposal to let directors obscure their identities on the companies register is a retrograde step that will facilitate fraud and corruption. Don’t take a journalist’s word for it. Don’t listen to the legal profession, which said in 2009 that ID numbers should be fully disclosed. Don’t pay heed to the accountants and corporate governance experts who ...

The Supreme Court has ruled that Google did not violate Oracle’s copyright when it copied 11,500 lines of JAVA code for its Android operating system. The 6-2 decision followed a long-term trend by reversing a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a specialised body that tends to protect intellectual property more aggressively than does the ...

Opposition to Boris Johnson’s go-slow plan for reopening the economy and his too-vague plan for domestic vaccine passports has been growing in his Conservative Party. There are many arguments raised, but what really bothers some conservatives (small and big C) is the suspicion that his policies reflect a sizable shift in the role of the state in people’s lives. Some ...

The global recovery needs to call its agent. An economic rebound as brawny as the one projected this year ought to be a cause for celebration. It’s a relief that gross domestic product will enjoy its biggest spurt in years — perhaps even decades — following the biggest drop since the 1930s. Instead, the almost daily upgrades to growth forecasts ...

LG Electronics Inc may have been a pioneer, but the end of its smartphone business shows that being first-mover is rarely an advantage. Instead, its exit will open the way for Chinese brands to take a greater share of the US even as the two nations go deeper into a tech cold war. It was a slow gradual decline for ...

What a crazy year it’s been for GameStop Corp. Last April, it was left for dead. Predicting an imminent demise for the retailer, hedge funds piled on their bearish bets and the company’s market value sank to a few hundred million dollars. A year later, thanks to big buying from the Reddit crowd, GameStop is worth about $13 billion and ...

The future of business travel is shaping up to be one of the big unanswered questions of the economic reopening. At the same time, many people are eagerly planning their first big post-pandemic family vacation — or vacations. And that’s where “bleisure” comes in. It may still be awhile before business travelers are packing convention halls in Manhattan and Chicago ...